Will August Park - Doff (2024)

One for fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto, OPN or Laurel Halo, Will August Park's solo debut matches his delicate piano work with dreamy ambience, plasticky Fourth World instrumentation and skittering rhythms. It's not surprising that Park cut his teeth scoring independent films and experimental shorts; 'Doff' is unashamedly cinematic, put together (in Park's own words) as a "silent film score". But he's not just driven by an inclination to harmonize with moving images - his collaboration with fellow NYC producer J. Albert proved he could sculpt impressionistic soundscapes from his memorable motifs, and the album picks up where that left off. Muted stop-start beats interrupt the piano flourishes on the title track, drifting between lysergic clouds of orchestral ambience, stifled voices and, most unexpectedly, Photek-like double bass twangs. Even on the sedate, beatless 'Two Pains', Park wraps his ornamented piano phrases in hypnagogic atmospherics, adding OPN-inspired muzak gestures and nostalgic tape noise to dim the stage lighting a little. He gives a nod to the ECM canon on 'Annuum', balancing out his pretty themes with a breathy, dubbed-out sax solo that wouldn't sound out of place on Vangelis's 'Blade Runner' OST, and arranges ratcheting, clockwork beats around squealing horns and koto plucks on 'Denial, Creation', giving us the Sakamoto remix of Björk's 'Vespertine' we never knew we needed.