Persimmon
released November 24, 2023
Persimmon is an album of multi-phased and orchestrally layered songs about the loneliness and isolation of growing up and growing apart.
From friends and family, from society, and from even your own body.
Starting off as accidents on the piano, through continual play over years, these small phrases developed into ornate orchestral compositions. Think Owen Pallett’s “Heartland” at the hands of Julia Holter. A record for those who prefer “The Dreaming” to “Hounds of Love”, and miss the beautiful and violent juxtapositions of St Vincent’s “Actor”, but with a love for Morricone.
Inspired by film scores, these orchestrations are embroidered with foley sounds like ocean waves, street noises, to even gunshots and dogs howling, embellishing the cinematic atmosphere.
Like the title’s namesake (Persimmon, a fruit), the first half of the record’s manically shifting and violent propulsive arrangements have their guard up, presenting an astringency that when left to ripen by the second half, falls apart in a syrupy and complexly sweet mess.
Ultimately, with this record I present a negotiation between either succumbing to the depths of despair or the uncertain potentials of hope. And I like to think by the closing track “Dare to Hope” I’ve chosen the latter.
Persimmon (with a difference)
released November 24, 2024
To commemorate the 1 year anniversary of Persimmon, I offer a reimagined version of the record, presenting each of the songs from before but “with a difference”.
Some of these versions radically reimagine the original arrangements, swapping instrumental palette and tempo for something thoroughly different and yet so fitting.
Others resemble their first lives a little more closely, offering new embellishments, or expanding upon ideas with more sustained focus.
The frenetic vaudeville of “Spent” that formerly plunged into a dramatic orchestral swell takes on life as New Order-esque Industrial New Wave. The mystical cabaret of “Pitchforks” is filtered through the computer chips that orchestrated the video games of my childhood. In lieu of the lush strings and cascading pianos of “Wayne Sucks His Thumb” are intimate guitar picked arpeggios. “The Alchemist” 's throbbing and moody electronics are stripped into distant piano and mandolin played down the gothic halls of a dim-lit castle tower.
“In A State of Being Left” is extrapolated into three parts, scrutinizing each phase of the original composition and expanding upon the bombastic and lively sax-laden bridge. Similarly, the Bossa nova breakdown in “Half My Heart Left for St. John’s” is expanded upon as a full song in its own right.
We end on a more disco-fied version of “Dare to Hope” that starts right on the dance floor and never strays.
The original Persimmon was such a labour of love, and remains a source of immense pride. It is here “with a difference” that I hope you can look upon that record in a new light and find new things to enjoy, and old things to re-appreciate.
