EARMILK had the pleasure of premiering Chicago-based producer Jaro's first EP "La Rouge" way back in April this year, and soon, he'll be releasing his second EP aptly titled "La Bleue".
In lieu of the release of his second EP, today Jaro has dropped the feature single from "La Bleue", a collaboration with fellow extremely skilled Chicago-based producer Elias Abid, whose name may be familiar to fans of singer/rapper Appleby.
On the EP, Jaro says, "It probably sounds cliche but I wrote the majority of this in the midst of a heartbreak. It seems a lot of my work stems from my low moments of isolation these days."
"Window Pain" hones in on this melancholy theme; beautiful albeit emotionally mixed, the track combines Jaro and Abid's surreal, spiritual sounding production with the richly expressive, cavernous vocals of Luke Olson from "cardigan rock" group The Walters. The track opens with Olson crooning over billowing wind and the faint plucking of guitar chords intermingling with jangling sounds, making for a meditative mood. Soon, a crisp discourse between light piano chords and quick-fingered piano trills enters, just in time for Olson to begin singing. However, "Window Pain" doesn't stay calm for long. As Olson's voice escalates into the higher, louder octave range, the production is delicately spiced up with sounds like heavy bass thumps, echoing plinks, and the dry sounds of a shaker causing mayhem.
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During the track, the instrumental sounds eventually fade quietly into the background and give center stage for Olson's voice to soar overhead. The effect is that listeners' emotions go through stages of calm, then frenzied anguish, and then back to a sort of meditative confusion. And like a last sprint forwards, "Window Pain" changes its energy back up to a frenzied anguish, this time with the guided sounds of orchestral synths and echoing, electric guitar plucking. The track most definitely takes the listener on a hypnotic journey through a multitude of feelings, and decides to end by returning to the acoustic guitar and piano that started the track, sounds that slowly fade into silence.
"Window Pain", whose namesake is most indicative, leaves listeners with a slew of unanswered thoughts-- perhaps more ponderous and weighted than one might expect. It is a track meant to provoke emotion, and powerfully accomplishes this goal with an intensely detailed sonic scope.
Connect with Jaro: SoundCloud | Twitter | Bandcamp
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