Golden Retriever were formed in 2008 by Portland, Oregon musicians Jonathan Sielaff and Matt Carlson. Sielaff's experimental pop act Au played on occasion with Parenthetical Girls, the dramatic indie troupe that Carlson had been working with, and the two musicians began collaborating together after exchanging solo recordings. Carlson played modular analog synthesizer and Sielaff played bass clarinet. The band performed regularly in Portland and released several small-run cassettes and CD-Rs before issuing its debut LP, Light Cones, in 2011. The duo signed with Thrill Jockey for a series of subsequent releases that shifted focus between and sometimes blurred the lines between composition and improvisation. ~ Fred Thomas