Tu Fawning return this May with their sophomore release, A Monument. While the band retain their trademark sound in Corrina Repp’s formidable voice, the swampy blues-guitar howls are now replaced by a newfound love for vibrant percussive mania. A more ample use of keyboards have steered the band past the morbidly dark vaudevillian vibes of their 2010 debut album Hearts On Hold, and these new songs are even more focused and pointed than ever. A Monument delivers a set of dense, romantic, and highly energetic songs that fully represent Tu Fawning’s powerful live show. And on A Monument, this sparkles through on every track.

Tu Fawning has also announced the first dates of an upcoming headlining tour this summer. The band will launch the tour with a hometown show in Portland at Holocene on June 8th and continue down the west coast, also performing in San Francisco and Los Angeles. More dates will be announced soon.

Led by Corrina Repp and Joe Haege (31Knots), Tu Fawning expands upon the dark, vaudevillian vibes of their 2010 debut LP Hearts On Hold with A Monument. The album marks the first release written and recorded collaboratively as the four-piece of Repp, Haege, Liza Reitz, and Toussaint Perrault, who came together shortly after the duo of Repp and Haege returned from Tu Fawning's first tour. A Monument is steeped in the band's love of music from around the world, and wastes no time making its impact with the dynamic opening trio of "Anchor", the warped R&B/soul cadence of "Blood Stains", and the moody and sensual "Wager". The spooky theatrics of "Build A Great Cliff" and the choral loops and scaling of "Skin and Bone" segue into the mesmeric second half, which closes with the epic "Bones".



The songs of A Monument were found in the practice recordings made by Haege, or in Perrault's home-recorded demos, and - in addition to the usual guitars, keys, horns, and drums - feature instrumentation such as a ragini, a tuned-down marching band drum, old '80s synths, and South American chant samples turned into chords. Repp's formidable, smoky voice leads the charge throughout, at once ethereal and earthly.

Tu Fawning recorded A Monument with friends at Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco, CA, and at Type Foundry in Portland last summer, with some additional recording at Menomena's Justin Harris' house - all factors that lent a warm, familial feel to the recordings.

Links:
Tu Fawning