Malcolm Pardon

It makes sense to kick off this TRACK PREMIERE with a quick [re-]introduction to Malcolm Pardon, who, although appeared on these pages as a solo artist with his debut album Hello Death (The New Black, 2021), may be more familiar to you as one half of Roll The Dice, along with Peder Mannerfelt. Unlike the Swedish duo’s gorgeous sonic onslaught that captivated these pages (see In Dust and Until Silence from over a decade ago), Pardon’s solo musings are more in the vein of deconstructed melancholia, with the solo piano progressions held up by cinematic atmospheres and themes. “Like the romantic notion of the orchestra on board the Titanic playing their repertoire as the ship went down, on The Abyss, he looks past the bleak or macabre to observe death as a multi-layered, lifelong acquaintance.” On “Side Effects”, we are faced with a pseudo-neutral message of a neo-classical nature, at times evoking echoes of Radiohead, at others creating a false sense of optimism, with a darker undertone lurking just beneath the veil. This becomes more evident as you progress through the album, followed by “The End”, landing upon “Enter the Void” (you can check out an unsettling video by the Swedish director Oskar Wrangö here – be warned that it includes images that some viewers may find distressing), and finally concluding with the “Aftermath”. The music on The Abyss is celebrating our demise, and just like the distressing notion of your own inevitable passing, it is disquieting, beautiful and final.