Does Lumen play progressive traditional music, or is this math-rock folk? Either way the Bay Area quartet creates a wildly exciting post-rock mix of acoustic guitars, progressive polyrhythms, and traditional-sounding accordions. Lumen seems to have solved the problem of wanting to rock out and play quietly by doing both simultaneously.
Lumen was formed in San Francisco, CA by several individuals who collectively despise post-rock. Originally a bedroom project of old bandmates Jeff R. and Jeff K., Lumen evolved to become something larger and stranger. Now residing between LA and Oakland, the four Lumens labor and toil in fits to create their bizarrely anthemic songs. Why bizarre? Imagine a fingerpicked acoustic guitar performing counterpoint with the warm upright bass, all resting atop the blankets of organs and accordian. Now place that in the context of Andee from A Minor Forest's amazingly loud and penetrating heavy metal polyrhythms. Yet the music ranges towards the land of the metal ballad, or perhaps the one Yes song you actually would put on a mixtape. Forget the fact that Rosenberg was previously in Tarentel; Lumen pulls from a whole new bag of tricks! They embody melancholia and triumph, conviction and loss, days of yore and future.