The band's name is derived from hylozoism and was started as a side project of record producer and multi-instrumentalist Paul Aucoin.
Aucoin wrote and recorded their first album La Nouvelle Gauche (using a line-up of musicians mainly from Halifax) in his studio in Nova Scotia.
It was here that Aucoin started fresh and captured the collective sound of his new collaborators, he shed the idea of a “solo project” and created a full-blown supergroup.
A majority of their instruments (vibes, glockenspiel, organ, violin, viola) are primarily used in classical music, and in some instances jazz.
In their song "Warning Against Judging", the opening minute is played on glock, organ and a little bit of a guitar - if you were to replace it with strings it would be something from an orchestral movie score.