@

@ (pronounced “At”) is the project of vocalist/guitarist Victoria Rose and multi-instrumentalist Stone Filipczak, who owe their musical bond to the power of text messages. Although the pair initially met years ago, it wasn’t until spring 2020 when they began sending each other music between their respective cities — Rose based in Philadelphia and Filipczak in Baltimore. A few exchanges down the line, Rose sent Filipczak an early recording of a song she’d written called “Star Game” asking him to contribute drums. She didn’t anticipate what he returned to her: “I didn’t like it at first. It felt jarring to hear my music so arranged,” she says. “I almost plotted to end the collaboration.” But it wasn’t long before she came around to the potential of what she and Filipczak could create together.

Rose admits that she didn’t think her bandmate would ever want to work with her in a formal capacity, given Filipczak’s niche background sharing bills with artists like Black Pus (Lightning Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale) and Guerrilla Toss. But with his keen, inventive ear for musicianship and Rose’s penchant for confessional lyrics and vibrant melodies, @ grew as an amalgam of their unique musical backgrounds and complementary strengths.

Over the course of the record, @ fold a wide range of influences into their left-field folk music, evoking the timeless quality of singer-songwriters like Vashti Bunyan, the thoughtful delicacy of ambient pioneers like Laurie Spiegel, and the tender drone and foolproof melodies of Alex G or Sparklehorse. With an affinity for blending digital with analog elements, @ describe Mind Palace Music as “hyperfolk,” though the record never feels self-indulgent — hitting the sweet spot between pleasantly familiar and refreshingly innovative. This is reflected nicely in "Friendship Is Frequency", a track that carries a subtle eeriness under its spare, guitar and vocal arrangement, providing a number of unexpected twists and turns across its 2 minute run time.

"I had just been on a run with an older friend of mine and was complaining about how hard it is to make friends (it was about 6 months into the pandemic so lots of people were probably feeling that way)," Stone Filipczak explains. "He said something about how friendship is all about frequency, you have to see people often in order for that familiarity and trust to form. I thought that sounded cool and started to conceptualize a double-entendre using the word frequency in its musicological sense. I imagined a visual waveform representing two people’s lives and that’s where the heart of the song comes from."

"I got home from the run and wrote the song in the shower in about 10 minutes. I think I recorded it that same day."

It’s fitting that Philadelphia guitarist Victoria Rose and Baltimore producer/musician Stone Filipczak named their band @ (pronounced “At”) — a symbol that calls to mind the detachment of an email exchange or a Twitter mention. The folk-pop duo created their debut album Mind Palace Music almost entirely remotely from, sending each other recordings over iMessage from their respective cities throughout fall/winter 2020. But although its creators were 100 miles away, the 11-track album gleams with a sense of closeness, tied together with @’s penchant for deeply personal and candid lyrics.

With an affinity for blending digital with analog elements, @ describe Mind Palace Music as “hyperfolk,” though the record never feels self-indulgent — hitting the sweet spot between pleasantly familiar and refreshingly innovative. “We were pretty aware of trying to make something well-crafted that would hold up,” Filipczak says. “I was stoked that I could show some of the tracks to my grandma and she would be able to dig it. It probably doesn’t sound that different from, like, Simon and Garfunkel to her.”

Rose and Filipczak are just as inspired by the thoughtful delicacy of ambient pioneers like Laurie Spiegel as they are by the timeless quality of singer-songwriters like Vashti Bunyan. You can feel the influence of those ‘70s folk greats on songs like “Where’d You Put Me,” a drum-free incantation that culminates with a flute solo from Filipczak. Elsewhere, @ evoke the tender drone and foolproof melodies of Elliott Smith, Alex G, or Sparklehorse, like on the spare acoustic ditty “Friendship is Frequency” or the bittersweet “Cut From Toxic Cloth”: “While I'm waiting for my mind and face to sync/I smile to my heart and I think/I like you just the way you are,” Filipczak murmurs on the latter. A subtle eeriness looms in the background throughout Mind Palace Music, preventing it from feeling too outdated or hackneyed.

@ test their limits further on songs like the chugging closer “My Garden,” where Rose and Filipczak’s striking arrangements build to a triumphant coda as Rose mulls over the frustrations of a relationship’s natural ebbs and flows and the “curse” of desire: “I don’t want intensity, no/Just a way to warmth and amity,” she sings. @ know that some of the most rewarding moments in life don’t come easily, and Mind Palace Music is no exception. But sometimes, even the hard work flows out naturally: “It was truly a something from nothing type of experience,” Filipczak says. “We just shared a bunch of music until we started collaborating, and then once we started, we didn’t want to stop.”