| Lost in the Trees | |
| Landscape: | yes |
| Origin: | Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
| Genre: | Folk, indie, orchestral |
| Years Active: | 2007–14 |
| Label: | Anti, Trekky |
| Website: | www.lostinthetrees.com (archived) |
| Current Members: | Ari Picker Emma Nadeau Joah Tunnell Mark Daumen Peter Lewis |
| Past Members: | Will Hackney Scott Carle Leah Gibson Jenavieve Varga Andrew Anagnost Daniel Westerlund |
Lost in the Trees was an American orchestral folk pop band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The lineup consisted of Ari Picker (writer/vocals), Emma Nadeau (french horn/vocals), Drew Anagnost (cello), Jenavieve Varga (violin), and Mark Daumen (tuba). Lead singer Picker cites diverse influence such as Beethoven, Radiohead, Vivaldi, Neutral Milk Hotel, Saint-Saëns, and OutKast, among others.[1] Paste Magazine described its music as "mountaintop chamber music, a happy marriage of old folk traditions and even older orchestral ones," and listed the band among "The 20 Best New Bands of 2010."[2]
Lost in the Trees formed in 2007 when lead singer/guitarist Ari Picker, a native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, assembled a group of musicians to record the EP Time Taunts Me on Trekky Records.[3] Picker had previously been a member of The B-Sides. After studying at Berklee College of Music, he decided to attempt a more orchestral effort. Following the release of Time Taunts Me, Picker moved back to North Carolina and assembled a band drawn from the University of North Carolina's orchestral program and the pool of players connected with Trekky Records.[4]
The lineup consisted of Picker (writer/vocals), Emma Nadeau (french horn/vocals), Drew Anagnost (cello), Jenavieve Varga (violin), and Mark Daumen (tuba).[5] [2] In 2010, Paste Magazine listed the band among "The 20 Best New Bands of 2010."[2]
All Alone in an Empty House was originally released on Trekky Records in 2008.[6] The band signed to ANTI-Records on March 1, 2010[7] and their new label re-released the album on August 10 that year.[8]
Reviewing the record, Bob Boilen of NPR said, "Take a pinch of the brilliance found in classical music and mix it with [Picker's] own. Lost in the Trees is orchestral folk where the "orchestral" part isn't an afterthought. This is mighty potent stuff."[9] Keelan H. from Sputnik Music said, "Right from the swelling strings of six-minute opener “Empty House”, it’s clear that Lost in the Trees don’t take their “orchestral folk” label lightly."[10]
Time Taunts Me was reissued by Trekky Records on February 4, 2011 with the addition of previously unreleased tracks.[11]
On March 20, 2012, ANTI-Records released A Church That Fits Our Needs, Lost in the Trees' second record with the label.[12] Picker based the album largely on his mother's suicide in 2008, stating that "I wanted to give my mother a space to become all the things I think she deserved to be and wanted to be, and all the beautiful things in her that didn't quite shine while she was alive."[13]
Rolling Stone said of the album, "Ari Picker tries to make sense of his mother's suicide against a backdrop of rich orchestration, piled generously atop a base of delicate acoustic folk like heaping spoonfuls of vanilla frosting."[14] PopMatters said "A Church That Fits Our Needs bursts with the same melodic interplay that makes later Radiohead extraordinary."[15]
A Church That Fits Our Needs peaked at number 9 on Billboards Heatseeker's Albums.[16]