Megafaun didn’t need to record a thing during the first half of 2010. After all, 2009 had been a busy year, with four North American tours and an extended European run. Those trips supported the band’s much-lauded second album, Gather, Form and Fly, praised by Rolling Stone for its “acoustic grace” and “clanging percussion,” four-starred by the likes of SPIN and MOJO, and and declared "intriguing and heartfelt" in Pitchfork's 8.1-rating opinion. 2010 didn’t look so lazy, either: Further tours on both sides of the water were in the works, and the release of the debut record from Gayngs—the psychedelic soul supergroup on which the North Carolina trio join their old friend and bandmate Bon Iver among others —was another project to command some of the band’s time.

But on a Monday morning in January, Megafaun started writing. Seven days later, they were in a proper recording studio for the first time, and the wonderful result is Heretofore, a six-song mini-album that finds the band both focusing their songs and stretching the limit of song itself. Driven by their experiences during the whirlwind of 2009, this 34 minutes appetiser for the new Megafaun album (due to be recorded in the second half of the year, just in case you thought the band were pausing for breath!) is something the band felt they simply had to do. Good for us.

Continuing along the untravelled path between tradition and sonic exploration started upon with Gather, Form & Fly, Heretofore finds Megafaun pairing five of its most concise, communicative songs to date – notably the jangly pop rollick “Carolina Days,” and gorgeous country drifter Volunteers – with its most challenging, compelling experiment ever, a radiant and redemptive 13-minute instrumental called “Comprovisation for Connor Pass.”