While the Sea And Cake is technically still around, it’s been seven years since the trio’s last LP. In his time away from the band, Sam Prekop has taken the Sea And Cake’s “everything goes” penchant for testing the limits of indie-rock purism and run with it, busying himself with various genre-fluid projects. Most of Prekop’s seventh solo LP, Open Close (Thrill Jockey), was composed for the stage as he prepared for a series of shows, some with pioneering multi-instrumentalist Laraaji.
These days, Prekop is working mostly on guitar and modular synth as he goes for a more ephemeral, atmospheric extension of the Sea And Cake’s delicate melodicism and intricate, jazz-tinged rhythms. Open Close has the feel of a live performance—albeit one that’s impeccably sequenced and enhanced with unpredictable textural elements and precisely layered abstraction.
Here’s Prekop’s take on each track.
1) “Open Close”
“This first track is how I opened my sets with Laraaji. The beginning two or so minutes, I think of as a sound collage overture to set the stage—to signify the feel and tone of what’s to come, while hopefully creating a kind of mysterious air for the rest of the track to emerge from. The recorded version is very close to how I was performing it live, but there’s a fair amount of improvisation here. The challenge for the record was how to choose what would be the definitive take.”
2) “Font”
“With ‘Font,’ I was still working within the arrangement from my live show. For me, it has a ‘calm after the storm’ kind of feel. The droning pulse that’s most prominent here is essentially the foundation for the whole record. One of my favorite parts of the LP is the super-short, atonal, free-improv-ish burst of a solo that ends the track.”
3) “Para”
“I wrote several pieces for the record that weren’t part of my live show, of which ‘Para’ is the first. It’s built around a simple chord progression, but where the voicing of the chords is always changing. There’s a delay that brings up a clear call-and-response effect, which became the central theme. The noisy percussion that comes in after the halfway mark was a way to challenge the continuity of the piece—an idea I feel like I’m always returning to.”
4) “Light Shadow”
“This is also from my live show, but I spent quite a bit of time augmenting the arrangement, adding several new voices and effects that really changed the overall character. The sort of piano vamp that runs throughout the piece reminds me of John Coltrane’s ‘My Favorite Things,’ a favorite since I was a kid. I’m drawn to motifs like this that are simple, where that simplicity is a strength in a way that the repetition becomes hypnotic … but hopefully not boring!”
5) “A Book”
“‘A Book’ is a piece I like to think of as a sort of travelogue, where the beginning doesn’t give any hints as to where it’s headed. The form was discovered through working on it, where one idea suggests the next idea and so on. I had a lot fun working out the drums on this one, of which I’m no expert. That’s maybe why it was such a cool challenge to work through.”
6) “Opera”
“The last track on any record I’ve made always feels like an opportunity to re-frame or focus the tenor of the whole record. The overall feel of this track is a bit darker, but I think it’s effective in highlighting some of the brightest passages. I’m especially proud of the last synth solo, with its clangorous-but-woody timbre, which feels on the brink of losing control. But just in time, it pulls itself together.”
