Kelley Polar

• Genre: Electropop

About

If one had to paint Kelley Polar's portrait, the image that comes to mind is of a child constantly stepping out of the mainstream -- almost literally -- to explore unfamiliar territory. Polar was a reclusive child prodigy; he first started playing music at age three, and reputedly he'd composed his first song by age four. Enamored of disco (and the brother of slant electronic wizard Blevin Blectum and cousin of Gavin of Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom), Polar developed a kind of schizophrenic lack of musical focus that saw him both studying classical music at Julliard and working in Manhattan's electronica scene with artists like Morgan Geist. After reportedly causing a riot at his Master's recital and immersing himself in the underground electronica, Polar ultimately forsook his urbane Manhattan lifestyle a few years ago to hole up in a farmhouse in New Hampshire, where he began tending a herd of Scottish Longhair cattle and quietly joined various chamber music ensembles in the vicinity. He also went to work on his first solo album, 2005's Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens, a gleaming jewel box of an album that, while influenced by dance, disco and classical music, is not of any of those genres, instead inhabiting its own interstellar niche.

- Sarah Bardeen