Composer/producer The Soft Pink Truth, aka Drew Daniel has shared the closing piece to new album Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? (out Jan 30th), “Underneath (II).” The piece gently rises from staccato undulations from horns and strings before finding more lush chordal footing as legato orchestrations float from chord to chord, punctuated by cinematic chimes and harp.
On “Underneath” and how it fits into the album’s ethos, Daniel explains:
“It feels risky to say this, but I wanted to create a composition that felt like it compressed the arc of a life: at first fragile and tentative and uncertain, then building and living and growing, and then finally degenerating and dying in its final moments. On the surface of our own conscious experience, we live a constantly changing busy life, but underneath us there is a longer, slower process that is playing itself out, cell by cell, structure by structure: birth, growth, life, aging, death. I wanted music for that overlay.
“‘Underneath (II)’ is a re-doubled variant of its first installment counterpart. The string parts originally heard as a string quartet on side one become the vast widescreen of 49 multi-tracked violin and viola parts played by Ulas Kurugullu. In its final fifty seconds the song’s horns are digitally stretched, and I gave this “frozen” stretch of sound to Ulas Kurgullu to transcribe for string glissandi, with acoustic instruments copying digital errors and artifacts, before the entire mix dissolves in a cloud of multi-tracked and processed layers of Evelyn Frances’ ghostly voice.”
On Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?, The Soft Pink Truth grafts chamber music and electronic music into a beguiling new hybrid, drafting an international cast of collaborators from Turkey, Sweden, Italy, Spain and the United States. On the album, Daniel radically rethinks his approach to crafting music, and the results evoke mid-20th century film soundtracks, diverse traditions of minimalism, and the formal language of pop.
The album’s vibrant sound is built from a plethora of acoustic and electronic instruments provided by a rogue’s gallery of collaborators. String arrangements by Istanbul-based artist and player Ulas Kurugullu reimagine Daniels’ MIDI layouts as strong melodic lines that intertwine and disintegrate into a digital haze. Harpists Neleta Ortiz and Cecilia Cuccolini range from gentle plucks to huge cascades of glissando sweeps. Piano runs from Koye Berry and M.C. Schmidt square off against the muscular strings played by Kurugullu, as well as the Ebu String Quartet from the Peabody Institute. Zach Rowden of celebrated noise duo Tongue Depressor provides grinding double bass drones and woodwinds played by Brandon Wilkins and Evelyn Frances speckle pieces like “Underneath (II)”. Esteemed guitarist Bill Orcutt offers one of his most delicate performances committed to record on the pastoral penultimate track “Orchard” as clouds of oboes, piano and strings twinkle overhead. Combining dynamic performances with agile formal construction, Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? showcases the depth of Daniel’s acumen as a composer and arranger.
