Kevin Bronson on May 20th, 2016

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By the definition given by The Velopheliacs, a velopheliac is a person with feelings of sexual excitement directed towards bicycles. As titillating as a banana seat to be sure, but the music made by by the L.A.-based duo of Dylan Wright and Syd Everatt aspires more to the metaphysical, and succeeds. Wright and Everatt create finely crafted acoustic folk — not the “Amazing Grace” kind but something they call “post-folk.”

Over conversations between their acoustic guitars and understated keys and atmospherics, Everatt sings poetry on celestial themes: the sun, the skies, the planets, the seasons. In April, the Velopheliacs released the EP “The Sun Through Mars,” a four-song, 24-minute meditation that followed up their 2014 full-length “Hinterlands.” The single “Jupiter” beckons to the pull of the fifth planet: “In the clouds of Jupiter, we find gravity / now words have no meaning, just romantic apathy.” “Armies in the Spring and Autumn” references the twilight of the gods (Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung,” specifically); it’s a song that bookends the EP’s opener, “Death in the Spring and Autumn,” which finds Everatt’s smile “drunk with emptiness.” At the start of “Summer in Flames,” she asks “Am I numb, or am I brave?” Oh, brave, most definitely brave.

||| Stream: “Jupiter”

||| Also: Stream the whole EP via Bandcamp

||| Also: Watch the video for “Summer in Flames”