Legerdemain - a trick, a slight of hand, a skill to make an audience believe that something is other than what it appears to be.

Such is the case with Sur Une Plage's first studio album, a collection of pop songs, stripped of their organic beginnings to reveal a colder, more cynical outlook towards an uncertain future.

Past experiences - mistakes, successes - should offer clues for successful navigation of future occurrences, yet with such a dismal track record, is there any assurance that these missteps will not be repeated? Recorded over a half year, "Legerdemain" is the culmination of an idea formed by Joshua Wells and Colin McKill during an unrelated tour ages ago.

The idea was a musical project typifying simplicity; sparse instrumentation with vocals, harkening back to an age simultaneously of singer/songwriters and the first forays into synthesized music.

Warmth, and hope, fighting through cuspidated obstacles -- perhaps humanity's most enduring trick; its salvation in the face of overwhelmingly bleak odds.