Sounds Like…

Deepak Chopra exploring the concept of Joy.

The review

Anandamide means very different things depending on where you come from. From a science perspective, its a fatty acid neurotransmitter. That’s not what Paul K is interested in though. On his new album, he is exploring what Anandamide means in Sanskrit – joy.

Paul K takes a low-fi approach to his electronica, which is often accompanied by a gentle piano. On tracks like ‘Coexist’ and ‘Duas’ it is a warm piano melody with bubbling electronica elements floating in. The former reminds me a little of binaural beats and the latter is more akin to an electric theremin. ‘Empemera’ uses beautiful glass sounds to create a celestial shimmer around the piano. The piano is largely at the centre for about half of the album.

Paul K

It is when Paul K strays away from this formula that I found some of the best parts of the album were waiting for me. The title track is a trippy, throbbing and vibrating pulse of electronica that reminds me of Deepak Chopra. It is a great switch up. ‘Moment of Illusion’ tinkers with synths and electric keyboards to create a dense moment of clarity in frozen time. My favourite part of the album came with ‘Paralysis’ though. The track features vocals from Rachel Dawson and regurgitates unusual sleep patterns and fever dreams. The lyrics are purposely crazed, as is the whole production and set up of the track. It is such a standout track tonally and sonically from the rest of the album and I adored it.

It is interesting then that the other remaining tracks I haven’t mentioned all pair up piano music with dense synths. They blended a little into one continuous piece at times and its because the piano avoids obvious catchy riffs. Paul K says this whole project is more of an ambient piece and I respect that but when the title track and ‘Paralysis’ offer such mood swaying awesomeness – I felt the rest of the music didn’t immediately click with me.

Those grips aside, those looking for piano based ambient music will find more to enjoy here than I probably have. I can utterly see the niche here that Paul K can fill and fill well. Perhaps it says more about me that I was so drawn to the two more abstract and tenser tracks instead.

Recommended track: Ephemera

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