Purveyors of all that is dulcet, lilting yet touched with ineffable darkness, Early Autumn Break are nothing if not well named. Their poignant music brings to mind the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness; albeit heavy on the mist. Hailing from Düsseldorf, Germany, EAB is a duo of singer/multi-instrumentalists Susan Bauszat and Christian Bauer. Drinking from the well of Nick Drake, Tim and Jeff Buckley, Pentangle and Neil Young, Susan and Christian sing and play together with a rare synergy, their voices merging in a gauzy, effortless harmony over intricate, finger-picked guitars and elegiac strings. Indeed, their sound - lush, intimate and folk-tinged – owes more to windswept English hillsides or hazy ‘60s California than to the hometown of Kraftwerk, and there’s also something timeless and universal about their melodious, meticulously essayed songs that render them instantly familiar yet oddly elusive. The duo first realised that they shared more than a taste in non-German music when they played together in pastoral post rock band Volksgarten. They split off to form EAB in 2003, united by an eclectic set of influences that include, alongside the aforementioned doyens, the Cocteau Twins, Chet Baker, Julie London, Dead Can Dance and a-ha (!), to name but several. They take lyrical inspiration from, “mental disorders, global problems, daily ambivalence, disillusion, being constantly broke... and, of course, love”, according to Christian - which may explain...