At Dusk – Small Light

contributor: Ed thanhouser, July 20, 2009

Nearly three years in the making and 20 tracks long, At Dusk’s 4th and final record, Small Light, naturally wants to lend itself to words like “opus,” “swan song” and “master-work.” Ironically, however, At Dusk’s most grandiose project finds them at their most minimalist, musically. Of the 20 compositions that make up Small Light, 9 of them are under three minutes in length, and only two of them run over four. Furthermore, while a myriad of percussive elements permeate the record, there is not a single proper drum kit to be found on Small Light. For anyone familiar with the group’s back-catalogue, all of this is sure to be a shock. At Dusk, if anything, are known for their angular, intense breed of avant-rock. Those familiar with the previous record, You Can Know Danger, may recall the nearly six-minute distorted onslaught of opener, “In the Background,” for example. And yet, for all its dissimilarity, this is unquestionably an At Dusk record; maybe even in some sense, the At Dusk record.

The meticulously constructed layers of intertwining melodies and instruments will immediately strike fans as “classic” At Dusk. Surely, to anyone familiar with the group and its members, it should come as no surprise that Small Light is so finely detailed. It is, after all, the product of three friends who have lived, played and toured together for more than ten years. This record makes the pieces fit in ways that demand a kind of intimacy and precision impossible to find in the context of relatively younger groups. Founding fathers of local free, all ages music festival, “PDX Pop Now!” Clarke, Borenstien and Hattman have long been fixtures in the ever-shifting musical soup of Portland, and their exposure to this kind of diversity has obviously spilled over into At Dusk. Specifically, more so than on any previous effort, Small Light manages to successfully marry the group’s avant-guarde and math-rock sensibilities without losing their grip on a firmly ‘pop’ song structure. Like a fantastic superstructure built scaffold-like over a plain, solid foundation, the building that is Small Light maintains a kind of impossible architecture. It is somehow etherial and durable, fanciful and grounded all at once. If this sounds hard to imagine, just imagine trying to do it! It’s no wonder this record was so long in the making…

Compositionally, the record is undoubtedly the group’s strongest. The decision to write more intimate, acoustic songs seems to have somehow paradoxically freed up the trio’s songwriting by limiting their sonic palette. On Small Light, the band consistently manages to move effortlessly between nostalgic pop-punk songwriting and angular, unusual, more sophisticated structures. Take their contribution to this year’s PDX Pop Now! 2009 compilation, “For A Reason,” for example. This remarkably catchy tune might be my personal ‘most-played’ track of the past six months. And when I say, “remarkably catchy,” I mean exactly that. Rarely does a track with this many changes, metamorphoses, turnarounds and competing parts end up so accessible. After moving from a simple, pleasing, jaunty pop melody to a punk prog-ish breakdown, the song breaks into a lush choral outro; and all this in under 4 minutes. The following track, “Stones through Water,” is perhaps an even better example. An atonal, open-string guitar rhythm competes with a quickening chromatic riff. While not unpleasant, it sounds something like an acoustic rendition of some Super Mario Bros. 8-bit sound effects. Yet before you can be annoyed, the track quickly evolves into an absolutely classic pop-punk tune á la Mission of Burma, with bright acoustic harmonics underscored by a muted electric guitar rhythm. Continuing through the record in order, “Olympic Games” finds its own carefully balanced counter-point between airy acoustic layers and the brash melody of distorted keyboards. It’s counterpoints like this that make Small Light such a successful record. While it’s engaging enough to peel back each layer and explore the compositions to an exhaustive degree, the record is so well constructed that it manages to be instantly pleasing on a superficial level as well.

In so many ways, it would seem Small Light is an exercise in marrying the contrary: avant-guarde and straight pop-punk, grandiose vision and minimalist execution, expansive songwriting, small sonic palette. There is a certain amount of irony and paradox to be expected in such a venture. And when I say “irony” I mean the sort where you work on a record for almost three years, play its songs live only once, and then promptly disband. It seems no small coincidence that so many tracks on Small Light have abrupt, sudden endings. As musicians, this is clearly not a group that favors fade-outs. As builders of a community, however, the invaluable contribution they have made to music in this city will not end with them, but will undoubtedly continue to benefit all of us here in Portland. Though Clarke and Borenstien will be leaving Portland this fall (for Seattle and New York, respectively), and though At Dusk may be over, they leave with our collective thanks and, undoubtedly, a well-deserved sense of pride.