Autistic Daughters

Named after a lyric appearing on one of the tracks from their initial release, Autistic Daughters center on the longstanding trio of guitarist/vocalist/percussionist Dean Roberts, drummer/percussionist Martin Brandlmayr, and bassist Werner Dafeldecker, while also drawing on contributions from the Necks’ Chris Abrahams and Valerio Tricoli. All three principals bring extensive experience in experimental and improvisational contexts: Brandlmayr belongs to both the avant-garde ensemble Trapist and the post-rock/glitch outfit Radian. Dafeldecker has performed alongside the Viennese collective Polwechsel and with Fennesz; he also issued the 2000 album Aluminium in tandem with Roberts and maintained a steady output of solo recordings through the late ’90s and early 2000s. Roberts himself shifted from the abrasive improvisations of Thela and White Winged Moth during the ’90s toward increasingly atmospheric, textural, and eventually song-oriented work on his own recordings. The 2003 collection Be Mine Tonight, which included Dafeldecker and Brandlmayr, marked his most direct engagement with conventional song forms to that point and pointed toward the collaborative path that would become Autistic Daughters. While developing the follow-up to Be Mine Tonight, Roberts, Dafeldecker, and Brandlmayr discovered that their rapport functioned more like that of a working band, prompting them to present 2004’s Jealousy and Diamond as Autistic Daughters’ first album. The same three musicians gathered again for sessions with Tricoli in 2005 and once more in 2007, yielding Uneasy Flowers, which Kranky issued in spring 2008.