Tauri Wind - Wayward Traveler

Tauri Wind’s debut EP, Wayward Traveler, is rife with jazz inflections and the throwback feel of ’90s rock. But nostalgia shouldn’t distract from what this record really is: the music of five guys on either side of graduation.

Wayward Traveler is four songs that share a fixation with “moving on.” The bulk of Tauri Wind is comprised of three seniors—keyboardist Lujing Liu, guitarist Justin Brunet and bassist Sean Yu—and the other two members are both recent graduates: vocalist and trumpet player Zac Forbes, Trinity ’08, and drummer Ray Zeller, Trinity ’09. This idea of going from one part of life to the next fascinates the band, and with a lineup like this, it’s not at all surprising.

Written by Forbes, lead track “Lonely Street” focuses on transience. On top of rhythmic piano chords and guitar squalls that are warped and ragged, Forbes sings about time and its trickery. Seen in the context of his two-year removal from Duke, one can’t help but think of how deceptively far away those four years must seem not long after they’re over.

Even more explicit, “Time Has Come” rides trumpet and skittish guitar into Forbes singing Brunet’s lyrics: “The time has come for me/To get out and see some things out there/It’s hard to know but I’ve got to go/Remember these times that we’ve known right here.” The song is heavy with reminiscence, and the confidence of the band’s playing makes for a nice counterpoint to the sense of inevitability that hangs over the lyrics. Liu gets in on the next two tracks, having written “Pretty Little Stranger” and the words of “Lavender Sky” (Forbes composed the music).

Wayward Traveler is a collaborative effort from an instrumentally diverse band with something on its mind. Such focus is striking from musicians who more or less paint themselves as individuals in flux.