Psychedelic dream-pop trio Spirits and the Melchizedek Children to play the Odditorium, May 2

Paste magazine calls Spirits and the Melchizedek Children’s music “haunted shoegaze art-rock,” while the A.V. Club dubs the band “the southern Sigur Ros.” Ashevilleans, however, can make their own assertions about the Atlanta group’s psychedelic sounds this Saturday, May 2, when they play the Odditorium. Teach Me Equals opens the show at 9 p.m.

The band’s Western North Carolina stop is part of an extensive national tour in support of Spirits’ 2014 album So Happy, It’s Sad. Here’s the video for the band’s dreamy and sensual title track — aptly set in bed.

Here is the full release from organizers:

Forged on late summer nights surrounding a dying bonfire at Camp 1538, Spirits and the Melchizedek Children began as Jason Elliott’s acoustic ramblings, and has since grown into a sprawling psychedelic juggernaut. Their latest album, So Happy, It’s Sad (out now on Fallen Arrows) bears the weight of life in all of its trials, tribulations and wonder, but at the same time imbues a feeling of completeness and unity. Evolving from crackling static into sonorous music and back again, SATMC weaves a melodic sensibility into the chaotic fabric of their haunting arrangements. Unapologetically daring and comfortingly familiar, Spirits’ ambient songs provide a soundtrack for lost summers, new loves, and clean-slate beginnings.

SATMC has streamlined its former six-piece touring lineup into a power trio of singer/guitarist Elliott, drummer Bryan Fielden and bassist Nathan Sadler. This core of the band will appear on the next record, and in the meantime will be using the next several months on the road to build their musical synergy and create the songs that will comprise the next SATMC album.

Spirits has been touring relentlessly since the release of So Happy, It’s Sad, sharing bills with Florence and the Machine, Civil Twilight, Dead Meadow, Lower Dens and The Growlers. They’ve garnered features in Paste and The A.V. Club, who called the band “the Southern Sigur Ros,” and a few month ago, they even bumped The National from the top spot of Daytrotter’s most-listened sessions.

“So Happy, It’s Sad is a celebration of the bittersweet experiences we all face in our lives,” Elliott says, “It’s a letter from us to you. We hope you can take the painful elements in your life and make them beautiful.”

So Happy, It’s Sad was recorded and produced by Benjamin Price (OutKast, Little Tybee) at Studilaroche. He helped the band cultivate a sound that was modern and boldly refined, yet shrouded in a primordial mysticism. Royal Thunder’s Mel Parsonz contributes her powerful vocals to the record while Matt Jarrard (Oryx and Crake, Book Club) and Ryan Gregory (Little Tybee, Lily and the Tigers), Taylor Mumford, Price and Johnny Rhum beautifully complement the sound with strings, brass, percussion and electronics.

SATMC’s first album, We Are Here to Save YOU!, was recorded with Ed Rawls (Black Lips, Carnivores, Deerhunter) and released in 2011. Since then, there’s been some controlled burning, as former members of the band have exited, allowing for a renewed vision and sense of purpose. Moving from a tumultuous place to a strangely peaceful one, Spirits ventured forth releasing the single “LOOK!” in 2012, followed by So Happy, It’s Sad, a major creative breakthrough for the band.

“The unknown, the future is wild and undetermined,” Elliott says, “but it’s always exciting to watch it unfold. As time moves on, we find new ways to play things. It’s always been important to us to keep things interesting for ourselves, so that our music is constantly evolving.”