At least three bands use the name Ptarmigan.

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Ptarmigan (1) is a modern band of the powerfolk ambioPop genre formed in Columbia, Missouri in 2007. Evan Walton, Peter Marting, and Ted Carstensen create intricate, powerful explosions from simple folk roots and catchy melodies over levels of ambiance. Ptarmigan returns with their sophomore release, “The Forest Darling”, the follow-up to 2009’s “Our Ancient Friends”. Where Ptarmigan used to rely on high/low tempo changes to create tension before unleashing an explosion of pop melodies, they’ve evolved to focusing more on harmonizing the voices of their songwriters, Evan Walton (guitar) and Peter Marting (bass). This album is a definite maturation for the band, whose ambition has never been in question. And maturation in the best sense, they resisted the urge of so many others that confused progress with adding more instruments and band members, and claiming Loretta Lynn and Woody Guthrie as their main influences. They push through the limitations that restrain a 3-person pop band to maximize a warmer and lush sound telling stories of loneliness and longing.

“The Forest Darling” features split-songwriting duties between Walton and Marting. The songs contain Walton’s songs of the inability to connect to people and isolation, with Marting’s rich, romantic imagery of a longing to connect with nature and the harmony it entails. “There’s no need cause nothings moving, I’m at a loss, I’m at a loss.

I move a little bit closer to the delta, so far from view, so far from you” writes Walton in “Delta”, whose falsetto and fuzzy wall of sound feels like a song from “Loveless” before morphing into a 50s folk tune: a sign of welcome release, for as much as he wishes to connect, the songs always get happier when he’s no longer able to – the pressure’s off. Their song topics are backed by an effortless shifting of styles and genres that could only work with Marting’s unbelievable range on bass and Ted Carstensen’s confident, steady drumming.

“The Forest Darling” is what happens when a band is not afraid to entertain the epic. The exciting thing is that might just be what they are most comfortable doing.

Their debut album "Our Ancient Friends" was released on April 18, 2009. Walton, guitar, and Marting, bass, share vocal and songwriting duties on the 11 track album. Walton’s high pitched vocals match the playfulness of Daniel Smith’s voice with the delivery of Grizzly Bear’s Edward Droste. Marting contrasts with deeper, fragile vocals, highlighted in tracks such as "Stars on Patrol" and "Hydroelectric Power Commission: Fear Holds Us Back".

All three students at the University of Missouri, the band mates were separated just a few months after their formation. Marting headed off to study the flora and fauna in Australia and New Zealand, while Walton studied in St. Andrews, Scotland for a semester. Though physically separated, the band shared their new songs and material through their blog, “the concern” (www.ptarmiganmediaconcern.com).

Once reunited in June 2008, the trio blended the influences they’d collected from three continents to form the sound for their first album. With both songwriters studying biology, the album finds itself infused with geological and nature references. Marting penned “Thylacine” about a venture into the wilderness of Australia to find a marsupial wolf believed to be extinct since 1936 - but has sightings reported regularly.

Themes of isolation and vulnerability in the songwriting are accompanied by imagery of exotic, desolate scenery. But that’s not to say this is an album of particular loneliness - instead - the sights and senses experienced in nature provide a comforting connection to all those before who’d seen the same sights and breathed the same air. “Barely standing by the north sea my ancient friends are all waking up” Walton writes in “Lord Who Built This House.”

The music on Our Ancient Friends sees influences from bands such as Grizzly Bear and “This is a Long Drive With Nothing To Think About”-era Modest Mouse. The album features inspired drumming from Carstensen, best documented on songs “Hydroelectric Power Commission: Fear Holds Us Back” and “Thylacine”.

The album was recorded in Columbia, MO at Centro Cellar Studios with Wil Reeves - a musician in bands: Bochman, Cabin Sessions and Penny Marvel.

Ptarmigan (2) formed in 1970, when Michael Bieling introduced guitarist James Lithgow to vocalist/recorder player Glen Dias. The trio began writing songs, with Bieling accompanying the two instrumentalists on congas. They soon added Dennis Lelonde on alto sax, piano and vocals, Monte Nordstrom on 12 string and vocals, and a second percussionist, Shawn Mullins. They combined together to create a bizarre acid-folk sound, but being entirely instrumental. They only released one album, "Ptarmigan", in 1974 with three members.

Ptarmigan (3) was formed in 2006 by Vanessa Hanson from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ptarmigan is a one-woman noise project with an oddly organic, and witchy sound. Her music consists of clean guitars played with animal bones and singing described by her counterpart (perpetrator of the solo noise act The Dead Are Those Who Have Died) as soundly like "kind of a screaming swamp witch." (http://www.myspace.com/ptarmigansignal)

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