When I first approached the music of Atlanta, Georgia-based ensemble Faun and a Pan Flute, it was with a skewed perception of the sort of music that the band would be delivering. Their name, with its pastoral quality, evokes a sense of calming or introspective folk; indeed, “calming” and “introspective” may be apt descriptors of the sort of soundscapes that Faun and a Pan Flute are capable of constructing, but this is no wafty, New Agey-type shindig here.

No indeed, this Southern nine-piece band delivers on a platform of music that seems at first glance nearly indefinable. Their most recent recorded output, the 2015 tour EP known as Traffic, clocks some thirty minutes of post-rock that in the end touches on aspects of folk as readily as it touches on orchestral, symphonic playing.

Coming off of their big and bold debut LP, Faun and a Pan Flute deliver a concise set that serves as a waypoint and a signpost to even more adventurous music. The three tracks on Traffic achieve uniquely varied moods: opener “Brevity” is like a ringing alarm, its horns creating textured layers, “Ball” has a staccato urgency, and “Height” maintains a momentum that builds throughout the tune.

Taken as a whole, Traffic is a manifesto of promise that is almost as thrilling as seeing this band perform live. As compelling as a work it is, however, with its grandiose compositions and intelligence craftwork, the thrill of seeing this band in a live setting is a real one-upper as these compositions take on a rich, even majestic quality borne out onstage.