Morgan Geist and Kelley Polar are Au Suisse, a project borne of a long creative friendship, steeped in each member’s traditions, yet simultaneously naïve-sounding and undiscovered. Kelley’s penchant for a maximalist extreme shaped by Morgan’s immaculate production ear; Morgan’s curatorial prowess from years spent record digging and DJing combined with Kelley’s deep exposure to five hundred years of the Western classical art music tradition. It’s an intoxicating mix.
We had some vague ideas—mainly visual, or perhaps psychological—about what we wanted Au Suisse to be. There was a lot of talk about moods and how to establish them, about reverbs and echoes and ‘lonely’ sounds. Ironic, considering we started working just before the onset of the pandemic. But I think a prime motivator was trying to eschew the roles we both fell into in our prior working relationship. I wouldn’t be making things more dancefloor-friendly, and Kelley wouldn’t be doing huge string arrangements. ~ Morgan Geist
This goal is evident in “Control,” the band’s debut single. Kelley’s soft-yet-crisp vocals evoke a lonely actor in the spotlight of an empty stage, the thump of drums absent until the song’s final explosions of sound. The ambiguity of the lyrics may provide the most tangible parallel to his earlier work: “The words are concrete and there’s definitely a narrative,” Kelley says, “but in my mind the story is vague: couple dynamics, or some sci-fi civilizational arc?” “I immediately thought it was about contemporary politics,” adds Morgan. “It’s absolutely one of those songs where each listener gets their own read.”
Keep your eyes and ears peeled for more from the project over the coming months…