Desolation Wilderness

Olympia, WA's Desolation Wilderness borrows cues from dreamy electro-pop and uses a loose analog recording method -- aided in no small degree by a Roland Space Echo, two Maestro Echoplex delay units, and several spring reverbs -- to create a narcotic, dusty take on the style. The concept was conceived in 2005 as a solo project of Nicolas Zwart, who started recording vocal and guitar tracks while he was still a senior at Olympia's liberal arts school, Evergreen College. His first album, the narcotic White Light Strobing, was written while Zwart was vacationing in his grandparents' Australian beach house in 2008 and then recorded in Calvin Johnson's K Records' Dub Narcotic Studio, where Zwart had interned the prior year. He performed most of the material himself, singing and overdubbing guitar, vibraphone, and synthesizer parts, while also enlisting the help of some musician friends. The album was fully realized once Evan Hashi played drums on the record, while Andrew Dorsett and Adam Oelsner added guitar and bass to the mix. After a U.S. tour supporting the release of White Light Strobing, a 7" followed on K Records titled Until Forever, and a third full-length, Hey Someone, was released by Zwart himself in a limited run of 100 CD-R copies. ~ Jason Lymangrover, All Music Guide