Formed in Los Angeles, Yourself In Peace came together after a night of bonding over a MPC 2500 and a Yamaha acoustic guitar. Westley Ulit and Justin Corrál were a couple of art school students with shared interests in shoegaze and experimental pop. Thanks to a trusty copy of a Roberto Bolaño novel, their spontaneous jam night evolved into the Yourself In Peace project and after much honing of style, the Laudanum EP.
Laudanum is an opiate, specifically a tincture of opium once used as a cough suppressant and later abused by famous poets and authors. It also sounds like would be a fine drug pairing to the rising feeling that comes with the swarm-of-bees-like shoegaze on “Ava (Relief)” or the serene sample chops on “Flora (Pastaza)”. Opener “Flora (Pastaza)” is the group's most accessible offering on the EP, as it finds a comfortable home in the artful design of experimental pop that has evolved since the turn of the millenium. “Overwrought” is the big challenge, as Yourself In Peace bury trip hop drums beneath twinkling piano keys that disregard the beat and that signature wailing wall of shoegaze—though wait it out for the tranquil bridge that softens all the edges into a womb of peace.
The Laudanum EP is available digitally on Bandcamp. Yourself In Peace is currently working on a tape release for Indian Gold Records.
