Shadowlands does unique pop rock for special house concert.

Two couples. Four distinct songwriters. Four strong voices. Add a keyboardist who plays piano, organ and glockenspiel; a guitarist who plays both acoustic and electric and doubles on ukulele; and a cellist who doubles on mandocello (a larger version of the mandolin) and also serves as the group’s arranger, and you have a singular quartet.

The couples were introduced to one another by a mutual friend in San Luis Obispo a few years back, and after extensive hiking, dining and jamming, a musical chemistry emerged, resulting in a writing partnership that reveals lithe melodies, understated playing and often-haunting vocal harmonies.

With deep roots in both Denmark and California, Shadowlands calls its craft “ethereal folk pop,” a slogan that may not fully explain the scope and breadth of the music at work. Guitarist Mark Davis offers rock-solid structure, with pianist Karoline Hausted and cellist Bob Liepman deepening rhythms and melodies with a casual ease, while Bob’s wife Wendy adds a fourth voice. The resulting vocal harmonies can be transfixing, as if one is floating in the air. The Liepmans, known locally as the longstanding SLO folk duo Bob and Wendy, admit to being smitten by Hausted and Davis at their initial meeting in January of 2013. “We started listening to their albums,” says Bob, “and we loved them immediately.”

The band’s name draws from the Greek myth of Persephone, stolen from her mother, Demeter, goddess of the harvest, by Hades, god of the underworld.

“Shadowlands is when creativity goes underground,” explains Wendy. “When it’s winter and you don’t know if creativity is going to sprout again, but it does.”

Now touring in support of their eponymous debut CD, the quartet appears in a barn concert in Carmel Valley, which sounds like a very suitable setting.

SHADOWLANDS 4-6pm Sunday, May 1. Call for details and location. $15 suggested donation. 235-7662.