AU is a Portland, Oregon experimental pop group established by multi-instrumentalist Luke Wyland. Wyland started AU in 2005 while completing a degree at the Massachusetts College of Art. He later moved cross-country to Portland and established a base in its music community. Now a working live band, AU features an ever-changing roster of players, recently including Jonathan Sielaff (Parenthetical Girls, Nick Jaina) on guitar, clarinets and saw; and Dana Valatka (Mustaphamond) on drums. Contributors to AU's recordings included Mark Kaylor (Hamor of Hathor, CexFucx), Becky Dawson (Saw Whet, Ah Holly Fam’ly), and Sarah Winchester (A Weather).

Its self-titled debut album was praised by such media centers as Pitchfork and Stereogum, and was named #2 Portland Album of 2007 by The Portland Mercury, which said AU “manages to erase the high art/low art boundary between American contemporary classical music and American pop music, blending them into a simple, compelling, verse-chorus celebration... (and) is the rare band that can reinvent its songs live and still manage to match their recorded quality."

Ou is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surnames 區 and 歐, which share a common origin with the compound surname Ouyang (歐陽), from the ruling family of the State of Yue during the Spring and Autumn period. They are commonly romanized as Au or Ao in Cantonese.

Ou 欧 is listed 361st in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames. As of 2008, Ou 欧 is the 134th most common surname in China, shared by 1.13 million people.

Distribution

Ou was the 27,293th most common surname in the United States during the 1990 census and the 11,845th most common surname during the 2000 census. Au ranked 11,417th and 5,195th, and Ao ranked 88,459th and 58,402nd.

Origins

The Ou (區) and Ouyang are considered to both descend from the ruling family of the state of Yue during the Spring and Autumn Period.

Many Ou have their ancestral roots in the Longgang, Zhongshan, Shunde, Panyu, and Xinhui areas of Guangdong.

List of persons with the surname

See also

Au is a town in the Bregenz Forest in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, part of the district of Bregenz.

Geography

The town belongs to the Bregenz Forest, more exactly to the Hintere Bregenzerwald.

Forty percent of its 45 km² area is covered with forest, 34.4% of the area is used as alpine pasture (Almwirtschaft) and for other forms of alpine agriculture.

The town itself is unlike others in the area, as it has no real centre. It consists of several districts, which are (in no particular order): Argenau, Wieden, Lugen, Lebernau, Rehmen, Schrecken, Kreuzgasse, Jaghausen, Am Stein, Argenstein, Argenzipfel and Lisse. Au is an example of a "scattered village" (German: Streudorf).

The town hall is located in Argenau, whereas the church is located in Jaghausen. The district of Rehmen also has its own church.

The river, the Bregenzer Ach, flows through Au and is also the largest river. Alongside the river runs the L200 road, which is the main route through the Bregenz Forest.

The locals divide the town into two parts, which are separated by the river. One Part is called Schattseite (meaning shady side), and consists of the districts of Argenau, Argenzipfel and Wieden, the other part is called Sonnseite (meaning sunny side) and consists (mainly) of Rehmen and Schrecken.