A Thousand Years at Sea is the product of Colin Cotter and Ethan Lewis’ exploration of contemporary American songwriting in relation to their backgrounds in Celtic music. Neil Pearlman adds genre-defying piano, and Isaac James provides the rhythmic backbone on percussion to make up the rest of the band. ATYAS layers Colin and Ethan’s emotive and powerful songs with fiddle, guitar, piano, mandolin, and percussion, integrating Celtic, rock, Americana, and instrumental improvisation “into something sweet and subtle” (Sacramento News Review), creating an original, new sound that stays true to the band’s roots in folk music.
The band’s new album, “The Stillness Here” (2012), is an illustration of the way a band can morph with time – the songwriting stems from the same place, but the arrangements tend toward a more contemporary, high-energy sound than ATYAS’ debut release, “Silver Shores Await” (2009), and continues the trend in that direction set by their 2011 EP, “We Will Fall Apart.” The drive and energy present on "The Stillness Here" has been slaying audiences as they are caught in the whirlwind of "fast and funky" grooves.
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