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Founded by multi-instrumentalist/engineer
Carlos Hernandez in the late 2000s,
Ava Luna relied heavily on vocal harmonies, free forms, and jagged, percussive arrangements before taking their indie art funk in a gradually more structured direction beginning with 2014's
Electric Balloon. Three albums later, 2018's still more refined
Moon 2 was a more democratic effort with
Hernandez stepping back as leader.
The roots of Brooklyn-based group
Ava Luna began in frontman
Carlos Hernandez's high-school bedroom, where he would write and record songs under the name Ava. In college he met
Julian Fader and Nathan Tompkins, and the three of them changed the band name to
Ava Luna, figuring "Ava" was probably already taken by a more prominent act somewhere.
Hernandez spent time as an engineer and working on various small-scale noise and punk projects after college, with
Ava Luna coming in and out of focus as the years went on. The self-released Lemming marked their unofficial debut in 2007. With 2009's
3rd Avenue Island, a homemade CD-R release, the band congealed yet again, this time featuring
Hernandez on vocals with a host of various singers and a minimal musical backdrop of drums and synthesizers.
The band followed in 2010 with the
Services EP, featuring a different lineup and a sound that continued toward the heavy vocal harmonies of bands like
Dirty Projectors with increasingly obtuse neo-soul-inspired musical backdrops. A proper debut surfaced in 2012 with the release of
Ice Level. By this point the band was more or less in a stable lineup, featuring
Hernandez on vocals and guitar,
Fader on drums, Tompkins on synths,
Ethan Bassford on bass, and a trio of female singers,
Felicia Douglass,
Becca Kauffman, and Anna Sian. The group toured in support of
Ice Level, opening some larger shows for
Twin Sister. They returned with the less chaotic follow-up
Electric Balloon in 2014 and an even more traditionally structured set of art funk and R&B-infused songs with 2015's
Infinite House.
Following its release, several members embarked on other musical endeavors, with
Kauffman launching the performance art project Jennifer Vanilla,
Douglass releasing music as Gemma, and
Fader founding Coffee.
Fader and
Hernandez also released a debut album with vocalist Nadia Hulett as NADINE. In the meantime,
Hernandez and
Fader produced and recorded for artists including
Frankie Cosmos, Mr Twin Sister, and
Speedy Ortiz. When a five-piece
Ava Luna consisting of
Hernandez,
Fader,
Kauffman,
Douglass, and
Bassford reconvened in late 2017,
Hernandez took less of a leadership role, and
Kauffman wrote her first song for the group. The band issued a reimagining of
Serge Gainsbourg's
Histoire de Melody Nelson in March of 2018, and
Douglass began touring with
Dirty Projectors as percussionist/vocalist before the band released the resulting
Moon 2 in September. A still more subdued outing for
Ava Luna, it was partly influenced by the regular chants and refrains of a collection of tapes by '90s women's lib groups that
Kauffman brought along to the sessions. ~ Fred Thomas & Marcy Donelson