Update 2/14/13: In honor of Valentine's Day, Twigs & Yarn released a heart- and raspberry-red video for one of their best tracks, "If I Were an Artery." We've added it above to keep this little videography all together.
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11/9/12: One of this year's finest releases from the obsession-inducing Tokyo label Flau has somehow gone unmentioned around these parts: Twigs & Yarn’s ambient collage The Language of Flowers. The group was formed in Austin, TX by Stephen Orsak and Lauren McMurray, but the album was recorded when they were apart, when McMurray was living in Japan (and collecting many of the LP's hallmark samples). The record is a sort of digital correspondence of field recordings, merging Austin and Shibuya into one sonic place. It's quiet and seriously intimate, but the feeling of distance is there, too—on "If I Were an Artery," over tiny piano and footsteps through mud, a woman says, If I were an art-art-artery, we'd be together all the time. The Language of Flowers was mastered by Nick Zammuto of The Books, whose group's quietest moments are probably a good reference point, though even then Twigs & Yarn are more restrained. The best parts are when almost nothing is happening, just a pinwheel spinning or a fountain turning on.
As an intro to their sound, here are four Twigs & Yarn music videos. Below is "Mermaid Wetness," directed by the duo; "Flowers Thirsty," directed by Brandy Lynn; and "Static Rowing," compiled using footage shot by the Moravian Bishop John Louis Morkovsky. The Language of Flowers is out now in America, available on white vinyl and as hand-collaged CD. Download Flau's great FADER mix, and read an interview with the label's founder, here.