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St. Ives has long been in love with the songs of Trevor Montgomery. Performing as Lazarus, Montgomery's nascent body of work began (after he left new kosmiche group Tarentel) in 2001 with the glorious Songs For An Unborn Sun (Temporary Residence Ltd.). Since then, two additional full-lengths have been released, further illuminating Montgomery's beguiling voice as both singer, arranger and lyricist and having earned him many comparisons to classic heavy bellowers such as Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen. After being commissioned by St. Ives to do a record, he decided to gather some songs together influenced by and referencing his teenage years. According to Montgomery: "At the time I was polarized by meth, riding trains, heavy psychedelics, and a love of spending my time in the mountains walking around in the woods. At 14 I tried to sell my soul for the ability to draw the female form in perfection, I skirted death several times, always seeming to be saved at the last minute by some good soul or random occurrence. All and all leading me to believe that the coyote's and crow's of the canyons were watching out for me. The Trickster in many forms, laughing and crying." Recorded wherever he could find space, but mostly in a photography studio in Old Town Orange, California owned by his brother. All songs were written, performed and recorded by Lazarus (William Trevor Montgomery). As all St. Ives records, The Trickster is available in limited edition (300 copies), each with unique hand-made art, done by the artist.

Hawk Medicine is the first Lazarus album written and performed as a group, and it shows. The eccentricities of each member shine brightly, with Montgomery's voice no longer the grounded base, but more of an ominous presence drifting above and below. Produced by the band and engineered in large part by Jason Quever of The Papercuts (for which Montgomery is also a member), Hawk Medicine imagines an alternate world where Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Cash take turns scaring each other with their political ghost stories while driving down a foggy highway at night with the headlights off. In spite of this darkness, Hawk Medicine is undoubtedly the most hopeful Lazarus album yet, and it's this precarious balance that also makes it the most mesmerizing.

Like Trees We Grow To Be Satellites (The Backwards America)TRR72 CDFollowing his departure from esteemed avant-rock collective Tarentel,William Trevor Montgomery donned the Lazarus moniker and began releasinghis (sometimes uncomfortably) intimate bedroom recordings. His firstalbum, last year's Songs For an Unborn Sun, was a slow-burning affair withthe uncanny ability to make you feel simultaneously better and worse aboutyour life. It was a cavernous sigh of distress and with Like Trees We GrowUp To Be Satellites (The Backwards America), Lazarus follows it with amuch-anticipated breath of fresh air. Produced by Scott Solter (Tarentel,Court & Spark), Like Trees... is an epic folk-rock masterwork. Influencesas disparate as Elvis Costello and Pink Floyd to Nirvana and Bright Eyestake on a whole new light in this grand, orchestral production, which isrelentless in its beauty and power. Like fellow SF freak folks DevendraBanhart and Joanna Newsom, Lazarus clears a path between your head andyour heart, and you can feel it widening with each listen.

Formerly an integral part of Tarentel and The Drift, Trevor Montgomery is now Lazarus, the voice that sings with projected whispers while a lonely acoustic guitar trails slowly behind. Recorded in Montgomery's bedroom, and mixed with Marty Anderson (Howard Hello, Dilute), Songs For an Unborn Sun is the shimmering, striking confessions of a man tired from telling stories. They are filled with a lost hope that's trapped inside of a puzzle that patiently unfolds over the course of the album's 50 minutes. The challenge lies in staying alert as the songs tempt you to give up the fight and drift into your longest sleep yet. But keep your eyelids open, and your heart will follow. It will fill with love, and thus you are our hero.