Taking their name from Solaris, Russian film-maker Andrei Tarkovky‘s 1972 sci-fi psychodrama, Solar Bears make music that is cinematic, spatial and musing.

Hailing from Wicklow and Dublin, Rian Trench and John Kowalski met at Pulse Sound Engineering school and were quick to sign to Planet Mu records; sharing a stable with Sunken Foal, Tim Exile, Decal and Ikonika, it’s a fitting home for the duo.

Their music is a mix of wandering electro-acoustic compositions; an infusion of digital and analogue programming, synthesisers, samples and live instrumentations with a vintage sheen. Death in Vegas and Bibio are cited among their influences and both are evident; the former for the layered song structures, the latter for the textured warmth, subtleties and graininess.

Solar Bears – Crystaline Be Again

Solar Bears will release the Inner Sunshine EP in August which includes -Kill On’, a cosmic electronica-piece that seamlessly breaks into a noisy live dirge with apparent effortlessness, as well the tinkering old-skool Leatherette remix of -Crystaline’.

Crystaline (Leatherette remix) – Solar Bears

As featured on State, the lads have done a couple of remixes for Bryce Isbell‘s FUR project and are working on a split release with him, coming out soon on Waaga Records.

FUR – Clears Throat (Solar Bears Remix)

In the meantime Solar Bears are putting together a live show, including extra guitarists, percussion and graphic projections and their debut LP, She Was Coloured In, is set for release in September – the most exciting chapter of Irish music for 2010 has yet to come.