Rosenau & Sanborn

Rosenau & Sanborn is a testament to the magic that’s possible when two longtime friends gather to play music with no agenda or expectations, just an open embrace of whatever happens. For years, both Chris Rosenau and Nick Sanborn were essential pieces of the Wisconsin music scene. Rosenau was the distinctive and chiming guitarist in Pele, an intricate post-rock band that made records for Polyvinyl. Amid a litany of other projects, he and that band’s drummer, Jon Mueller, moved on to Collections of Colonies of Bees, a phosphorescent act that cut several great records for Table of the Elements and Hometapes. Sanborn, meanwhile, was in another Wisconsin favorite on Polyvinyl, the hazy Decibully, before heading south to North Carolina to start his ongoing electronic pop duo Sylvan Esso.

In October 2017, Rosenau too headed south for an improvisational weekend with Sanborn in the new residential studio Sylvan Esso had built. They had done a few impromptu duo sets of guitar and electronics at Wisconsin’s Eaux Claires festival and found a wordless, easy rapport. With the doors and windows open, they made a series of warm, comfortable instrumental duets, Rosenau’s bright guitar nesting inside Sanborn’s expansive electronics like a candle in a window’s nook. They didn’t edit, remix, or alter the sessions, simply issuing them as 2019’s exquisite and intimate Bluebird. They’ve been at work again, just in time for their Big Ears debut.