We weren’t familiar with percussionist, composer, and filmmaker Evan Chapman but right off the bat we knew we stumbled upon something very special. Based out of Philadelphia, Chapman has built a prolific career as a filmmaker and co-founder of film production company Four/Ten Media, and he is perhaps most known as a founding member of contemporary-classical percussion trio/rock band Square Peg Round Hole. Chapman has announced the release of his debut solo album, Reveries, arriving on October 11th through Better Company Records. Weaving influences like Son Lux, Floating Points, Moderat, and claire rousay, the album finds a balance between the acoustic and electronic “where humans glitch, where machines breathe; where what breaks us can heal us; and where you can find yourself, even while losing yourself, in reverie”, as the press release describes. Chapman explores themes of “dreaming and daydreaming, remembering and forgetting, new blessings and old wounds” throughout Reveries, which he created following the birth of his daughter.

It seems like a long wait for the album to be out but we he has shared the beautiful, triumphant and fiercely rhythmic ‘Fractions’ as the first single. Of the track, he says:

“Fractions” was the track that served as the initial spark to dive down the rabbit hole of my first solo full-length album of original compositions. The track was written and recorded exclusively in my home attic studio during the first few months of his daughter’s life, primarily in headphones during naps. The chopped vocal samples in the opening naturally fell into a cycle of 15 eighth notes, which, due to its timing falling just short of even groupings of 4, gave it a quality that felt like it could be looped endlessly – which is exactly how the writing process took shape. Various loops, melodies, and rhythms fade in and out against that 15/8 motif in different ways, evoking the sense of rhythmic free-floating created by minimalist composers such as Steve Reich. A number of the instruments used in “Fractions” overlap with ones I now share with my young daughter including children’s desk bells, pump organ, and a miniature vibraphone, to name a few.”

Chapman has also directed a video to accompany ‘Fractions’, and he adds:

“As a child of the 90’s, this music video’s concept was born out of a nostalgic love affair of old analogue CRT TV’s – and a new appreciation for how, 30 years later, they distort and warp what footage is displayed on them in exciting and unexpected ways. Instead of relying on modern software post-processing for the glitch effects, I went a more tactile route and fed my performance footage into a circuit-bent video synthesizer – using broken & bygone equipment connected by RCA cables in only standard definition. It was a surreal experience to be able to shoot this video at the abandoned Bethlehem Steel Mill building in Lebanon, PA, thanks to my friend Evan Reinhardt – though with a newly-secured $2.3 grant to develop the building into a small business incubator, artist space and cultural amenity, this is likely the last (and also maybe first?) video to have been shot there in its currently dilapidated state.”

Watch the video below.