Songs That Spin in Circles

by Margaret RegesLullatone were born at night, when a sleep-deprived Shawn James Seymour started making a series of gentle, delicate pop tunes that wouldn't disturb the slumber of his girlfriend, Yoshimi Tomida. You could say the whole idea of Lullatone was, as the band's name implies, simply to make lullabies. Seymour and Tomida described Lullatone's music as "pajama pop," and their 2003 debut, Computer Recital, made liberal use of soporific instrumentation: pillows (as drums), hushing noises, and heartbeats. Computer Recital's greatest achievement, however, was not that it made a bunch of hip, quirky tunes that would put a baby to sleep (which it did, beautifully); its greatest strength was in its ability to bend sine tones into warm, human shapes -- something that, to say the least, was pretty cool. Since then, Seymour and Tomida have expanded Lullatone's sound beyond its ambient roots -- every album since Little Songs About Raindrops has included Tomida's vocals, and Lullatone's original meandering, minimalist sound has become more hook-heavy, organic, and pop-oriented. And while this spirit of adventure has led to some of Lullatone's best work (Plays Pajama Pop Pour Vous is a prime example), it does leave one feeling a bit nostalgic for the minimalist sheen of Lullatone's earliest work. ...