photos by Veronika Reinert
Rue Morgue, the world’s leading horror culture magazine, is currently hosting an exclusive advance stream of The Grand Paradise, the new LP/Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by dark ambient collective HARMONIC CROSS, ahead of the record’s release this Friday through Dark Operative.
Written specifically for the upcoming short film The Grand Paradise, the cohesiveness and narrative through lines permeate from beginning to end. Without spoiling the film, the soundtrack follows a protagonist’s journey through a traditional three-act structure of prophecy, madness, and triumph across a visual palette of liminal subscapes. The purpose of releasing the album in advance of the film is to allow for early listeners to “see” their own narratives before presenting the band and filmmaker’s own visual representation of what’s “happening” within the songs.
Recorded, mixed, and sound designed by HARMONIC CROSS’s Brent Eyestone at Tracking in San Diego in the Summer of 2021, mastered by Bryan Walthall at Stereoimage, and completed with cover art by Eyestone, The Grand Paradise clocks in at just over forty minutes across its eight songs.
With the advance album stream, Eyestone reveals, “The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized the importance of always participating somehow in the wholly unique spiritual energy surrounding Halloween and the fall season. We feel it first as kids, as going trick or treating is often the first time that any of us get to go do something alone with our friends, devoid of any parents or authority looming over the activity itself. It grows in its power and wide-eyed enthusiasm toward ‘being alive’ as we do, be it concocting elaborate pranks as pre-teens or driving to haunts, themed concerts, and converted amusement parks, again with friends, once we get our licenses. If one isn’t very careful, adult life creeps in and dulls the connection to ‘something in the air.’ We can perceive it as ‘harder’ or being ‘too old’ to participate in the inherent creative freedom and overall creative mosaic that makes each passing Halloween season more fun than the one before.
“Making a creepy, haunting record is but one way to stay in touch with the spirit of the season. If we were six years old right now, Ryan, Kelly, Graham, and myself would be looking at Google Maps on a tablet to figure out what neighborhoods we’re going to hit on our candy-collecting route. If we were sixteen, we’d be in search of the weirdest show happening in the most underground, off-the-radar DIY space we could realistically drive to. If we were twenty-six, we’d certainly be playing our own Halloween show, definitely in costume. This year, we chose to make another record as our ‘group of friends’ activity toward adding to the spirit and activity of the season. Individually, we’ll still be connected as well. Ryan will be playing a show in front of costumed freaks in a city far from home, Graham and Kelly will be helping kids learn the ropes on how to get the most out of the big day, and I’ll be making my way through the fog and the walking dead haunting Knott’s Scary Farm. Happy Halloween.”
With their advance album stream, Rue Morgue dubs HARMONIC CROSS, “Macabre masters of dark ambient soundscapes…”
Immerse yourself in HARMONIC CROSS’s The Grand Paradise in its thrilling entirety first only through Rue Morgue at THIS LOCATION.
The Grand Paradise Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will be released through Dark Operative on all digital platforms this Friday, October 26th, with a CD to follow shortly. A vinyl edition may follow in 2023 in conjunction with the film’s release. Find the digital preorders at Bandcamp HERE and watch for updates on physical product to post shortly.
Ending a seven-year stretch between albums, The Grand Paradise is the second full-length album and first original motion picture soundtrack from HARMONIC CROSS, the dark ambient alter ego of the Richmond, Virginia-based artist collective that also records and performs in their punk/hardcore form as Bleach Everything and their indie rock incarnation Highness.
The Grand Paradise is HARMONIC CROSS’s follow-up to the 2015-released It Is Finished., a conceptual album about the unsolved mystery of “The Somerton Man,” originally on vinyl through Magic Bullet Records and since digitally reissued via Dark Operative. While functioning as an intentionally cohesive standalone album, The Grand Paradise in its entirety also serves as the original motion picture soundtrack for a film by the same, set for release through Lil’ Baker Films in 2023.
While once again unifying the collective’s original creatives in Brent Eyestone, Graham Scala, and Ryan Parrish, it also marks the first formal recording with their Bleach Everything bandmate of ten years, Kelly Posadas. In direct sonic opposition to Bleach Everything’s short, fast, and loud credo, HARMONIC CROSS creates significantly longer cinematic compositions that often creep slowly and dynamically within an entirely different headspace and listening experience.
In addition to The Grand Paradise, HARMONIC CROSS will appear on the second installment of Dark Operative’s It Came From The Abyss compilation series in 2023 and is set to score a 2024 horror film, also for Lil’ Baker Films.
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