The power of four rolled into one

“Found Audio is a collection of all of our influences,’’ singer-multi-instrumentalist John Bragg says over drinks with his bandmates at Allston’s Deep Ellum, a few doors down from the group’s rehearsal space. “And it’s about how we mesh together as a whole.’’

The name Found Audio was inspired, Bragg says, by Found magazine, a publication that throws open a perversely funny, occasionally poignant window into people’s lives via discarded detritus such as birthday cards, notes on napkins, and jarring kiss-off letters between jilted lovers.

Likewise, the 10 songs on “Chalk,’’ whose release Found Audio will celebrate with a show at the Middle East Upstairs on Monday, veer and swerve in tone and temperament. From the Midlake-esque baroque folk of the opener, “Walker, Riddley,’’ the album dips into the loping country-rock leanings of “It’s Not Love’’ and the languid, slacker pop of “Struck Out Again.’’ In between lie minefields and sunken treasures of the heart; ancient family plots and schemes; and odes to fleeting days and dreams.

The instrumentation, meanwhile -with its washes of acoustic and electric guitar and dusky flourishes of keyboard, clarinet, and banjo coloring the mix - is supple and sure-handed. Throughout, the harmonizing between Bragg and fellow singer-songwriter Terrence Mulhern and the pair’s moody lyrical imagery are at once lovely and fretful. “I think the best thing we came up with was, [it sounds as] if you put Simon and Garfunkel over Meat Puppets songs,’’ says drummer Denny Kennedy.

Kennedy’s comparison elicits self-conscious laughter from a group of guys who know they’ve made a richly rewarding, if slow-burning, record they claim surpassed even their own expectations and ambitions to create a lasting work.