Daniel Trudeau, a.k.a. Pregnant, and his partner Jocelyn Noir, who performs under the stage name ALAK, recently left their home in Placerville, Calif., for a joint U.S. tour that doubled as a high-concept family vacation for the young couple and their newborn daughter. "Along the way," explains a Kickstarter project page soliciting funds to buy an RV, "we'll be dipping our daughter's hands in paint and pressing them against certain buildings and monuments, therefore making a 'memory map' for our daughter with the hopes of her following it later in her life."
Whether you find the idea charming or cloying (or both) could be a barometer for your reaction to Trudeau's defiantly quirky, homebrewed folk-electronica. "Letter to a Friend" begins with a bed of twinkly, chintzy trip-hop that builds into a warm, finger-picked acoustic melody. Then there's Trudeau's voice, which sounds — in the most complimentary sense possible — like Kermit the Frog moonlighting as a sensitive indie rocker.
Implausibly, it works. Like most of Trudeau's simple but meticulous loop-based compositions, "Letter to a Friend" rambles along appealingly without going anywhere in particular. It channels a twee fascination with the small things into a kind of spacey, small-town Zen, as odd as it is disarmingly pleasant.
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