Your weekly submersion into new and experimental music.
For the sake of brevity, let’s boil down the overarching theme of “power ambient” group Chord’s aptly titled Progression into a simple exploration of sounds bound by three single-chord compositions. Continued explanation would only serve to further confuse, so let’s just say Chord are aiming for the sort of art/music/avant-garde movement that artists like William Basinski have explored in the past, taking an idea and using it to explore different expanses of sound.
This is the sort of music that may test the patience of its listeners, but to those who enjoy enveloping themselves in sound and giving a large portion of time to actually sitting down and taking those sounds in, Progression can prove a hugely rewarding experience.
The drolly-titled first track ‘E Maj9 9 (descent)’ is all serene hues of incandescent pianos and slow release drones, speckled with the throb of violin. It’s a slow burner for sure, but if ever there was means for music as mediation, or in light of incoming exams like music to calm the soul, this is it.
That being said, there’s enough variety here to elevate things beyond simple background music. On ‘Gm 11 (pelagic)’ rapid-fire tremolo riffs inform the surrounding ambience as the simple repeating motif underlays the rising tension between rumbling buzz saw drone and elegiac piano in a humble matrimony of blissful duplicity.
