Great Northern: The name evokes a feeling of a place and time in which . . . to dream, perhaps, to get away from it all, or away from one’s self. It’s late afternoon, strolling into night. There’s a slight breeze – but you’re warm in your coat, or bundled in cotton as you gaze out the window… An appropriately evocative soundtrack for all this – widescreen grand nudging fuzzy intimate – is something akin to what Solon Bixler and Rachel Stolte sought when they formed Great Northern.

The thriving L.A music scene proved an invaluable experience in developing Bixler’s expertise as a guitarist, composer and arranger, skills that had been nurtured by the influence of his father, a composer and conductor. When it came time to do his own music, he was ready to present a fresh point of view. But he was also prepared to venture beyond the familiar comfort zone and allow for an outsider’s perspective.

Trading Twilight for Daylight is a collection of shimmeringly lovely yet wildly contrasting shades of the pop song experience. Densely layered melodies are draped with Stolte and Bixler’s signature velvety chimes, stately piano, luxuriant keyboard string flourishes and smartly counterpointed electric and acoustic guitars. The songs’ very point often seem to suggest the rich emotional textures of a daydream afternoon, as sunshine gently dims into the dark. The sensual fullness of the sound is like soaking in a bath of warm frequencies. “Doesn’t it make you feel good?” sings Stolte. And later, “Was I dreaming? Was I awake?” Great Northern songs are genuinely, memorably melodic, and it’s the several coatings of so many melodies within each track that makes them something to return to again and again. “It’s important to Solon and me that the songs have a lot to offer,” says Stolte. “The songs on my mind are the ones that you hear over and over and you hear something new every time.”

“There isn’t any specific formula for crafting a song – the song will just tell you what it has to be. It can stem from an emotion, which then evolves lyrically or otherwise. Ultimately, when you listen to a song in your bedroom with headphones, it should be able to take you away, maybe on a little journey.” And for Great Northern, that journey has just begun – and the horizon has never looked so magnificent.