Indie-folk group Fathom Lane lets listeners slow down

As the world seems to roar ever louder and race ever faster, Fathom Lane are moving in the opposite direction, creating quiet, expansive and meditative indie-folk music that demands the listener to stop and take a deep breath.

"When Fathom Lane started out, we wanted to do that stop and listen thing," frontman Michael Ferrier said, speaking to Tom Weber and Andrea Swensson in the studio.

"I'm inspired by other bands around here like Low, who take the time for a song and take the time for the music," he continued. "Also, I think it's late-night music, in some ways. Kind of romantic music, and kind of lonesome music — if there is anything romantic about being lonesome. But there is a melancholy in the love songs that I like, because the most real love songs are the bittersweet songs."

Ferrier brought his Fathom Lane group to the Maud Moon Weyerhauser studio for the Summer Music Series — and as an added treat, he also invited the Laurels String Quartet to join them in the studio, bringing the number of musicians in the room to 10.

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In addition to speaking with Ferrier about his band's new album, Asilomar, Weber and Swensson spoke to the Laurels String Quartet about their unique approach to supplying indie rock artists with string accompaniments; they've shared stages with Jeremy Messersmith, Chastity Brown and Semisonic, and recorded on the latest Belle and Sebastian album.

You can hear more sessions from the Summer Music Series on Tom Weber's show on MPR News on Fridays at 11 a.m.; and on The Current's Local Show on Sunday nights at 6 p.m.