Open Window - An Afternoon (or Two)

April 23, 2021 - Permanent Touch Records

Bring me something fresh from the wild yonder.

There are a multitude of meanings we attribute to an open window. A breath of fresh air from the wild outdoors, or a breath of “fresh” air from the paper mill next door. A pathway for natural light so you can achieve very Instagrammable results with your mobile camera. A sign of morning. Reprieve from mourning. Relief from the unfortunate practice of solitary confinement. One small rectangular thread connecting your conscious self to the circadian rhythms that guide you. An emergency escape route. A life-giving force. A way to look and be out of an enclosure. A new opportunity, the window that opened when the door was slammed shut in front of you. 

True to the concept he’s invoking in a name, Saskatoon-based musician Peter Grier embodies all that cultural hope with his experimental electronic project Open Window without losing sensitivity to the deeper dimensions of the psyche as it relates to its position in nature. An Afternoon (or Two) is a hungry listener’s delight from start to finish, with loops and loops of rich synth flavors, a skeleton of laid back percussion, recorded field samples, and plenty of digital sound effects to dress up in a little bit of grit. It contains the optimism of the Indie lo-fi DIY aesthetic—a technological escape hatch for us creatives trapped in the means we were born into—and the sharp perspective of an artist in tune with the ways energy moves through and interacts with our reality. Grier has an openness to natural forces as a stream-of-consciousness musical mode that reminds me of Cool Maritime, an unbridled emotional plane that reminds me of early Youth Lagoon, an ear for audio curation, and an empathetic generosity that is all his own. 

An Afternoon (or Two) is an album split in half by intention. The first seven tracks are vigorous and designed for dancing, with layers of joyful synth melodies and bright drum machine beats. They look up. The last seven tracks exist in a more cavernous space and are more ambient, with industrial textures and droning cadences that lure your mind into meditation like a labyrinth. They look inward. In its recorded cassette tape format, An Afternoon (or Two) gives the listener a choice between a dopamine rush on Side A or an introspection on Side B. For the brave, listening to both sides consecutively will demand expansion to accommodate their differences in contrast. But the journey rewards those who complete it by returning to them a faith in future. Its dreamy synthetic atmosphere is at once a reminder of the optimism of the beginnings of the information age, the belief in the goodness of scientific reason, and the beauty of a more current positive future vision, a glimpse outside of our boxes, a rekindled fire. 

Grier has a few tricks up his sleeve for tending that fire like a magician of the flames. There are many unexpected moments on the album, places where he’ll lay in a course then switch it up before we get too comfortable. The opening track ‘It’ll Be Alright’ first establishes a bubbly easygoing rhythm that lulls us into a clear idea of where the track is going. But then Grier slowly introduces melodic synths that seem to exist in an entirely different musical reality, almost like we’re listening to two different songs playing at the same time. Somehow our ears adjust and both parts work together, but the final result is nothing like we expected when the song started. Two worlds overlap in the layers of space time to create a booming anthem.

‘A Good Thaw’ is another stark interaction between two forces. Long icy notes that wring like crystal wine glasses are punctured by an intermittent beat that knocks and an intermittent cymbal that crashes. A syncopated synth descant vibrates in and out of the ethereal atmosphere like a reflection in the periphery, while industrial sounds create cavernous space and a sense that we are underwater. The whole song has an effect of potential energy beginning to express itself, with the determination of a beak tapping the eggshell for the first time.

‘Epic Parties’ and ‘Having a Good Day’ seem crafted to be as fun as possible. They are both structured as slow buildups, and one loop at a time they will lift your mood into fuzzy euphoria. Grier has paid close attention to every detail on these tracks, optimizing every sound to maximize a feeling. The syncopation on ‘Epic Parties’ bounces around the room in front of you, like a good friend who grabs your hand and pulls you out to the dance floor. The repeating melodic synth resolutions on ‘Having a Good Day’ are pure joy, like falling in love or your favorite activity. You feel a little silly, but, unlike what you learned in your tween years, silly isn’t a bad thing. It is its own mode for expression of a childlike wonder that you will spend the rest of your post-pubescent life trying to return to.

As I mentioned before, An Afternoon (or Two) has plenty of restful meditative moments too. Grier places interludes between euphorias on Side A to help us catch our breath, such as the aptly titled ‘Car Ride’ and ‘Car Parked’. He is attentive to the transitions between tracks. And all the songs on the album’s second half Side B form a tender nocturne, with birdsong, rain and reverent electronic humming. It’s an ambient place for the mind to wander into sublime as one song bleeds into the next and lines disappear. ‘Air Sitting’ is my favorite track from this space between the eyelids. It drones in a pleasing hypnotic way, like the subtle sounds your home makes at night which comfort you. The melody is slow and soft, and it trills as it floats over the surface of the pond, a reminder that everything is going to be ok, that you have what you need to be alive right now.

An Afternoon (or Two) by Open Window is an album of buoyancy, of the organic self, and of innocence in music making and consumption. It fills the room with fresh air and reminds us that music is, at its core, a joyful expression of our humanity. ☔