The folk revival of the indie scene seems to find its basis in an interesting ideal: the continuing search for beauty in little moments. Though it's difficult to avoid the perception of artifice - perhaps rightly so - in hipsters reprising a genre that more or less defines itself as the purest artistic expression of one dirt-poor troubadour and his busted-up guitar, this is ultimately how we separate the wheat from the chaff. All artifice aside, it still is a genre of paramount humanism. With no fancy effects to hide behind, it's awfully easy to spot a charlatan.

I don't believe that Greylag are charlatans. A four-piece from Portland, the band makes music that wisely avoids any attempt to replicate traditional folk tropes, instead focusing efforts on creating a warm ambience of airy harmonies, gentle guitars and distantly chugging drums. Were it not for the insistent momentum that the drums provide, one might worry for a Greylag song evaporating into the atmosphere - as in "Winter White," which nearly floats off before being plucked down by its toes.

The band is young, having formally assembled in the spring of last year, when Andrew Stonestreet and Daniel Dixon - after meeting in Kentucky and carrying on a correspondence for a couple of years - moved to Portland together and began making music.

After producing their debut record, The Only Way to Kill You, based mainly on the songwriting of Stonestreet, Greylag are readying their next album in a much more collaborative manner.

"With the project now, and where it's at, and the people that are involved," says Stonestreet, "it's really just learning how to get together and try to figure out which of these 10 good parts that have been suggested is the best part. Everybody's personalities are so different. Our drummer will take a song in a completely different direction, and we'll just go there with him."

With the goal remaining to steer clear of charlatans when confronted with indie folk, as near as I can tell you're safe in Greylag's hands. All they want is to do is radiate warmth, a task at which they succeed quite well.

[Northern, with Liz Janes, Tattered Dress, Thursday, Jan. 13, 8 p.m., $6, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia, northernolympia.org]