OPEN & DOWNLOAD

OPEN & DOWNLOAD

[Album Bio by Sammy Maine]

Nic Panken understands the perseverance of art and its intentions to ground and inspire us. He sees how melodies ruminate deep in the belly of uncertainty, blossoming to bring fresh clarity and a whispering optimism. Over the years, the Brooklyn-born songwriter has endeavored to spread the invigorating presence of song, initially through fronting the Americana-folk group Spirit Family Reunion and now, through his own evolution as a solo artist. Panken strives for equilibrium and purpose, and it's through his gorgeously sensitive yet gutsy delivery that an exhale can be found, away from our amplified anxieties and collective mourning. 

Now residing in Kingston, NY, Panken divides his time outside of music-making between working as a puppeteer, hosting his weekly radio show, and mixing sound at beloved local venue Tubby's. By immersing himself in the restorative power of the arts, every day is decorated with the potential to be present; to find new meaning and community through his various, purposeful practices. After years of relentless touring with Spirit Family Reunion, Panken found solace in staying still, and it’s in this shift that he began crafting what would become his new body of work.

His debut solo album Near Divine or Merely Rhyme is the result of trusting your gut and the process, no matter how unexpected the outcome. The foundation of these songs were spurred on by a wink from the universe, when Panken met multi-instrumentalist Jared Samuel (Kevin Morby, Aldous Harding) while performing at a local Hudson Valley house show. Samuel and his partner Sarah La Puerta run the small recording studio Pale Moon Services in Cambridge, NY, with core beliefs that music making is for all, and that to say yes to one instant is to say yes to all of existence. “As soon as I walked into that space I knew I wanted to make music there,” Panken says, citing Samuel’s “encouraging yet patient,” energy that served as a catalyst in the album’s tapestry. The previously stripped-down arrangements of Panken’s songs soon morphed into an expansive landscape, as the pair’s chemistry propelled the sonic direction. “I learned to just allow it to be what it wants to be.”

Panken multi-tracked harmonies with himself for the first time, and used many of the synths and keyboards dotted around Samuel’s studio. “My music has always been very grounded in Earth, but there’s also something cosmic that is starting to emerge,” he says. On Near Divine or Merely Rhyme, Panken strives for a connection between the terrestrial and the celestial. “Delightful Dust,” a love song that faces the hard truths of inevitable change, burns with a driving fiddle accompaniment. He had played a show backed by a new band in the middle of writing it, which he now realizes underscored a permission that he can also write from a place of energy, alongside quiet introspection. The vitality surrounding “Delightful Dust” went on to inform many of the sonic structures of the record, as Panken explored collaboration and unfiltered creation. 

Panken invited his old bandmate Mat Davidson (Twain) to play throughout the album, and it’s on the tender collage of “Deep Time” that both the comfort of what you know and the anticipation of what you don’t collide. The pair hadn’t played together for years, so they set up a couple of mics, faced each other and just let what was going to happen, happen. This raw, spontaneous approach highlights Panken’s ability to capture the fleeting nature of experience, and the pain and beauty that that entails. He continued experimenting with “Dear Companion,” when he and Samuel cut up the lyrics and melody, piecing them back together like a jigsaw. It’s a model of memory, of how we try to make sense of our own stories by trying to see every shape, and every angle. “Like a sculptor, the work is to shed layers until the most potent inner form is revealed,” Panken says. Known for his ardent, belting vocals with Spirit Family Reunion, “Dear Companion” taught Panken that he can sing with more subtlety––a whisper rather than a soar––and encouraged him to get comfortable with being vulnerable. 

Near Divine or Merely Rhyme is an artist searching for meaning, in all the facets and corners of everyday life; it’s a story of wanting to be seen but feeling apprehensive about being perceived, and of trying to embrace many truths at once. It was during the process of making this album that Panken understood there is no truth necessarily––it’s all just dust in the end––but that doesn’t mean we can’t experience meaning. “But even if you’re just some delightful dust, You bring essence that I savor,” he laments on “Delightful Dust,” pointing to the impact of others and our surroundings on who we ultimately become. These songs are an attempt to be present, to experience it all despite the pain or the sorrow, and to delight in the ambiguity of a widening horizon.

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