Based in Vermont and New York, composer, vocalist and recording artist Michael Chinworth has developed a signature sound, melding an erudite compositional approach with pop sensibilties. The result is an experimental style that’s difficult to pigeonhole—each song a patchwork of influences and intentions, his releases tapestries built from this variety.
Nowhere is this clearer than the new EP from Michael Chinworth. Three Vapours straddles the popular and idiosyncratic, collecting three avant garde hymns that draw upon all of his musical career to date. The emotional dimension is equally nuanced, loneliness and rejection collided with a keen sense of hope. Each of the songs takes a different tack in relation to suffering or obsession, from “assimilating it into normalcy,” to “leaving it raw and exposed like a live wire,” or else “exhausting the expression to the point that it finally falls silent.”
We’re delighted to share the first single from the release. ‘Good As It Gets’ serves as a neat summation of Chinworth’s aesthetic, the soundscape built gradually from a multitude of elements. From the gentle reserve of the opening notes to the sorrowful tone of the first lines, the track assembles with each rhythmic cycle, growing fuller and richer and eventually peaking in bright climax.
The track picks through the ashes of a failed relationship and blows into the embers, rekindling not the old feelings but rather the attenuated spirit that crawled from beneath them. So, while the repeated line of “maybe loving you was as good as it gets” suggests a pessimism or hopelessness, the sounds of the song coalesce into a redemptive glow, a pilot light of sorts that shows life will go on.
Three Vapours is set for release on the 22nd February and you can pre-order it now.