Written and recorded in the far-flung locales of Brooklyn, Sydney, and a botanical garden in the Bay of Naples, this four-piece ensemble offers up its first set of actual songs, following four records of largely instrumental work. Calling to mind fellow practitioners in chamber-pop, like Rachel’s, Joanna Newsom, and Sufjan Stevens, this song-cycle composed by leader Padma Newsome, alongside Bryce Dessner (who also plays in the National), brings together an assortment of guests, such as Stevens, Matt Berninger (also of the National), and Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond), whose angelic soprano anchors “On the Edge” and “Cocodrillo”, which begins the album with a hypnotic round of monastic chants and peculiar voicings. “We Were Here” matches tranquil guitar and banjo plucks with glockenspiels befitting a soothing lullaby, while Stevens and Worden’s harmonies suggest something more sinister underneath, as they sing, “You are there, and then you’re not”. Such precarious pairing appears throughout these ten tracks and is accentuated in the album’s very title, which wavers between a children’s fable and medieval monster tale for a hauntingly romantic effect.

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