Malcolm Pardon 'The Abyss' LP

For Malcolm Pardon, there’s beauty in our universal, inescapable demise. Like the romantic notion of the orchestra on board the Titanic playing their repertoire as the ship went down, on his second solo album Pardon looks past the bleak or macabre to observe death as a multi-layered, lifelong acquaintance.

“It’s not meant to be threatening or horrific in any way,” says Pardon of The Abyss. “There’s this constant dialogue we have with ourselves about how we’re going to die at some point. It’s like a constant companion, so you might as well get to know it, and befriend it.”

As one half of Roll The Dice, Pardon worked alongside fellow Stockholm resident Peder Mannerfelt on brooding fusions of electronica and classical composition. By contrast, his 2021 solo debut Hello Death saw him take a much more stripped-down approach, placing the emphasis on plaintive piano composition with only the subtlest of sonic treatments in the space around the notes. Without intentionally setting out to record a conceptual follow up, as he developed the sketches which would become The Abyss, Pardon found himself contemplating unknown futures and the artists’ quest into unexplored territory.

Pardon’s forthright approach to composition lands each concise piece with immediacy, but there’s exquisite detail etched into every inch of The Abyss which reveals itself patiently over repeat listens.

“Hello Death was more intimate sound-wise and the piano was always kept in the foreground,” explains Pardon. “It was meant to be clear that all the synths and sounds were there to accompany the piano. On The Abyss I tried to make the piano blend in more with everything else, to give more room for the surrounding ambience. If Hello Death was a solo artist, The Abyss is a band. I wanted to create a vast soundscape that’s not exactly comfortable, but has a stillness and acceptance.”

Additional production by Mannerfelt and Pär Grindvik (working as Aasthma), taking inspiration from the idea of being submerged under water.

Photographer Chris Shonting’s striking cover image sums up the mood perfectly - the unnerving serenity of the setting about to bear witness to disruption, the darkness lurking at the edge of the frame, the figure bound for the water with no intention of halting his descent