Montreal's music scene is like a clown car: just when you think it couldn't possibly have room to contain any more talent, some more emerge. The City of Saints can already lay claim to Billboard chart-toppers (Arcade Fire), Polaris Prize winners (Patrick Watson), punky Francophone ambassadors (We Are Wolves), no-wave revivalists (Les George Leningrad), noise rockers (AIDS Wolf), rappers (Gage), electro-funk party-starters (Chromeo) worldly indie pranksters (Islands), plus all the members of Wolf Parade and their many side projects. And now it can add ambitious, sun-baked trio Plants And Animals to the ranks of its growing community of celebrated musicians.
Like a distant Canadian cousin of Blitzen Trapper, this three-piece spins shaggy songs into expansive, genre-bending symphonies. And though last year's too-brief With/Avec EP hinted at Plants and Animals' expansiveness, it didn't fully prepare listeners for their debut album Parc Avenue, a sprawling collection of rootsy melodies, majestic arrangements, and classic rock riffs that owes as much to jam-band psychedelia and it does to delicately orchestrated chamber-folk. Plants and Animals may not be the first band to put Montreal on the musical map, but, with this album's there's-no-place-like-home vibe, they are certainly the first to celebrate it so warmly.

Lost in the Trees is a folk orchestra from Chapel Hill, NC, led by composer and songwriter Ari Picker. Initially a bedroom recording project, Lost in the Trees has grown from a solo effort to a full symphonic band, sometimes numbering over a dozen members. After releasing his self-titled album on Trekky Records, Ari attended the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston, MA, further immersing himself in the historic realm of classical composition. While in Boston, Ari assembled a small group of players to help him record Time Taunts Me, an EP of giant orchestral pop songs, released in 2007 on Trekky Records. The short album received some generous acclaim from national critics, but as Ari hurried to finish school, he was unable to tour in support of the music.

After finally moving back to North Carolina, Ari began writing a new album and assembling a cast of musicians from the Trekky Records Collective and the University of North Carolina Orchestra program. Now with a vast and supportive team behind him, Ari was able to complete his most affecting and powerful album to date, All Alone In An Empty House. The album was released in a single three-format package in September of 2008, containing a vinyl record, a CD and an MP3 download. The compositions benefited from a dedicated live backing band, complete with full string section, horn section, accordion, mandolin, glockenspiels and more.

In February 2010, Lost in the Trees signed to Los Angeles based Anti- Records, who will be releasing a new and enhanced version of All Alone In An Empty House, which has been reworked by acclaimed North Carolina producer Scott Solter (The Mountain Goats, Spoon, St. Vincent). The new album will be released worldwide in the Spring of 2010.