Aun

AUN formed as a noisy drone duo in Montreal, where multi-instrumentalists Martin Dumais and Julie Leblanc create the group’s dark, engrossing sound. Their work fuses shoegaze, industrial, doom metal, and dark ambient into hypnotic, otherworldly soundscapes that simultaneously frighten and enthrall. The project launched in 2007 with several early albums issued on the Montreal-based Oral label, most of which Dumais recorded alone. In 2008 Crucial Bliss put out the pummeling Multigone CD-R, which earned widespread critical praise, while additional split and collaborative releases that year included Irrlicht, recorded with Allseits. Motorsleep appeared in 2009 on Montreal’s Alien8 Recordings. Two well-received albums followed in 2010: the doom metal-leaning VII on Important Records and the more dark ambient Black Pyramid on Cyclic Law, alongside a limited split LP with doom metal group Habsyll issued jointly by Public Guilt and Conspiracy Records. Signing with German label Denovali Records in 2011 brought reissues of both Black Pyramid and VII, plus the new album Phantom Ghost, whose lighter and more rhythmic character distinguished it from earlier material. The duo continued with the synthesizer-heavy EP Full Circle in 2012 and the ethereal Alpha Heaven album in 2013. They returned to Cyclic Law in 2015 for the release of Fiat Lux.