Album Notes

“People living deeply have no fear of death.” -Anaïs Nin

If you listen, the story of the band DARK DARK DARK is woven into the haunting songs of their debut album, "The Snow Magic." It’s a story of love and heartache, death and loneliness, and the persistent sense of hope that keeps you living and moving. These familiar themes are tangled up with tales of ghosts, fermenting bodies, and magical dreams. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

Since 2006, Dark Dark Dark has crisscrossed the country from ocean to ocean, playing in basements and bars, warehouses and street corners. When Nona Marie Invie (accordion/voice) and Marshall LaCount (banjo/voice) first began to play and write music together, they had no intention of starting a serious band - they just needed a way to earn passage to New Orleans. Marshall had run away from home to spend a summer sailing and singing down the Mississippi river on homemade rafts, and Nona had spent time hopping freight trains and wandering across the US and Europe. With no desire to settle down, the two set out, picking up band members Jonathan Kaiser (cello/voice) and Todd Chandler (upright bass) along the way.

The band found an audience as soon as they began to perform, and felt a need to continue together. After nearly two years of songwriting and traveling, they returned to their now-and-again home-base of Minneapolis to record “The Snow Magic” with producer Robert Skoro (Martin Dosh, Anticon artist and touring drummer for Andrew Bird, contributes percussion to the album).

Dark Dark Dark’s sound draws heavily on Americana and Eastern European influences, referencing a long tradition of wandering musicians and those who have lived deeply. Despite the references, it’s clear listening to “The Snow Magic” that this isn’t a band preoccupied with recreating the past. Rather, the band both celebrates the past and looks forward, with songs remembering lost friends ("Junk Bones", "All The Things"), leaving lovers behind ("Trouble No More"), and casting off the things that hold us back ("A Spell For Letting Go"). With intricate song-craft and playful sensibilities, Dark Dark Dark uses their small array of age-old instruments to conjure a lush musical vision of the future.