Next week, Dark Operative will release The Grand Paradise Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by HARMONIC CROSS.
Ending a seven-year stretch between albums, The Grand Paradise is the second full-length album and first original motion picture soundtrack from HARMONIC CROSS, the dark ambient alter ego of the Richmond, Virginia-based artist collective that also records and performs in their punk/hardcore form as Bleach Everything and their indie rock incarnation Highness.
The Grand Paradise is HARMONIC CROSS’s follow-up to the 2015-released It Is Finished., a conceptual album about the unsolved mystery of “The Somerton Man,” originally on vinyl through Magic Bullet Records and since digitally reissued via Dark Operative. While functioning as an intentionally cohesive standalone album, The Grand Paradise in its entirety also serves as the original motion picture soundtrack for a film by the same, set for release through Lil’ Baker Films in 2023.
While once again unifying the collective’s original creatives in Brent Eyestone, Graham Scala, and Ryan Parrish, it also marks the first formal recording with their Bleach Everything bandmate of ten years, Kelly Posadas. In direct sonic opposition to Bleach Everything’s short, fast, and loud credo, HARMONIC CROSS creates significantly longer cinematic compositions that often creep slowly and dynamically within an entirely different headspace and listening experience.
Recorded, mixed, and sound designed by Brent Eyestone at Tracking in San Diego in the Summer of 2021, mastered by Bryan Walthall at Stereoimage, and completed with cover art by Eyestone, The Grand Paradise clocks in at just over forty minutes across its eight songs.
As the album was written specifically for the film The Grand Paradise, its cohesiveness and narrative through lines permeate from beginning to end. Without spoiling the film, the soundtrack follows a protagonist’s journey through a traditional three-act structure of prophecy, madness, and triumph across a visual palette of liminal subscapes. The purpose of releasing the album in advance of the film is to allow for early listeners to “see” their own narratives before presenting the band and filmmaker’s own visual representation of what’s “happening” within the songs.
Stream HARMONIC CROSS’s The Grand Paradise tracks on all digital platforms – “Law Of Reason” HERE, “Virtue” HERE, and “Duty” HERE – and all three at Bandcamp HERE.
The Grand Paradise Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will be released through Dark Operative on CD and all digital platforms next Friday, October 26th. A vinyl edition may follow in 2023 in conjunction with the film’s release. Find the digital preorders at Bandcamp HERE and watch for updates on physical product to post shortly.
In addition to The Grand Paradise, HARMONIC CROSS will appear on the second installment of Dark Operative’s It Came From The Abyss compilation series in 2023 and is set to score a 2024 horror film, also for Lil’ Baker Films.
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