Parachute Pulse – Kingdom

Stream – ‘Earthskin Cracking’

Like a musical tapestry, the sound displayed in Kingdom, the début album by Parachute pulse  is more like a coarse textured fabric. Songs are approached like quilts, with samples and processed instruments becoming the needle and thread that Ana Roman (aka Parachute Pulse) uses to create 10 ethereal pieces where the only rule is that one element may remain constant while the others satellite around.

‘No legs to run’ has some sort of structure in the form of a lonely bass drum beat with synths and piano sounds meandering around it, like fireflies in a hot summer night. On that same line of thought, ‘A well staring at the sky’ is like a humid hot summer night, just after a torrential downpour came about to freshen the day.

The sound is not so much a drone but more like a puzzle made up from several pieces, most of them surreptitiously put together, like a kid that wanted a battleship but instead got said puzzle and now, after struggling for a few hours, has found the rhyme to the reason and is enjoying putting the whole picture together. In this case, Ana Roman found 10 pictures.

There is a cool contrast in a couple of songs, with ‘Hidden Powers’ possibly being a good exhibit. Whereas the atmosphere is easy going and relatively benign, there are a couple of sampled voices (which I assume are from Ms. Ana Roman herself). The voices are manipulated in such ways that by the end of the song,  they feel like a recorded session of electronic voice phenomena (EVP).

Equally chilling is ‘Mindal’, which starts with a musical box innocently going around, until a beat and a dark, creeping atmosphere take over. It’s a complete change of mood that’s like a fairy tale gone horribly wrong (or gone right if you ask notorious child-traumatising Hans Christian Andersen. Screw him and his depressing tales).

Sound bites aren’t used for scary effect all of the time. ‘Hopscotch’ is quite playful, with a sampled of mouth popping becoming just another instrument. Even if your tolerance for mouth popping is low, it becomes less of an annoyance when coupled with a few tracks of ambient noises and drum beats. ‘Snakecharmer’ includes what’s possibly one of my favourite sounds in the world: a cat purring.

The beauty of the music of Parachute Pulse is how by being unpredictable, the chaos eventually takes a form. It’s a collection of ambient pieces with some found sounds (or what seems to be) with a certain feel of fluidity. Think time-lapse photographs of grey skies and snow melting in spring. It’s strange how it veers from being slightly scary then going into a playful, almost child-like sense of wonder. Relaxing, with a few eerie moments just to keep you on your toes.

Words: —Sam

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About the author: No, really, what was Andersen’s problem? The little mermaid and The little match girl are easily some of the most depressing things you can give to a child to read!