Bunch O' Reviews:

A few of the latest reviews of The Autumn Project's "A Burning Light"...

I thought I was merely jumping on the bandwagon of post-rock, trying to listen to The Autumn Project's A Burning Light. All this talk about Godspeed You Black Emperor, Isis and Mogwai had me longing to experience what everybody else was raving about so much. So, here I was merely following a trend, but stumbled over a piece of music which brought me an incredible chance to relax and to rest the case of frayed nerves.

I can see how music reviewer may consider albums like A Burning Light to be feast and famine at the same time. On one hand, what do you say about 56 minutes of experimental instrumental structure-less music, but at the same time, look how much of your own imagination you can invest into creating feelings associated with this very music.

It is quite certain that Mike Gustafson and his Huffman brothers co-workers are creating something entirely non-commercial, emotional and almost cinematic in its perception. All five compositions on A Burning Light seamlessly transition, where the end of one track becomes the beginning of the next one. The moods are different, just like the sounds of drum kit on every one of these compositions.

At the Feet of Sleeping Giants begins and ends with nothingness. The emptiness first grows a guitar skeleton, which material fuzz fills in. Then the birth of tribal drumming creates an explosion of sorts, all coming to a soothing still end with some electrical crackling and the sound of migrating birds. These are the sounds of the Rockies, the nature that is both powerful and still, the one that was there before you came, or will be there after you leave. Just like any self-respected post-rock outfit The Autumn Project has functional crescendos, the emotional atmospheric melody wrapped around percussion in Across Mountain Tops to Broken Bridges, or the throbbing epic guitar on Between the Smoke and Mirrors, where the gathering storm ends up with the amp blow-up. Contrast is another good tool in the hands of a talented musician. Gloomy, pensive and funereal, We Cast These Shadows outgrows the electric fuzz to go into a Shabbat dancing, with another tremolo melody crescendo. In the end, however, A Burning Light is about peace, as the closing title track evidences, after one final climax is reached.

I trust you forgive my lack of efficiency describing this album to you. I guess I am still new to the genre, and still not taking in all of what it has to offer. I would recommend A Burning Light to someone, who is fussing around, trying to upset the balance. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the flight, as they say before you board a plane. I could use this advice myself on many occasions.
-Alex - Metalreviews.com

MetalReview.com - Jeremy Garner
To say that this sort of thing isn't my forte is probably the largest understatement of my career as a reviewer, so don't expect me to make all those clever analysis and witty comparisons we reviewers are so incredibly fond of; I honestly don't know enough about the style to even have a relatively informed opinion. While some of you may see this confession of ignorance to be nothing more than a half assed ploy to try to excuse my incompetence, I call it taking a chance. This time, the gamble just so happened to work out in my favor.

I've heard plenty of instrumental bands here and there, but none have been able to capture my attention. Nearly every experience I've had with instrumental music has ended in a horrifically pretentious disaster of mind numbingly boring shite. At the most I'd throw on a few songs here and there while working or reading, or maybe to go to sleep to, but I find very little worth in music that's created to be ignored and placed in the background as a form of ambient white noise to help you go to sleep. However, A Burning Light succeeds where so many like-minded artists have failed.

While normally the absence of a vocalist would bother me, what would usually be a conspicuous absence in most bands here becomes a pivotal opportunity to allow for a broader, expansionist mindset that lets the music freely roam around, considering each tonal shift with a soul heavy weight of importance. "At the Feet of Sleeping Giants" furtively swells and expands with a patience of emotional exploration, ruminating over a pivotal melodic phrase with subtle changes and variations before easing into the somber tranquility of "Across Mountain Tops to Broken Bridges". The album then takes a turn to the tension building cadences of the pensive "Between the Smoke and Mirrors", before crashing into the somber, ethereal peaks and valleys of "We Cast these Shadows", finally closing with the enchanting soul felt exploration of "A Burning Light".

