New Audio: The Gorgeous and Dream-Like Sound of Chris Walla’s Latest Single “Kanta’s Theme”

Chris Walla is a writer, producer and musician best known as the co-founder and co-writer of Death Cab for Cutie. After 17 years with the band, Walla quietly left the band to focus on collaborations with S, The Thermals, The Lonely Forest, William Fitzsimmons and Rocky Votolato, his production work with Tegan and Sara and The Decemberists, and to focus on his own solo work. And with the forthcoming of his full-length effort, Tape Loops, Walla’s songwriting and recording process follows the recording processes Brian Eno, Steve Reich, Robert Fripp and company experimented with in the 1970s; in other words, all the material is initially recorded on analog tape and then Walla went through the complicated, time-consuming and exhausting process of manipulating physical tape to create loops and other effects. Certainly, in an age of digital looping in which the producer or artist can record an instrumental section and press a few buttons, the entire process of tape looping seems complicated, exhausting and time consuming; however, on Tape Loops‘ first single “Kanta’s Theme,” such a process reveals a sound that’s immersive, delicate and atmospheric in a way that requires the listener’s full attention as gorgeously cascading piano chords that ethereally float over swirling and moody electronics to craft a sound that sounds and feels like a rippling pool, as its sound undulates to and from the listener’s ear in a way that’s evokes the stream of consciousness of one’s dreams.