Happy Place for RIO/Avant-Prog

Happy Place is an avant-garde group from New York City featuring two vocalists, two guitar players, and two drummers. They play music created by their bandleader and drummer, Will Mason, and the band was established in 2015. 

The band creates a bizarre, dreamlike vibe, and their performances are incredibly skilled yet feel raw and authentic. Their music is filled with a sense of unease and urgency; it totally captures a time marked by anxiety, uncertainty, and hopelessness while also trying to find delicate moments of beauty amidst the chaos.

Happy Place has put out two albums to date, both under the independent music label Exit Stencil Recordings based in Brooklyn, NYC. 

Their first album, 'Northfield,' came out in 2016 and garnered an excellent review from the New York Times for its successful meshing of experimental rock with chamber music. The sequel album, double-LP 'Tendrils,' was released in 2020 and carries on in much the same vein as their debut. 

The crew features vocalists Charlotte Mundy and Gelsey Bell, Andrew Smiley, and Dan Lippel shredding on guitar, while Kate Gentile and Will Mason hold down the rhythm on drums. 

Each member of the band is a respected musician with their own individual careers outside of Happy Place.

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