Electro folk duo Sylvan Esso have put together full band arrangements for a series of songs from their sophomore record What Now and they sound incredible.
Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn have always been mesmerizing as a live act, just the two of them on stage. But for the Echo Mountain Sessions, they gathered a group of their closest friends and collaborators to bring a full band behind five songs from the record.
For the past week, these videos have been released on NPR Music’s YouTube page and that came to a completion Friday. The band includes members of Mountain Man, Wye Oak, The Dead Tongues, The Mountain Goats, and Megafaun. They took this project to Echo Mountain Studios in the mountains of North Carolina, cutting five total tracks.
My favorites of the session are the new versions of “Die Young” and “Radio”. I think “Die Young” is one of the best love songs of 2017, if not the best. The saxophone work by Matt Douglas on this version is pretty impeccable.
The Echo Mountain Sessions will be released as a limited edition vinyl EP later this year — if you pre-order, you get a digital copy of all five songs in advance.
Make sure to catch Sylvan Esso at the Hollywood Palladium on August 25! Check out the Echo Mountain Sessions videos below!
Photo courtesy of Shervin Lainez
