Peace Chord is the new project from Daniel Robertson, a Canadian musician and core member of Vancouver-based Crack Cloud. His eponymous debut album is a deeply personal, ethereal collection of songs in which he reflects on the worlds he has been immersed in. From minimalist explorations of gentle voice, upright piano, and vintage synthesizers, vulnerable meditations emerge. Through these spacious compositions, Robertson makes room for ideas to take hold and evolve gradually, drawing the listener into his world. He writes:

“Peace Chord was made in the shed behind the communal house that I and rest of Crack Cloud live in. I recorded most of it there, as well as in my parent’s living room, during and after the making of Pain Olympics with Crack Cloud. In that ramshackle space I found stillness for the first time after three years of oscillation; between harm-reduction work in overdose prevention sites and low-barrier shelters, and tour with Crack Cloud. In the stillness of that space, I was afforded time to reflect on the thoughts and experiences that had gone unseen: Loss of love. The dying of my grandfather. The dying of friends to overdose. Seeing new countries. Bearing witness to celebration and trauma. While I was writing, I was also building a Buchla 200 synthesizer, learning to weave on a loom, keeping my hands busy. Like treading water, providing buoyancy to process and meditate on these experiences. Weaving a spiritual lens through which I can interpret what I’ve seen.”

In ‘Peace Chord’, Daniel Robertson displays a vivid sense of space and place. While his work with Crack Cloud is communal and grandiose, here we find the individual vulnerable and introspective. Here we find a poet, in a moment of hermitic revelation. Even without knowing the particulars of the album’s backstory, the fragile arrangements bring you next to him, hearing the floor creak as he works his way around his innermost thoughts.