The Autumn Project have delivered a staunchly impressive addition to that sort of Neurosis/Isis genre of deeply emotional expressionism that's been bustling with so much activity and talent these past few years. A Burning Light is quite literally a 'listening experience' in the best ways, taking the listener on a contemplative journey of lush musical textures and glorious soundscapes that seep into the bones, demanding the listener engage with the material both spiritually and intellectually. I'm quite glad to say this is well worth the effort.

A Burning Light Review from DigitalMetal.com:
While I'm not a huge fan of instrumental music, with Pelican being about the only band I can regularly stomach, the fact remains, with A Burning Light, Iowa's The Autumn Project have delivered a towering monolith of brilliance within the genre of expansive instrumental, Neur-Isis styled music.Weaving part God Speed You! Black Emperor like builds with tidal waves of (older) Isis-ian density and Pelican like waves of instrumental soundscapes, is over an hour of truly enthralling and captivating music. Each of 5 lengthy tracks shimmer delicately early and build into vast crescendoes of beautiful, tidal apexes of sonorous heft, then often clam back down to dreamy diminuendos of equally relaxing closure."At the Feet of Sleeping Giants" is the perfect opener with a barely audible opening few moments, which makes the listener truly concentrate, and draws you into the album before the hypnotic acoustic build and stunning resultant sonic peak and valley. Three of the following 4 tracks essentially follow suit with the whole, slow build, massive climax and comedown period, but are done with such artful and epic sense of atmosphere and timing, that it is at times, breathtaking and truthfully not fit for my mere words to describe.But in summation, "Across Mountain Tops to Broken Bridges" is almost tear inducing in its beauty while "Between Smoke And Mirrors" forsakes the lengthy build and is the album shortest most direct track, serving as sort of a purely metal cerebral breather between the vast other tracks. The 17 minute "We Cast These Shadows" returns to sumptuous iridescent hues with a rather urgent mid section, and the title track closing the album out with a perfectly somber lope.A Burning Light is an intensely evocative listening experience. Buy this. Absorb this.
-By Erik Thomas - Digimetal.com

The Autumn Project are one of those memorable bands, that while they may play a similar kind of sound or fit into a certain genre (the band exudes shades of Isis, Mogwai, and Sonic Youth), there is something alluring and distinct about the way they create the music. I believe it's the feel of their music that makes them stand out, if you know what I mean. I loved the band's previous album Fable (my first intoduction to them), but A Burning Light has stepped things up a bit more, with a lot more intensity in certain spots, as well as some of the most spine-tingling atmosphere in recent memory, case in point the brilliant rumble "Across Mountain Tops to Broken Bridges." This band can do no wrong in my books. If you don't know them, check them out. 8.5
-Adrian Bromely - Unrestrained! Magazine

Atmospheric, memezerizing soundscapes in a very post rock back drop it sounds a lot like the mellower moments of Mogwai or Sliver mt zion. The about 7 mins in it becomes this epic orchestral post rock wall or majesty that only could be what Godspeed your black emperor or Sigor Ros would present. The 1st track is 14 mins long and worth every 14 mins to listen to. This is a release you turn off the lights , put the headphones on and absorb as much as you can in each release and always remember you can go back to and get more from . The Autumn Project's will have an interview in our pages soon. For now find everything this project does and find your self lucky to just know of a such a band this is just jaw droppingly good.
-Absolute Zero Media

