Planes On Paper

The Seasons Performance Hall has been on a roll this year with booking some awesome shows. With the likes of Band of Horses, Leon Russel, Vicci Martinez and next month with Ed Kowalczyk (of the 90s Alt-Rock band Live) and the infamous Blind Boys of Alabama playing a special Christmas show, one must think what does The Seasons do next year? Well I don’t have the answer to that question, but what I can tell you is this. Sunday night, The Seasons had Seattle Indie artist Shelby Earl, who has been making some serious buzz in the music world perform to a packed audience. Also joining them was Planes on Paper which features the duo of Navid Eliot and Jennifer Borst of the Indie-Folk group Not Amy.

To understand Shelby Earl, one must experience Shelby Earl. Yes, you may have heard/seen her on KEXP Live or performing at Doe Bay, but to explain her music is something else. In some ways, she has a dark doo wop sound to her, and in others she has that folky indie sound that many crave. But to me her music speaks in words. Take for example, her recent single Swift Arrows details a what happens after a nasty break up between a couple. Earl recently told Rolling Stone magazine that ”‘Swift Arrows’ is about the experience of being hurt by someone you once trusted and coming out of it a warrior, rather than a victim,” I think many of us who have experienced heartbreak know what she means, I know I do.

Planes on Paper on the other hand brought a whole new element that many fans of Not Amy may have not seen. Navid and Jenn bring a hauntingly beautiful sound to their repertoire that echo’s in the likes of Simon and Garfunkel infusing it with Brad Paisley and Allison Krauss’s Whiskey Lullaby… Minus the country twang and more of the folky/indie sound that everyone loves.

Overall, both artist’s brought their A-game to The Seasons and it paid off. Shelby Earl and Planes on Paper are two artists to look out for in 2014.
-Xander Deccio - Seattle Music Insider

Often, when I’m asked to review music that I’ve maybe heard only once, or never heard, it can feel like a chore to listen to the album many times over. This time, though, it’s been a pleasure. I can’t hear it enough.

The duo Planes on Paper just released their first EP, The East End Session, showcasing their incredible talent, original songs, and impeccable cohesion. Navid Eliot sings and plays guitar, and Jen Borst sings harmonies, but you really wouldn’t hear it that way: they are so dialed into each other and their sound together that what you hear is one gorgeous meld of sound that takes you on a winding journey through the songs they’ve created. This first release of just four tracks clearly fits together, meant to take you through a series of emotions.

“Day Alone” kicks it off, a sweet song about love, dreams, and finding out how to make life work. The harmonies between Eliot and Borst are nothing short of wonderful, and you get just a slight glimpse of Eliot’s guitar prowess. It’s a perfect first track.

“Wolves,” the second track, seems a bit more somber–perhaps a romance slipping away, a nostalgia settling in for what you know you have, what you had, what you know you will lose. Once again, the harmonies between Eliot and Borst fit the song just right, carrying the song to its end with perfectly matched pitch.

“Zero Winter” rides this darker wave even deeper, carrying you into the depths of what might be felt amidst a heightened solitude or a stark longing. I love Eliot’s guitar in this song specifically, perhaps my favorite of the EP, a dark and haunting melody that inspires such bittersweet emotion.

But just as you feel your heart may break, “Zero Summer” carries you out of the depths, reminding you that even the darkest of days will eventually turn and give way to something more, something better.

Eliot plays such beautiful guitar through all four songs, backing the vocals with precise and lovely chords, adding just the right amount of finger picking and riffs when fitting. Borst sings to match him so stunningly, simultaneously adding her own tone and timbre to make her vocals unarguably hers.

Suffice it to say, I’m impressed. Planes on Paper brings us a refreshingly simply, yet astoundingly beautiful EP – recorded live, no less – in a world where more is thought to equate to better. It’s music for falling in love, for breaking up, for finding hope in a world where we so often need something in which we can believe.

And I, for one, cannot wait to see what they do next. - Reaching Notoriety