The Nocturnes - Aokigahara

The Nocturnes, the band led by Red Sparowes guitarist Emma Ruth Rundle, announce the forthcoming release of their second album, Aokigahara due out on August 30 through Errant Child Records.

The Nocturnes are the folkgaze brainchild of guitarist/vocalist Emma Ruth Rundle. While the band began as a duo in 2007 and built a cult following prior to her joining Red Sparowes in 2009, Aokigahara is nonetheless a dramatic rebirth for The Nocturnes. Featuring a revamped quartet lineup, the 8-song album ventures into multiple textures of style and sound that create a lush haze of melody that blends hints of folk, shoegaze, chamber pop, goth and post-rock.

Rundle is joined on this recording by guitarist/vocalist Julian Rifkin, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Paris Patt and drummer Dave Clifford (also of Red Sparowes). Aokigahara was written collectively, combining the different styles and personalities of the players. Some of the songs were built from Rundle's unrecorded older songs, others were written by Rifkin ("Craving", "Hello Neighbor") and others penned as a group ("Aokigahara", "The Road"). The album takes a more ethereal approach -- leaving behind the more direct vocal and rock-leaning song structures of the band's earlier releases -- for a new sound awash with reverb, drifting voices and harmonies, atmospheric guitars, Twin Peaks-esque bass lines and orchestral style drumming.

The Nocturnes - "The Road" from Consequence of Sound on Vimeo.