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MEGAFAUN

Megafaun was a trio of the brothers Brad and Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund, all from Wisconsin. With Justin Vernon they had played in DeYarmond Edison, which moved from Eau Claire to Raleigh, North Carolina, and broke up in 2006. Vernon went on to record as Bon Iver, while the other three stayed in North Carolina and formed Megafaun in Durham. Their debut Bury the Square appeared in 2008, followed by Gather, Form & Fly on Hometapes in 2009 and a self-titled album in 2011. In 2012 they recorded Appalachian Excitation with the composer Arnold Dreyblatt, issued by Northern Spy in 2013. An indefinite hiatus was announced in October 2012.

Megafaun was a trio of the brothers Brad and Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund, all from Wisconsin. With Justin Vernon they had played in DeYarmond Edison, which moved from Eau Claire to Raleigh, North Carolina, and broke up in 2006. Vernon went on to record as Bon Iver, while the other three stayed in North Carolina and formed Megafaun in Durham. Their debut Bury the Square appeared in 2008, followed by Gather, Form & Fly on Hometapes in 2009 and a self-titled album in 2011. In 2012 they recorded Appalachian Excitation with the composer Arnold Dreyblatt, issued by Northern Spy in 2013. An indefinite hiatus was announced in October 2012.

Appalachian excitation
The meeting of composer Arnold Dreyblatt and psych-folk trio Megafaun shouldn’t be seen as unlikely just because it’s cross-generational, or even (arguably) cross-genre. Such categorizations have to be set aside before taking in their Appalachian Excitation. Born in New York in 1953, Dreyblatt came up under such lauded experimental groundbreakers as Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros and La Monte Young, obtaining a Master’s degree in composition from Wesleyan University. Now based in Berlin, where h…
Bury The Square
From the vibrant Southern quasi-capital of Durham emerge Megafaun, wearing earnestness across the chest and abstraction along the sleeves. They pour forth dulcet harmonies, as seeking vocals tug banjo lines up the Appalachian mountains; redemptive noise soaks everything, like thick air wafting from the Atlantic. Clawhammer banjo and strummed acoustics lock and roll with electric guitars and electronic textures. They realize that folk implies deep, personal, intense expression, whether the instru…
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