ALBUM PREMIERE: ‘In the Tides of Time’

Loner’s self-released debut full-length, In the Tides of Time (out July 21), explores various realms of jazz and chamber pop music, casting aside any semblance of a songwriting formula. Guitarist, vocalist and band leader Joshua Loner, singer Shae Edman, guitarist Chava Flax, flautist Carolyn Reis, saxophonist Kassle Molinar and percussionist Chris Gravely have assembled a fluid, six-song album that moves at a sparkling pace before exploding in its final moments. “Stormfront” opens In the Tides of Time with rising and falling saxophone, flute and crashing percussive rhythms laying down a sonic palette for the albums’ lounge-pop and sea-fearing motions. Loner’s mid-to-low vocal range provides a counterpoint to Edman’s angelic falsetto. There is irresistible tension swelling between their layered vocals, and aside from the album’s first single, “Bioluminescent,” In the Tides of Time is most rewarding when taken in as a cohesive whole. Each song plays out like inter-locking pieces crafted to serve a larger concept. “Say” wouldn’t be the jazz-infused, soft-hitting apology it is if it didn’t follow the vivacious “Bioluminescent.” Likewise, “Commodity Fetish (No!)” boasts driving rhythms and gripping fugue-like moments that build hard-hitting momentum by following “Say,” sweet and staccato rhythms.

“Commodity Fetish (No!)” hits a compelling stride with deconstructed guitar riffs, driving to the heart of the substance lying beneath the album’s glossy exterior.

Spoken word track “Body Bag” follows with a discombobulating interlude complete with scaling distortions and a minimalistic design, giving rise to a pure cacophony. Loner’s masterpiece lies in the cognitive distortions of “Contributing to the Delinquency of D Minor.” The song picks up the already established lurking pace of “Body Bag,” with Loner’s Zen-mystical vocals and Reis’ withering flute, which soon crash into foreboding guitar and percussion as Loner sings, “I’ll find my peace at last/My peace at last.”

In The Tides of Time transcends genres and composition while exploring the group’s internal artistic realms. Loner polishes off a piece of collaborative and improvisational music that reaches for perfection, only to find that it is in coming to terms with one’s own flaws and vulnerabilities that they are most masterful.

Loner plays an album release show at the Mammal Gallery on Fri., July 21. With Sequoyah Murray, Oshwa and MonteQarlo. $10. 9 p.m. Mammal Gallery, 91 Broad St. S.W. www.mammalgallery.com.