Kevin Bronson on December 6th, 2010

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What has it been – more than two years since IO Echo began mesmerizing L.A. audiences with its haunting, Goth-tinged shoegaze? The duo of Leopold Ross and Ioanna Gika took their act on the road before it was really fully formed, but they’ve spent the past year supporting the likes of Florence + the Machine, La Roux and the Big Pink (for whom Ross plays bass). They even opened Nine Inch Nails’ final show at the Wiltern. “We started getting a lot of tour offers because people were seriously digging our first live shows, but we hadn’t concentrated on recording,” Gika says. “Literally, we played the same four punk songs for a year and got bloodied up on stage and didn’t care. But you go through something personal, something disturbing and all of a sudden things look different. My perspective has changed and the sound has evolved.” For the better, it says here. Io Echo’s first single, the vinyl-only “While You Are Sleeping,” is out on L.A.’s IAMSOUND Records. “When the Lilies Die” whistles its way into your consciousness.

||| Download: “When the Lillies Die”

||| Live: Io Echo plays the first night of the free IAMSOUND residency tonight at the Echo.

||| Watch: After the jump, check out the video for “When the Lillies Die”: