She teamed up with her husband, Olivier Manchon (the two met when Muldaur was studying jazz composition at the Berklee College of Music), bassist Alan Hampton, cellist Christopher Hoffman, violist Beth Meyers, and drummer Greg Ritchie to form Clare & the Reasons in 2005. Multi-instrumentalist Bob Hart was brought into the fold soon after the group finished recording its debut full-length. That album, The Movie, hit stores in 2007; featuring cameos by Sufjan Stevens and Van Dyke Parks, the album was comprised of the kind of quirky, jazzy indie pop that welcomed comparisons to artists like Lullaby Baxter and St. Vincent. By the time their second album Arrow followed in October 2009, the group had consolidated around the core of Muldaur, Manchon and Hart. The band kept busy the following year touring Europe and the U.S. with Parks and My Brightest Diamond (whose Shara Worden had appeared as a guest on Arrow.) In 2011, Clare & the Reasons relocated to Berlin for eight months to write and record their next album; named after the model of moped they used to explore the city, KR-51 arrived in July of 2012. ~ Margaret Reges