Atlanta-based post-punk/new wave project Picture One have announced their new album ‘Across The Depths of Seven Lakes’ (out April 3rd, Bandcamp pre-order) and shared its icy, synth-laden first single Cycle of Belief. Listen to the track via YouTube below.
Self-produced by frontman Thomas Barnwell, the motifs on Picture One’s new album navigate transcendence, resolve, magic, and creativity, as well as exploring the sometimes stormy waters of love and loss. The music itself breaks through the often dark backdrop of the lyrical content, with a dance-y and self-aware 80’s synth-pop vibe accentuated by chilly post-punk soundscapes. Throughout the record, Barnwell fuses bright neon-soaked new wave accents and splashes each cosmic arch with a power-pop kick. ‘Across The Depths of Seven Lakes‘ is crisp, cinematic, and surprisingly accessible and poppy, given his previous sonic propensity of leaning into darker instrumental coldwave territory.
Barnwell electrifies with hook-laden analog synth melodies and an equally-incisive vocal sound, which draws on his predecessors’ influences while maintaining a unique approach. While his production style has a purposefully otherworldly quality, there is something innately grounded that seamlessly threads each piece together. This is an album that is aware of the mercurial nature of personal tragedy, which can simultaneously appear both as dark impassable chasms, and as small puddles that can be easily splashed away. These songs invite us to explore and question this dichotomy at every turn without denying either the pain of everyday tragedies nor the miracle of the very human ability to overcome.
Along with friend and collaborator Ian Deaton, Barnwell found a new kind of inspiration in scoring films over the past seven years, most notably composing the soundtrack for The Arbalest (directed by Adam Pinney), a film that won the grand jury prize for Best Film at SXSW in 2016. ‘Across the Depths of Seven Lakes‘ builds on Barnwell’s history of layering influences and ideas in creative ways, but on this album, Barnwell rediscovers the essential nature of vocals in his work, as opposed to his previous his previous coldwave/gothic instrumental works. This is an album both about the dark valleys of life and about the light that leads us out of them. We do not actually reach that light by the end of the album, but we know it is coming, and until then Barnwell invites us to accompany him on the journey.
‘Across The Depths of Seven Lakes’ tracklisting
1. Resolute: The Absolute
2. Cycle of Belief
3. Tomorrow’s Fool
4. Limerce No. 1
5. Love Spell
6. Winter’s Kiss
7. Lily Pad
8. Chaser of The World
