Penzias and Wilson

Low Modes, the debut EP by solo artist Penzias and Wilson, poses a simple songwriting challenge: write a set of works all based on the modes of the A-flat major scale.

For music theory nerds, each track is centered around each of the notes in A-flat major. “Sonata Agita” opens the EP on G Locrian. “Tantalus Sunset” takes an introspective approach to the usually bright D-flat Lydian. “Wildfire Blue Hour” de-emphasizes the exotic nature of C Phrygian. The remaining tracks, in turn, take on B-flat Dorian (“The Crows Haven’t Spoken Since the Start of the Eclipse”), E-flat Mixolydian (“The Sounds of the Universe Are All Around”), A-flat Ionian (“Chorale in Low Ionian”) and F Aeolian (“Rescue the Fly”).

“Rescue the Fly” spurred on the idea of a seven-part suite. The track started out as a piano piece, then arranged for string quartet, until finally taking form as the post-rock piece it was always meant to be. It then became the creative anchor for the remaining tracks.

Low Modes takes its name from solfege systems that equate the note A-flat with the syllable “lo.” Otherwise, the EP would have had the very French title “Le Modes.”