It is highly unlikely that you have ever, outside of Georgetown basketball, ever encountered the word "hoya", until now. The rather inscrutable little word fits nicely though, as the title of Hoyas, a rather inscrutable new four-song EP from Sean Carey, the man who may be best known as a member of the Grammy-collecting Bon Iver, but who made quite a memorable mark with his 2010 solo debut All We Grow. 

The EP dials things back a bit from the arrangements that made the album so impactful, as Carey created Hoyas largely on a laptop, with erstwhile A.A. Bondy collaborator Ben Lester. It strives to retain the warmth of the album, and at least on the glorious opener "Two Angles", it succeeds. The loops of blips and beats never compete with Carey's clear and clean vocals, and the mix is soothing, superb. At the other end of the vocal spectrum is "Inspir", on which Carey buries himself through a processor, but manages to be affecting, in a buzzy, hypnotic way. "Avalanche" marries a driving little track with a voice that while again auto-tuned, is tender and tentative.

Carey told his label that the songs on Hoyas are "for nighttime driving, for long exposures of stars circling overhead, for laying roadside, feeling small, for the cold rocks at Big Falls, for Marfa, that weird and beautiful oasis. These songs are about the ambient sides of life.”

Ah yes, Marfa -- West Texas mecca for artists and those seeking possibly supernatural stimuli. "Marfa" is the last track on Hoyas, distant and droning, seemingly reflective of that town that has proved inspirational for musicians including Secret Machines, Feist, Y∆CHT, and Grizzly Bear. Dirty Projectors and Wye Oak will play there this summer. Isn't it time these folks got together and threw Marfa its own festival? Sounds like a plan. 

A more immediate plan though? For you to discover four new captivating little gems from S. Carey that come under the name Hoyas.