In Solarium

Pia Fraus was formed in Tallinn, Estonia in the early spring of 1998 by a group of art-school students. At the time, none of them exceeded the age of 16. Their collective influences at that time were Stereolab, Wedding Present, Sonic Youth, etc. Their first album “Wonder What Its Like” was released in March 2001, on limited CD-R copies in Estonia. It gave a good overview of what they were doing for the first three years, and it was 3 songs from this album which came our way via a demo submission. And we realised that the world had to hear the beauty of Pia Fraus as soon as possible... “In Solarium” is the second album from Pia Fraus. It was recorded during three weeks in July 2001 by Lauri Liivak (of Estonian band Bizarre) at his Forwards Studio in Tartu, Estonia. It sees the band reaching new heights of sonic texture. The band’s six members utilize a bevy of instruments including farfisa organ, synthesizers, “noise”, two vocalists, bass, drums, and of course those wonderful guitars. Their songs have a remarkable sense of melody that’ll be stuck in your head for ages. The layers upon layers of guitars, keyboards, and boy/girl vocals put you in a different place - a land of daydreams and bright colors. It’s pop. It’s noisy. It’s brilliant. Absolutely gorgeous two-tone silver and burgundy design throughout this package will have your eyes drooling.