Written by Louis Pelingen

Once a multi-instrumentalist picks up a new instrument, it won’t take long before they become proficient on playing it. One thing that makes multi-instrumentalists quite special in their own right is that, within years of experience and effort towards learning and practicing their musicianship, they’ll be able to flex out the extent of an instrument. It showcases how much an instrument can be played masterfully and where the multi-instrumentalist can expand its range or focus within a certain scale or tone.

With the years of musical expertise that Pat’s Soundhouse – Pat Fernandez’s main musical alias, although formerly known as Chimera Mix beforehand – has under his belt, he does manage to bring the best out of the instruments that he is capable of playing, whether that be guitars, drums, keys, and even synthesizers.

But there is one instrument he has been playing recently which eventually garnered him a lot of attention on social media—namely, the khaen, a woodwind instrument considered to be the national instrument in Laos. With Pat spending more time on playing that specific instrument, it led to him to record two projects that mainly showcases the khaen: Khaen Solo Vol. 1 & Khaen Solo Vol. 2. It is within these two albums that Pat allows his experience of being a multi-instrumentalist to be clearly shown, especially within the limits of playing just this one instrument. Creating a sense of vibrancy that Pat can bring out within the khaen, stretching out the tones and the ranges that it can do, while still carrying an openly playful attitude careening through, especially with Pat creating auditory versions of the song titles within these two albums.

In Khaen Solo Vol. 1, there is a sense of an energetic expanse that Pat emphasizes here, an element that is heard in how melodically spirited the melodies that he composes in this volume, modestly fit for a bright, sunny weather. Songs like “Swaying” and “Marching” encapsulate the riveting display of musicianship that Pat imparts, where the higher notes of the former song allow the melodies to be uplifting, and the fleeting crescendos of the latter song have a stuttering tone that has the rhythm of a marching drum band. The shambling stutter of that instrument becomes a prominent element that shows up within record, especially on a song like “Bottomless Pit” which flickers and slips on every subsequent note, really emphasizing the falling feeling that this song imparts. 

Of course, Pat also allows himself to create some moody soundscapes with this instrument. Either that be something close to a harrowing demise, like the sorrowful edges of “Wailing” where the melody harks to a sense of sadness from an older time and the ominous tonal veering of “Drones” where the additional melody tries to take over the immense textures from the lead melody. Or a mood that’s more fragile and weary, especially on “Spectres” where the reverbed layers of melody serve to create some dedication to the spirits that continue wandering, and the second version of “Last Sunrise” that flips its jovial note into a somber one. With how the melodies on that song spill through with a calming modulation, it creates a reflective note of the continuous passage of time, yet people will still appreciate the moments spent within it.

Moving towards Khaen Solo Vol. 2, this project is the yin to Khaen Solo Vol. 1’s yang. It is more willing to dabble into the moonlit spirit where the melodies become low-key, exposing the tones that fade in that midnight hour. Cuts like the playful imitation of beeping alarms on “Car Alarms”, the low-key yearning of “Gleaming” with its restrained volume, as well as the stable melodic shifts on “Strolling” may be some details that one can hear and feel as people stroll around the dimmer cityscapes. Yet it is the transcendent songs that bubble up their tunes onto the surface, tunes that can only be heard and feel within the stroke of midnight. The third version of “Last Sunrise” brings the most amount of melodic density to the table, where the additional flute and synth passages allow the wafting melody to encapture a lot more emotion than usual, the analog synth inclusions within “Catharsis” only adds to the waves of khaen melodies; allowing that to grasp an enrapturing quality from start to finish, and the shifty nature of “Living Breathing City” that comes from the overlapping layers of swiveling melodies and field recordings ends these volumes with a recognition of how the mundane actions and sightings that people generally do and see are worth noted by someone like Pat’s Soundhouse, whose overall various creative process has delved within the liminal and the abstract but is now willing to capture those mundane moments and turn it into something worth pondering and remembering. After all, every bit of action that every person makes does add to the sound of a breathing cityscape.

While at first few listens, these two instrumental projects might’ve gone more for more bewildering ideas that Pat’s Soundhouse could’ve offered – especially when these projects are recorded under a short period – yet he still managed to pull an alluring quality with these records. The variation of tones and melodic passages give both Khaen Solo Vol. 1 and Khaen Solo Vol. 2 a sense of coordinating resonance, especially when both volumes offer a distinct identity to their sound that Pat’s Soundhouse was able to accomplish really well. Even with both projects roaming under just a half-hour, Pat’s Soundhouse manages to give captivation not just through his ability to carve various moods within these songs, but also through how he manages to stretch out the sound of this Khaen instrument in a way that he can able to do. An instrument such as this might not be familiar to some, but with Pat’s Soundhouse playing it the best he can, that unique sound is now stuck in our ears.  

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