Sun Rain’s latest album gives the listener space to tell their own story

With quieting tracks, the artist demonstrates a maturity in music composition

Sun Rain is Toronto based producer Chad Skinner who debuted his solo career with the album Sheets in 2019. In addition to his solo career, Skinner also plays with BisonBison and previously played in the electronic duo Snowday. Playing as Sun Rain has brought to life Skinner’s intimate, personal, and reflective style. His multi-instrumental approach incorporates his background in classical piano, as well as percussive beats and synthesizers. Taking inspiration from ambient and drone genres, he produces his own version with a grounding in physicality.

Ma is Sun Rain’s most recent release in 2021, a fruitful year for the artist. He has already released ‘Woods,’ a remix with The Field Tapes and Light of the Woods, ‘Real People in Real Places (Reimagined)’ with Alaskan Tapes, singles from Ma including ‘Phase,’ ‘Friendship in F#M,’ ‘Zenith,’ and ‘Moonwalk,’ plus ‘Breeze Blowing,’ a remix with Zeb Samuels. Last year, he released the EP Ella Gorge, ‘Charcoal,’ ‘Drivved,’ a remix with Vargkvint, and ‘Views from Sixteen Stories,’ a remix with Alaskan Tapes. Finally, in 2019 he released ‘Willow Tree Testing,’ ‘Paper,’ and his debut album of deeply organic sound, Sheets.

The new album takes its name from traditional Japanese culture where ‘Ma’ refers to the artistic interpretation of an empty space, and the equal importance that negative space holds in relation to positive space in an art piece. The musicality of the album reflects that sentiment in the stillness and space created through the compositions. Building to slow peaks and crescendos, Sun Rain produces an album that both takes a listener on a journey, while leaving room for the listener to bring their own story. The quiet and calm is balanced by a cinematic feeling that leaves the listener in a meditative sense of awareness.

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Two Artists use minimalist sound to take listeners on an epic journey

‘Real People in Real Places Reimagined’ captures an essence of the passage of time

The new single is a collaboration between Toronto-based Artists Alaskan Tapes and Sun Rain. The former is a project of composer Brady Kendall whose ambient music style is inspired by where he has been—both geographically and metaphysically. Kendall’s career began as a teenager inspired by metal bands and drum and bass music. He later moved from those genres to more minimal sounds, similar to his music today. The latter, Sun Rain, is a project by the producer Chad Skinner who previously played in the electronic duo Snowday as well as BisonBison. Playing multiple instruments, he draws from classical piano, percussion, and synth to create an intimate and reflective tone in his minimal sounds.

‘Real People in Real Places (Reimagined)’ is not the first collaboration between the two artists. They came together for a Sun Rain remixed version of Alaskan Tapes’ ‘Views from Sixteen Stories’ in 2020. In his solo career, Alaskan Tapes released For Us Alone, Drone this year, adding to a list of albums, soundtracks, and partnerships including Views from Sixteen, Millions, and his popular single ‘Notes.’ His music has been featured in numerous soundtracks including films like Childhood Trauma and Mag Sein from director Elliot Rausch, plus the new documentary by Bernardo Ruiz Harvest Season. Sun Rain released his debut under this name with Sheets in 2019. This year, he collaborated with Spookyfish for the single ‘Friendship in F#m.’

The new single brings a cinematic exploration of texture and depth that takes the listener on a slow journey. The pace and temperament evoke feelings of movement and a reminder of the passage of time. The percussive and melodic instrumental track, mixed with smooth synth sounds bring the song on a wandering path, eventually arriving at a summit and soft close.

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Sun Rain returns with a new journey: Moonwalk

Lending his skills in ambient and drone to a higher plane, Sun Rain provides a glimpse of his upcoming EP

This isn’t the first time we’ve had the pleasure of listening to the ambient works of Sun Rain. When Chad Skinner first started work on the solo project back in 2019, he made a strong impression with debut album ‘Sheets’,  introducing us to his personal style of ambient and drone. Since then his discography has been steadily growing, which each new addition bringing a different shade of peaceful downtempo.

The atmospheres conjured up by the Toronto producer and composer manage to expand to the very edges of consciousness, allowing space for meditation, self-reflection, and quiet. Skinner’s talents have been honed throughout his collaborative work, sharing time with groups such as ‘Snowday’ and ‘BisonBison’. Skinner has also found development in his experiences performing DJ sets under the name of ‘Legs Florentine’.

The newest release from the Sun Rain project is ‘Moonwalk’, a precursor to a fresh EP titled ‘Ma’. Moonwalk takes inspiration from the journey taken by astronauts to breach the divide between our planet and the space beyond. Neo-classical strikes of piano create a very gradual build towards a more cosmic ambience, in a track which takes the listener to a higher vantage point; from the everyday to the infinite.

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Deep ruminations in open worlds, Sun Rain returns with ‘Charcoal’

Sun Rain is the solo project of Chad Skinner, an artist known for his work in electronic duo Snowday, beat driven Dj sessions performed under the of name of ‘Legs Floretine’, and more recently experiments with upcoming Toronto collaboration ‘BisonBison’.

Sun Rain began to find its feet as a new venture back in 2019 when Skinner released ‘Sheets’, an eight track album which presented an open space style approach to neo-classical and ambient sound. With cautious pacing, organic sampling, and synth work that drifts between the natural world and the internal mind, the LP confidently etched out the unique approach to electronica Sun Rain intended to explore.

Remixes of Alaskan Tapes and Vargkvint followed, but ‘Charcoal’ stands as the most recent single to come from this project. Backed by record label Sonder House, ‘Charcoal’ is another neo-classical track which features the organic and emotion heavy piano samples which form part of this multi-instrumentalist’s style. Made public on June 6th, the ambient release is a forerunner for a brand new EP planned for June 19th and titled ‘Elora Gorge’.

The four tracks are slated to be a continuation of Sun Rain’s classical tone, with involvement from cellist Chloe Davidson and trombonist Paul Geldart.

Preorder the album on Bandcamp or stream the single on Spotify.

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‘Sun Rain’, fresh beats on a new path

Creating music within the Canadian electronic scene, Chad Skinner has been half of the talent behind ‘Snow Day’ (a duo we covered way back in 2015), and worked out two neatly produced albums while the group was active. Independently, Skinner works under the name of ‘Legs Florentine’ when performing DJ sets across Ontario. The sound resulting from these sets has a little more drive and pulse, but Skinner’s work is more identifiable by the pensive glow that emanates from many of tracks, freedom of exploration in his music encouraging freedom of thought for the listener.

In move that embraces and cultivates that contemplative element, Skinner has launched a new solo project ‘Sun Rain’, with an eight track debut album. This collection of organic beats and electroacoustic sound has been released with the support of Hush Hush Records, the Seattle based label known for their preference of introspective sound that soundtracks moments of calm.

The track showcased today works from another Toronto based artist with a talent for capturing thoughts in soft focus: Alaskan Tapes. In his remix of ‘Views from Sixteen Stories’, Sun Rain avoids treading old ground and picks his samples with care, beautifully genuine percussion serving as the keystone to his own unique creation.

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