Chasms

Jess Labrador helms the project Chasms, which fashions somberly exquisite and deeply compassionate soundscapes shaped by shoegaze, electronica, industrial textures, doom metal, and dub. While dream-pop elements stood out most clearly on the 2016 release On the Legs of Love Purified, the duo’s sonic and affective scope expanded with 2019’s The Mirage, a set steeped in dub and techno that addressed crushing personal losses. On 2023’s Glimpse of Heaven, Labrador tightened the focus further, employing a lean, electronics-led palette to explore themes of transformation.

Originally rooted in San Francisco, the multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocalist Labrador launched Chasms in 2011. Bassist Shannon Madden joined at the outset, and the project issued its first material that year—the single “Bad Evolution” via Sleep Genius and the When It Comes EP on Dream. The Riser EP arrived in 2013; tracks from both early EPs were later compiled on the 2014 collection Subtle Bodies. During sessions for the debut full-length, Labrador endured several obstacles, among them a hand injury, yet On the Legs of Love Purified still appeared on Felte in October 2016.

In the wake of that album’s release, Chasms endured profound losses when a December 2016 fire at the Ghost Ship warehouse venue in Oakland, California, claimed numerous close associates, including Madden’s brother and the frequent collaborator Cash Askew of Them Are Us Too. Labrador responded by sustaining live performances and studio work while relocating to Los Angeles in search of renewal. The music itself shifted as well, incorporating dub and minimal-techno ingredients that first surfaced on the 2018 single “Divine Illusion,” a revised version of which resurfaced on the second album, The Mirage. Mixed by Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri, the record surfaced on Felte in February 2019. November of that year brought the single “Until It Happens to You,” which layered house rhythms atop the dub foundations of The Mirage, while the kindred track “Limits” followed in March 2020.

For the subsequent album, Labrador again enlisted Eustis, this time for both mixing and production assistance. Embracing a stripped-down, intimate aesthetic informed by Basic Channel, Sade, and Dif Juz, among others, Glimpse of Heaven, issued on Felte in February 2023, captured the psychological terrain required for major personal transitions.