Album Notes

Loris 2028 Review from What'sUp! Magazine
by Melanie Merz

Eyebrows raised in awe, jaw dropped in wonder, and eardrums purring with pleasure, Loris 2028 is hands down the most spectacular album/artwork release Bellingham has ever seen. You think I must be exaggerating… but I’m not.

Loris 2028 is Proceed’s debut record, a remarkable concept album that chronicles one night – from moonrise to moonset – of a loris (a wide-eyed primate with a bionic leg) in the year 2028. Immediately stunning when you pick it up, the album is housed in an beautiful crafted and stunningly illustrated booklet. With artwork by Paul Kearsley, the images (one per track) guide listeners to visualize the mechanically dependent environment through which the nocturnal loris traipses.

The album’s creator and producer, Karl Olson, plays drums and percussion. Tim Holmes plays keyboard and melodica, while Jesse Hunter completes the trio on guitar and moog. The presence of a melodica (a harmonica/keyboard type instrument integral to reggae) and a moog (an electronic synthesizer) is indicative of the type of music on the album, classified as dub/funk/electronic.

I’d say that Loris 2028 is an electronic nature CD. An excerpt from the booklet sets the scene: “Evolution of nature and industry had created a new hybrid biome: the forest foundry.” The album often sounds like someone set up a microphone in this industrialized wilderness.

Olson uses various percussion instruments to create the effect of forest creatures like rattling and croaking throughout the album. The rhythms on each track are distinctly different – some light and playful, others subtle and dark – but from start to finish a hypnotizing ambiance is created and maintained by a sense that it’s all tied together by something bigger. Call it the universal spirit that connects every living thing, call it a good blueprint, or call it an extremely successful unifying concept.

Loris 2028 is the product of talented people and a colossal amount of time, effort, and collaboration. The complete package - of music and illustrations - is an incredible example of the combined power of two art forms coming together.