Ben Shemie – frontman and co-founder of experimental rock heavyweights Suuns – has shared a new cut from his upcoming solo LP Desiderata, called “The Return”. It might be a cheeky reference to the album closer “The Trilogy” of Suuns’ most recent album The Witness, its arpeggiated composition is quite similar in both mood and makeup.
Upon a closer listen, however, you hear a subtle but significant difference to Shemie’s full autonomy of the music: though his vocals remain processed with an eerie spectral effect, “The Return” slowly opens up from its claustrophobic spheres like a flower in bloom.
The video, recorded live at Theatre Lachapelle in Montreal, finds Shemie standing within a circle of light, surrounded by amps, instruments and equipment, kind of stuck within a zone. Peculiarly enough, on “The Return”, he flirts with a traditional pop performance more than ever. Clutching the mic – at the circle’s luminous epicenter – Shemie channels a newfound vulnerability, isolated from the familiar shades of his fulltime band.
Speaking about the track, he says “‘The Return’ is the last song and the conclusion of Desiderata. It is our hero’s return to earth, and a yearning for connection. The tightly arranged strings of the album give way to repetitive riffs of a TB303 synthesizer. The voyage into the deepest recesses of the universe reveal that the end is merely the beginning, and that the distant stars are actually inside of all of us.”
Watch the video performance below, and find “The Return” on streaming services.
Desiderata is out July 15th 2022 via Backward Music/Joyful Noise, and you can preorder the record here. Follow Ben Shemie on Instagram and Twitter.