Excellent cinematic heaviness from the midwestern trio The Autumn Project, whose meditative post rock glides blissfully through huge slabs of crushing, heavenly distortion. Yeah, there are a LOT of bands out there doing the metallic post-rock thing, and I'm generally a sucker for anything along these lines, but The Autumn Project do manage to stand out from the masses of Godspeed / Mogwai disciples by adding incredibly lush atmosphere to their music with multiple layers of sparkling keyboards and rich electronic textures. The songs also don't quite follow the quiet-build-to-crushing-crescendo structure employed by most of the post-Mogwai/Isis bands, and instead move horizontally over lengthy passages of pure static feedback drone, complex math-rock drumming, and triumphant melodies that dissipate into pure free-drone bliss and growling formless guitar noise. Very beautiful and edgeless music, particularly the epic "Between The Smoke And Mirrors" which has a breathtaking heavy hook that appears halfway through the song, and the heavy parts have a weird, processed tone to them that sounds more ethereal than metallic, while still being pretty freaking heavy, as delay and effects drenched guitars send silver arcs tracing across the horizon. This disc sort of reminds me of a mix of (a less distorted) The Angelic Process and Labradford, The Cure's Disintegration and Kranky Records drone, Sigur Ros and Godspeed You! Black Emperor all wrapped up into a majestic series of instrumental sound designs, and is one of the best and most memorable new "post rock" albums I've heard this year. Fans of Souvenirs Young America's quirky instrumentals should definitely check this band out, but this is going to be a hit with anybody that is into the instrumental post-metal zeitgeist. The booklet and packaging also has a lot of neat looking illustrations and brief text that give this the feel of a children's book. Recommended.
-Crucial Blast

And you thought Mono songs took a while to get going. The Autumn Project are even more patient, allowing a full eight minutes of delicate clean guitar, bass, and keyboard musings to build up to the first appearance of distortion. The band doesn't reach climax so much as extended tantric orgasm, repeating the same few chords through massive volume, rolling drums, and keyboard swells. Afterglow settles in and heart rates decrease, only to lead to the next bout of, er, noisemaking. Small-big-small is de rigeur in atmospheric metal now, but the dilated timeframes and lack of vocals emphasize sound, not song. This record is very dynamic; sometimes it's "is this thing on?" quiet, and sometimes it's so comparatively loud you'll jump to the volume knob. Fans of Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky, dig in.
-Stylus Magazine - Cosmo Lee

Like a well illustrated children's picture book, "A Burning Light" weaves its tale without words. It begins with an almost two minute build that escalates into a sonic force that grabs you by the ears and never lets you go without even one syllable ever uttered. This trio of musicians has created a powerful musical picture that moves from dark to light effortlessly through sweeping epics. "A Burning Light" is a musical art in every sense of the word.
-Tony Tarbox - Art Scene

7.25.06 - A Burning Light Now Available

A Burning Light is now available for purchase at CD BABY or our label's site Deepsend Records.

6.30.06 - A Burning Light Preorder

The Autumn Project's new record "A Burning Light" is now available as a preorder from our record label Deepsend Records.  If preordered now you will receive your order on or before July 21st.  A Burning Light will also be available on CD BABY at the end of July and at our live shows in August.  Finally here, we can't wait to share this new work with you!

4.21.06 - New MP3

Happy to say that there is a track off our new record "A Burning Light" posted and ready for you to download and share... the official release date yet to be announced but we are shooting for sometime mid-summer.  Enjoy!  This will also be available on our myspace site.

4.19.06 - TAP SIGNS W/ DEEPSEND, T-SHIRTS, NEW RECORD

The Autumn Project has officially signed with Deepsend Records, Boston, MA, to release their upcoming full length record "A Burning Light".  This should be available sometime early this Summer.  If you catch one of our upcoming Midwest shows we should have a Limited Edition Tour CD available sometime after June 1st.  We will be continuing to work with Imagine It Records with the re-issue of our debut "Fable" and wish Herb and gang all the best with their upcoming releases!

We have our T-shirts for sale via Paypal online now, you can purchase using your credit cards or with Paypal... Please EMAIL us first to make sure your size is available.

We can't wait to share our new record with you, "A Burning Light", our heaviest record to date, in more ways than one.  The layout for the CD looks amazing thanks to our designer Erich Ernst, he does good work.  Hopefully we will have a new mp3 posted sometime in May.

We are in the initial stages of planning our first tour of the East Coast in October... if anyone can help us with a show or knows a good place to check out please let us know.

Thanks for all the support... mike+tap