Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.
Michael Peter Olsen may not be a recognizable name to most of y’all, but there’s a better than average chance that you’ve heard his cello playing. The British Columbia-born artist has been plenty busy over his career, working with a raft of fellow Canadians like Drake, Arcade Fire and Hidden Cameras. Outside of his gun-for-hire work, Olsen has released a handful of albums under his own name, including the forthcoming Narrative of a Nervous System (out on Oct 27 via Hand Drawn Dracula), that stretch the sound of his electric cello into all manner of unusual shapes. On his previous LP, Yearning Flow, that could mean turning the gentle drones of the instrument into colorful sheets of audio plastic wrap or the sonic equivalent of a fog bank gently settling over a lush hillside.
On “Biorhythms,” the latest single from Narrative, Michael Peter Olsen’s cello becomes even less distinct as he braids his playing among the strands of guitar performed by Zoon, the artist known to his family as Daniel Monkman. The piece comes to life suddenly with a slight uplift of an electric car being switched on. From there, the track flows along with the same gush of honeyed ecstasy as a great mid-period Cocteau Twins track as Monkman joins the torrent of sound with his feathery vocals. Soon enough every instrument and tone starts flowing together into on glorious rush of beauty and sadness. In the right setting, this one is tough to listen to without tears.
Listen to “Biorhythms” below.