In January 2009, German indie legends The Notwist played two shows in a theatre in Munich, accompanied by the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra. These shows were an incredible symbiosis of the band’s intricate electronics (one of them seemed to be playing a Nintendo Wii) with the grand gestures of a classical orchestra.

Some of the finest moments on the Outshine Family‘s third album Galeria de la Luz manage to evoke those shows, but its worst moments sound like they were composed for a business school student in search of the perfect soundtrack to the revision of the IS/LM-curve.

The Outshine Family is the project of Melbourne musician Matthew Nicholson, who has made atmospheric ambient tracks for over a decade, mainly under the moniker Function. Nicholson apparently likes to let other people contribute to his compositions – the making of Galeria… reportedly took over three years and involved 30 different collaborators. Talk about a team effort.

Perhaps as a result, there is some variance in the quality, tone and structure of the songs. There are fairly straight-up neo-folk songs with hushed electronic beats in the vein of Sufjan Stevens (‘Get Laid Like an Egg’, ‘Natural Diamonds’) as well as slightly aimless orchestral interludes (‘Flying Ear’). ‘Get Laid…’ manages to combine all of post-rock’s atmospheric qualities (and none of the emotionally manipulative crescendos that genre seems to live on) with countless, carefully layered banjo tracks and lovely boy/girl vocal harmonies.

There are a couple of songs whose titles score sky-high in the pretentious department (‘A Carol For the Speechless and the Heartbroken’, ‘Seven Tongues Tasting the Night’) but which, for all their earnestness, aren’t very memorable. ‘A Carol…’ sounds like something Keith Jarrett would bust out on a particularly moody evening, and the jazzy drone of ‘Always I Marvel At You’ is offers the listener very little to hold on to. As a result, it floats by without leaving much of an impression.

However, the McCartney pop of ‘Alone With Your Tattoos’ and the Notwist-esque crackle of the orchestra-backed ‘Stars Wept Upon Us’ just about outweigh the more rambling and film score-like ambient tracks, and help make Galeria de la Luz an experimental pop record rather than a calculated sound carpet content with being used as aural decoration.