LA-based dream-pop outfit Alnilam offers a pristine blend of compelling ambience and ethereal songwriting. Putting the themes of love, loss, transformation, mortality and memory to tape comes naturally to Alnilam’s core duo who have traveled the world several times over. Singer-songwriter Elena Pinto is of wild Costa Rican ancestry and multi-instrumentalist Serhat Arslan is from a coastal city in northern Turkey.

Pinto moved to Santa Monica in 2011 and felt powerfully drawn to songwriting. She soon pulled Arslan into her orbit who just arrived in LA himself two weeks earlier.

Pinto’s vocals conjure up emotive female singers such as Marianne Faithfull and Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries while the music veers between the post-rock richness of Explosions in the Sky and the magical ambient sense of Yann Tiersen and Beach House all the while evoking Europa folkloric traditions.

The track “Lilac” is from the band’s forthcoming LP, Indigo Sky, which was released on November 13. The official video can be viewed on YouTube.

Alnilam also premiered the track “When It Comes To You” on PureVolume.

“Lilac” by Alnilam