Ephemeral
By Rich Aucoin
Distributed by Sonic Records
It’s time to face the cold, hard truth. Summer has come and gone and it’ll be quite a while until warm weather returns.
But, while we’re figuring out how to cope with what’s to be a cold and snowy winter, that doesn’t mean we have to give up every aspect of the fleeting summer months.
Rich Aucoin’s sophomore studio album Ephemeral may be the thing to keep a spring in your step because, soon enough the snow will be crunching under your boots.
It begins with what can sonically be described as a sunrise. “Meaning In Life” opens the album with muffled found sound—voices talking in the background—and transitions into lush, sustained synths that build into rhythmic drums and chanting. With its rising chord progressions and wall-to-wall sound, this opening track sets the pace for a half hour of music that drives forward the entire time.
Like the name of the album suggests, Aucoin’s music seems fleeting, which is by no means a criticism of the work. Tracks like “Are You Experiencing?” launch the listener into sing-along lyrics almost immediately and then, almost as fast, send them head first into the next. While it might seem to move too quickly at first, this provides a lot of opportunity to loop the album as needed.
With little space between tracks and very little downtime in each track, listeners might find some of the transitions from a few songs a bit jarring. Beware blasting “Are You Experiencing?” into “Yelling In Sleep.” The repetitive synths and bass drum will be sure to send a shock to your system, which, in the cold to come, may be just what you need.
A standout track on the album, “Four More Years” is a little more pared down in terms of electronic sound. Aucoin opts for a fuller sound with traditional instrumentation—drum kits, percussion, electric guitar solos, and a moving bass line that hits the chorus home. An ever-present element of the album, Aucoin’s simple but catchy choruses are made to sing along with and it’s easy to imagine what his live performances must be like.
Overall, Ephemeral offers quite a bit in as little time as 30 minutes. Unrelenting, its driving rhythms, wall-to-wall sound, and heavy instrumentation mixed with plenty of sing-along choruses will hopefully be enough to keep thoughts of summer close by.
