Peace Chord: Peace Chord – “songs exclusively designed for solitude”

The Crack Cloud member shows us his fragile side as Peace Chord.

Peace Chord is the solo project of Crack Cloud’s Daniel Robertson.

While the Canadian collective’s tribal walls of sound have been tormenting listeners all across the globe, namely with their debut last year in Pain Olympics, Robertson takes a dramatic turn with Peace Chord.

Peace Chord’s eponymous debut was recorded in between the making of Crack Cloud‘s Pain Olympics, but bears no resemblance whatsoever. Two albums from completely different worlds. It’s as if Robertson was using this project as some sort of escape route.

Where Clack Cloud is a haphazard melting pot of ideas, extracting warped beauty from dark grimy back alleys, with Peace Chord, Robertson is far more direct in revealing such splendour.

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Lingering pianos reverberate and drift like plumes of smoke on Seventy Times Seven and Omhalomancy. Songs exclusively designed for solitude. And that’s what Peace Chord is. A record for lonely days to indulge whilst looking outside and hearing the rain drip against the window pane.

“I’ve been wondering where you’ve been,” whispers Robertson on the ghostly Empty in this House. A song that ties together the themes of Peace Chord.

With juddering sythns, Spectral Processor is a meditative sprawl with a sole purpose of making you uncomfortable in your own skin. And it works.

Along with Juno, album highlight, Memo, is a chilling neo-classical composition etched in the kind of beauty one would find with Nils Frahm.

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Closing cut, Crescent of the Sun, resembles its namesake in every way. Saccharine cinematic soundscapes that wouldn’t look out of place on an A Winged Victory For the Sullen record.

If James Blake decided to ditch the festival tent for an abandoned terraced house then it would sound something like Robertson has produced on Peace Chord. A succinct presentation of sounds seeping with fragility and naked intimacy. It’s as chilling as it is beautiful and certainly one journey that many should be prepared to embark on.

Peace Chord is out now via Unheard Of Hope. Purchase from Bandcamp.