Sam Meister and Nicole Barille are Mr. Gnome.

Mr. Gnome
9 p.m., Oct. 1. Cafe Nine, 250 State St., New Haven.

$5. 203-789-8281, cafenine.com.

Nicole Barille and Sam Meister know the value of surprise. When the Clevelanders work together underneath the moniker of Mr. Gnome, the concept of contrast gives their dusky indie/punk/art rock mesh a striking sensibility.

Leading most Gnome compositions is Barille’s voice, a feminine thing that can leap from a breathy, wounded wisp to a smoldering shout to a commanding bark. The fluctuations are jarring and often unexpectedly lively. Similarly, when songs move from echoing, stark vocals to impenetrable blasts of distortion (produced by Barille’s guitar) and fits of percussion (made by Meister at the drums) and back again to vocals, the changes feel weighty. Through much of their 2008 disc Deliver This Creature (El Marko Records), zigzagging gives Mr. Gnome’s sound unfamiliar thrills.

Appropriately, Mr. Gnome was founded on a tenet of contrast.

“We always started with that soft/loud dynamic,” recalls Barille in a recent phone conversation.

Inspired by surrealism, abstract art, psychedelic rock and experimental inclinations of the likes of Portishead and Tool, the tandem immediately decided they would venture into any corner they found interesting.

“We always liked heavy stuff and pretty, ethereal stuff, too,” she notes. “We never tried to limit ourselves.”

Barille has an innate interest in songwriting. She emphasizes the group’s composing is grounded in an organic approach. Tracks emerge from guitar riffs or simple melodies rather than full concepts. While tinkering, they end up getting comfortable with a song.

“[When] you spend so much time with the songs, it starts becoming natural to know where you want them to go,” she says. “I usually think the songs that come out best are the ones that we don’t have to tweak as much. We always try to make everything natural.”

The only problem with following your instincts is that imagination can often take you in odd directions.

For example, when putting together November’s Heave Yer Skeleton, the act shelved 10 compositions.  “We started messing around with more of a psychedelic sound and there were songs that just weren’t stopping,” says Barille with a laugh. “They were 10-minute-long songs. They are cool when you are creating. Then, you step back and you’re like, ‘I don’t know. This is ridiculously long and has 10 different movements!’”

When Mr. Gnome laid down its new album at L.A.’s Pink Duck Studios (the recording headquarters of Queens of the Stone Age singer Josh Homme), the duo dealt with more creative over-stimulation.

“The amount of equipment they had was outrageous,” Barille says. “You almost had to limit yourself to what you started working with because you had 500 amps to choose from.”

Incorporating hollow body guitar, unfamiliar pedals and vintage amplifiers, the band hopes to give Heave “more of a classic feel than the last record.”

No matter how they alter their aesthetic, Mr. Gnome will have to frequently contend with comparisons to other male-female combinations. Barille can deal with that.

“I don’t think we sound like The White Stripes even though that’s the one people always pull out just because that’s the most famous male-female duo.” (Truth be told, their enterprising tendencies make The Dresden Dolls a stronger reference point.) “We don’t try to limit ourselves just because there are two of us,” she says, “but I’m sure that comes across because, y’know, there are only two of us.”

http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=14752