Aaron Roche - HaHa HuHu (2017)

HaHa HuHu is the beautiful new album by Brooklyn-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Roche. Released through figureight records, the album acts as an anchor for Roche’s contrasting narratives: a singer-songwriter with an ear for the avant-garde; a contemporary composer who sings American folk music; an instrumentalist who works as a recording engineer.

Roche’s musical CV offers some insight into his craft. He performs (guitar) in the touring bands of musicians as diverse as R. Stevie Moore, Lower Dens, Sufjan Stevens and Anohni, he has composed music for the American Ballet Theatre, he has played trumpet with his father’s brass ensemble. Though filtered through his strange and singular lens, all these elements of sound help illuminate the musician and his vision. The album’s wistful sensitivity and heartening playfulness reveal a songwriter both mature and confident, drawn to lo-fi and droning textures, to nonstandard song-crafting, to acutely personal observation.