Lunar Ipona & Jakob Nord - Silverlake

Released: February 6 

The second iteration of the ongoing collaboration between Lunar Ipona & Jakob Nord is a brief but lovely and soothing EP clocking in at just about 15 minuted of invigorating bliss. While there’s no percussion to speak of, the album infuses a sense movement through is floating melodies and continual swelling, never allowing things to fully settle. The final track, “Recurrent,” embodies this motif wholly as lightly floating keys flutter and hover over the pads that feel like they were transported directly for the save point in your favorite old RPG. It feels serene but keeps a certain sense of light tension, especially in the interplay of the pads and the keys. 

Going back to the beginning, the opener, “Awakening,”  opens this interplay up well. Heavy pads come in slowly, casting a certain shadow over everything. Then, the light and airy keys pop in, seeming much like stars peeking brightly through the clouds at various intervals. This motif is morphed slightly but to great effect throughout the rest of the album, with “Ethereal” being something of a standout sonically. On this one, the heavy pads are augmented with swirling type of effect, like its dancing between your ears gently and playfully while the keys take a similarly quality with subtle shifts in tone that dovetail into the pad. It’s all a very beautiful intertwining that is well-crafted buy this emerging duo.