Spaceport

Spaceport is Arianna Wegley, Todd Olson, and Liam Moore. Arianna takes classical sensibilities and morphs them into catchy pop hooks for music that is both dark and dreamy, alien and earthbound, conversational and profound. Spaceport’s debut album Window Seat, mixed by Andrew Jansen (Loud Sun) comprises sounds of ethereal synths, layered vocals, effected cello and extended string techniques, distorted guitars, bright trumpets, and sublime clarinets. Disparate textures are arranged in seamless, delicate harmony: a hollow synthesizer and the icy resonance of a bowed instrument intertwines with the natural warmth and boundlessness of low strings, brass, and woodwinds. A sensitive, driving rhythm section brings the songs home with a life and energy essential for any good pop song.

Arianna’s colloquial yet cryptic lyrics are anthems for anxious times, a poetic meandering through observations of a daily life that’s full of funny riddles, bleak monotony, and deep mystery. In parallel with shadowy undercurrents of reflection and introspection throughout the album, Arianna’s lyrics achieve buoyancy and fun by means of her soft-spoken, sprawling delivery. Much like a home video, she says what she sees, but it’s unclear how she feels; a non-confessional diary entry. Pervasive irony and secretive humor is carefully balanced with slant-rhymes and homophones intended to shroud clarity and invite the listener to uncover multiple meanings in everything.