Disclaimer: Due to a misunderstanding with the artist’s PR, this premiere will run even though the song was released on digital streaming platforms today. We decided to go ahead with the premiere anyway.
Sometimes, it takes established band musicians a while to strike out on their own, to take their singular vision outside of the confines of their group projects and make it something truly representative of themselves and their musical journey. This isn’t a bad thing per se; being in a band is a rewarding experience in and of itself, and your solo ventures need time to gestate properly in order to become distinct from what you presented as a unit.
Drummer/producer Evan Chapman entered the public consciousness as a member of percussion-driven post-/math rock trio Square Peg Round Hole, which turned heads with their Steve Reich-ian take on mallet instrument-based rock music, going on to (amongst other accomplishments) play an acclaimed set at Audiotree. Merging contemporary classical music with the kinetic impact of alternative rock and the eclecticism of atmospheric electronica, the trio became a household name in their particular niche.
Today, though, it’s all about Chapman the solo artist, as he is gearing up to release Reveries, his very first album under his own name on October 11 via Better Company Records. Citing Son Lux, claire rousay, Radiohead, and Floating Points amongst a list of wide-ranging influences, his new work already promises to be quite interesting before having heard a single note. This intrigue is only heightened when faced with the inspiration behind Reveries:
‘This is an album about dreaming and daydreaming, remembering and forgetting, new blessings and old wounds. Mostly created in an attic studio, often while his newborn daughter napped, Reveries captures the complex feelings of new parenthood: the tenderness and the fragility, but also the gravity and the weight.‘
“Bodies” comes as the second single off this highly anticipated release, and we are proud to present it in collaboration with Chapman today. Before we delve any further into the song – how about we all give it a listen?
Built around the interaction of drums, piano, and vibraphone, “Bodies” features guitarist JIJI and upright bassist Joshua Stamper. The latter’s contributions were sampled and treated by Evan Chapman to evoke the input of a sub-bass synthesizer. What starts out as a soothing minimalist soundscape erupts into a polyrhythmic lullaby in which Chapman gleefully explores the textures and tonalities provided by all the instruments involved. The coexistence of a core propulsion provided by rock rhythms and a certain technoid melancholy makes a comparison to In Rainbows-era Radiohead almost inevitable.
With Reveries, Chapman seeks to deliver ‘a fusion of emotive lyricism and glitchy complexity––all while obscuring the lines between acoustic and electronic, the human and the computer‘, and “Bodies” should serve as an early indication that this mission might have reached its intended result. Analog instrumentation and electronic augmentation harmonize quite organically on this track, so I’m excited to learn how far Chapman can take this amalgamation within his upcoming body of work.
If you liked what you heard above, be sure to keep your eyes (ears?) peeled for the release of Reveries on October 11; a pre-order option should soon become available via the label’s Bandcamp page. In the meantime, you should follow Evan Chapman on your social media of choice (Instagram | Twitter) to stay up-to-date with the artist’s goings-on. You can also peruse his website here for more information.
