The expression ‘match made in heaven’ isn’t enough to describe this pairing. Multi-instrumentalist Douglas Parth and producer, guitarist, and instructor Peter Belec were put together secretly to create a joint song, titled Sea to Sky, for record label enjou, who’re working on the release of X2, an album where two different artists work separately but together on ambient and electronic neoclassical. It might sound confusing, but here’s all you need to know.
Back in 2022, enjou released an album titled X featuring fourteen songs co-created between two different artists who worked in couples like Chafa and Let It Bloom, Jessica Gallo and Ming Quay, or Jeff Roy and Saah. The two artists that we bring you today also took part in it: Douglas Parth was paired with Michael Kim-Sheng on Portals, and Peter Belec was paired with April Chung on Perseverence. After that record’s success and clever idea, the team at enjou decided it was time to present the world with another album putting people together to enhance each other’s creativity and artistry, which will be out on June 5th.
In Sea to Sky, Douglas is the featured artist, meaning he created the base or initial blueprint of the song, while Peter is the soundscape architect, transforming that initial vision into something completely different. What happened here though is that both artists know each other since they’re based in Edmonton, Canada, and have been following each other’s career. Speaking of how the song came to be, Peter shares: “Doug and I are pals, the hardest part was not being able to send him samples when I became excited about how the piece was developing! Essentially the piece was already well written and well arranged so I mostly ended up orchestrating and mixing. I did add some new instruments and sounds in the ending section to fill out the space but most of the notes you hear are from Douglas' brain.”
The result is a highly orchestral piece where the piano is the main character. It starts with very organic sounds, birds chirping over a subtle, soft instrumental base, which later grows into a more profound piece that makes it sound like magic.