Harmonic Cross - The Grand Paradise (2022)

“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.

Recorded in San Diego, California in the summer of 2021, the album clocks in at just over 40 minutes across its 8 songs. It is the band’s follow-up to 2015’s “It Is Finished,” a conceptual album about the unsolved mystery of “The Somerton Man,” originally on Magic Bullet Records (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.

“The Grand Paradise” once again brings together 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 10 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.

As the album was written specifically for a film of the same name due out in 2023, 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.

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.