Watch: Lapland - "Unwise"

Earlier this year Brooklyn based singer/songwriter Josh Mease self-released his first album under his newly adopted Lapland moniker. The album, named after the moniker, was a silky smooth concoction of beautiful sung and mindfully written songs that seemed to glisten with a dreamy dewiness while remaining starkly very much of this world. The album then disappeared. Gone from the Internet and all mentions of it grew to hushed whispers. The reason for this being but not exclusively Mease's signing to Britain's The Lights Label. While the album is slated for an official release next year across the pond and another self-release back home, the good news is we get to revisit some of the album's multitude of highlights as they get the single treatment.

The video for "Unwise", directed by James Kunhert, draws rather poignantly on the otherworldly presentation of Lapland's songs. The foggy haze that clings around Mease's doleful vocals become a physical mist and feeling of uncertainty as Mease travels the hinterland following a specter of a lover. It's never quite clear if she's gone from this life or merely gone from his but Mease travels in search of her, following clues she's left while running free through the woods. The woman moves through the woods in a graceful and beautiful bit of modern dance that further obscures the line between perceived realities. Is she leading Mease to her? Was she ever really there in the first place? These are the questions you're left to ponder as she and then Mease wander through the forests all soundtracked to the blissful lushess of Lapland's "Unwise".

Watch the stellar video for Lapland's "Unwise":
   

Lapland - Lapland (2013)

My introduction to Brooklyn singer/songwriter Josh Mease aka Lapland happened rather unsurprising from his likewise monikered Mike Savino aka Tall Tall Trees. Lapland's self titled debut is quite literally days old celebrating its release but a few short days ago at Mercury Lounge. Tall Tall Trees' first show in New York since embarking on a full US tour as Kishi Bashi's touring band, that alone was enough to draw my attention much less the praise Mease was receiving from other artists I dug. That was extra.

Lapland's music, specifically at first listen, is rather unlike what you'd expect from a singer/songwriter. Lyrics cast afloat upon billowing seas of dreamy textures, it seems hard to believe that everything you're hearing is almost solely the work of Mease and yet with the exception of the drums that's exactly what's happening. And while tracks like "Unwise","Memory", or "Soldier" could very well be the soundtrack of your actual dreams, Lapland benefits from a very real, human touch. Inspired by Mease' self-imposed isolation as well the kind of introspection required by most singer/songwriter to reach those interesting depths, it's Mease's silky, emotive vocals that push the songs forward; grappling them to earth when they might otherwise float away. 

While at times it sounds a bit like Patrick Watson ("Aeroplane" and "Metal Lungs" in particular), for the most part, and even in the Watson-esque songs, Mease's sound is his own. Subtly shifting genres in a way that doesn't earn eyebrow raises or set the album on a far less cohesive course than it's released on. Amid Mease's dreamy folk stylings there's colorings of jazz despite Lapland's occasional electronic hum. Unsurprising considering that like Mike Savino, Mease is a jazz musician. But the more impressive feat is how all of Mease's various loves and influences are alchemized in not only an intriguing personal style but also one that manages to be remarkably understated. That's what makes Lapland an album worth mentioning, it's travels are bump-free and svelte; it's machinations as quietly life-affirming as Mease's whisper.