Dutch-born multi-instrumentalist Harry Kappen confronts the water’s brutal indifference on his new single “Distant Shore”, the emotional anchor of his latest full-length album, “After the Crossing”. Kappen handles everything you hear on the track writing, performing, and producing. He’s a veteran music therapist who spent decades in youth care, and he clearly carries that observant, deeply empathetic gaze into his own atmospheric art-rock.
His recent relocation to Mexico City was entirely voluntary and privileged, a comfort that seemingly gnawed at him when compared to the deadly, forced migrations of refugees fleeing war.
The music responds directly to that bitter contrast. A steady, rolling rhythmic pulse drives the melody, mimicking the agonizing forward crawl of an overloaded boat. Haunting mellotrons bleed into the margins, explicitly nodding to the total isolation of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”. Yet Kappen’s void is entirely terrestrial. The arrangement begins with a measured, reflective gait before aggressively escalating. Classic pop-rock structures suddenly crack open, revealing desperate, wailing solo sections that completely consume the backing rhythm in their attempt to find salvation.
It is a harrowing, beautifully chaotic listen. Where do you find solid ground when the world around you violently collapses?
