Lower Heaven gets an altitude adjustment

Kevin Bronson on August 10th, 2009

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Marcos Chloka cops to being something of a sonic fetishist – fond of “creating soundscapes and music that just surrounds you,” he says – but how that has played out in the L.A. quartet Lower Heaven is a little bit different. Chloka has incorporated the autoharp into the band’s reverb-soaked compositions, adding a little shimmer to its dreamy psychedelia.

“I just found that using it you can come up with really interesting chord progressions,” he says. “Sometimes they’re things you wouldn’t normally discover with a guitar.”

Oh, there’s still plenty of guitars, both from Chloka and Tommy Danbury. The results on the quartet’s first release, “Ashes” (which came out in January), were a Slowdive-like ambience that, while perhaps not as textured and ambitious as work from fellow L.A. psych-rockers such as Xu Xu Fang or the Moon Upstairs, rates as a welcome example of artists exploring new nuances in shoegazer rock.

Lower Heaven got its start when Chloka and drummer Stephen Swesey (who has since bowed out of Lower Heaven because he has trouble meeting tour obligations) broke away from Languis after that band’s excellent “Other Desert Cities” EP in 2005. With Swesey, Danbury and bassist Christina Park, Lower Heaven played one of its first shows at the Wiltern, opening for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

The quartet, playing the Monday night residency this month at the Silverlake Lounge, is already at work on new material (see “Shadow People”), which Chloka says “may end up being a little bit dronier.”

“Shoegaze is my favorite music, ever,” Chloka says. “It’s all about the energy and the sound.”

||| Stream: “Shadow People” and “Ashes”