San Fermin

San Fermin

San Fermin is a Brooklyn-based art pop group active since 2011. The project is led by composer and songwriter Ellis Ludwig-Leone, who forms the centre of a line-up that also includes Michael Demsyn-Hanf, John Brandon, Stephen Chen, Tyler McDiarmid, Allen Tate, Rae Cassidy, Charlene Kaye and Ludwig-Leone himself.

Background and style

The group works in indie rock, chamber pop, baroque pop and related art-pop territory, with a sound that draws on post-rock and contemporary classical composition. Ludwig-Leone’s classical training shapes the project’s arrangements and writing. He also works as a composer and arranger, including assisting Nico Muhly, and his background in that field is a key part of the group’s identity.

Albums

San Fermin’s self-titled debut album appears on Downtown Records. Ludwig-Leone writes it after finishing his musical studies at Yale, completing the material in six weeks while staying in a studio on the border between Alberta and British Columbia. The album focuses on themes including youth, nostalgia, anxiety and unrequited love, and uses different vocalists to carry its characters and emotional contrasts. “Sonsick” is the first track released from the record and introduces many of its central concerns.

The group follows this with Jackrabbit and Belong, which extend the project’s blend of chamber-pop writing, indie rock instrumentation and large-scale thematic structure. The band’s lineup later settles into a core of eight members around Ludwig-Leone, with Allen Tate and Rae Cassidy on lead vocals, John Brandon on trumpet, Stephen Chen on saxophone, Tyler McDiarmid on guitar, and Mike Hanf on drums.

Ensemble approach

San Fermin is presented as a collective rather than a conventional solo project, with multiple vocalists contributing to the songs’ character-driven structure. That approach gives the music an ensemble quality, with instrumental and vocal roles shared across the group’s members.