Jasper Sloan Yip’s latest offering is as moody as a rainy day in his hometown of Vancouver. The atmospheric double EP is full of ethereal harmonies and resonant strings while Yip tackles grief, heartbreak, and inevitable endings, all pinned to downbeat languid rhythms. 

As with all endings comes new beginnings, and within this sense of struggle are edges of hope. Yip summarizes the album as a “a meditation on learning to live with the death process,” as well as the birth of new life and a new chapter – specifically, Fatherhood. 

Opening track “Halcyon Dream” encapsulates this idea of emotionally reconstructing the past. Overtop a beautiful piano melody, Yip dreamily sings of yearning for change. The tension between this desire and changing itself speaks to the angsty pensiveness which permeates the album as a whole. The second track, “Gin Fizz,” combines gossamer vocals with a descending, plucky bassline. Wistful refrains of “come back to me” swell into a triumphant plea on “Silver Lining.” And the sunnier toned “Every Night, Beside You, I Lie Awake” shimmers with bright, strumming guitar and harmonious choruses. Recorded at The Noise Floor on Gabriola Island with producer Jordan Koop (Orville Peck, Wolf Parade, Rae Spoon), the album’s evolution culminates in an ethereal haunting of the past with a promise of the future. 

Combining art forms, you can listen to Strange Commentary, the six-episode podcast to round out the experience, filling in the outlines painted by Yip’s emotional reckoning.