It’s been three years since electronic music duo KOAN Sound has released music. Today, they dropped their highly anticipated album, Polychrome.
“Polychrome is the biggest project we’ve completed to date, both in terms of the amount of music we produced for the album and the complexity of the tracks themselves,” they say. “Our releases have been following this trend as we have become more ambitious with our music, and Polychrome is sort of the culmination of that ambition.”
The duo, comprised of Will Weeks and Jim Bastow, are known for their distinct glitchy and funky bass beats that allowed them to capture the attention of acclaimed artists, such as Skrillex—whose OWSLA imprint they have released music under. According to KOAN Sound, Polychrome reflects how their sound has grown over the course of the past few years: the inspiration for the album stems from jazz, progressive metal, film scores and neurofunk drum and bass. They add that Polychrome also corresponds with their return to playing instruments—primarily piano for Bastow and drums for Weeks.
“This album is something along the lines of a maximalist headphone album,” they add. “It becomes quite heavy and intense in parts—but the arrangements, progressions, and textures shine through—and there is a huge amount of attention to detail. In terms of sound palette, it is more organic than previous work we’ve released, due largely to the fact that a lot of the source material was recorded, as opposed to coming from purely digital sources.”
“It was hard to deal with these [challenges] when regularly DJing as it tends to just exacerbate them,” they say. “It's an odd thing being an introvert in a career where an extroverted persona is needed to perform and be on stage. So the break was used to work on these things as well as learning to maximize creativity with a healthy daily routine.”
When asked what advice they would give to others also dealing with mental health challenges: “However mild or severe it may be, the best thing to do is to talk about it,” KOAN Sounds says. “Whether it's to friends, family or a therapist. It instantly normalizes the issue and makes it real and tangible enough for it to be dealt with constructively. If people talked more about their mental health they would realize how normal they actually are.”
The duo adds that the break helped teach them “many things about how to live and work,” and they are “more excited than ever for the future of our career.” KOAN Sounds adds that they are creating a new show that will take place in the United Kingdom—where they hail from—early next year, and it will showcase a special visual component they say they’ve been working hard to create.
“The development of the artwork and visual aesthetic for the album was quite a labor intensive and hands on process, so it feels like a good opportunity for us to exhibit a visual aspect in conjunction with the presentation of the music in a live setting,” the producers say. “There’s always been a quite cinematic side to our music, which lends itself really well to both abstract and figurative imagery, so we’re excited to explore the possibilities this opens up.”
To learn more about KOAN Sound, visit here.
