Sam Prekop may be most familiar to astute listeners as the frontman of eclectic Chicago band the Sea & Cake, but he’s also built a robust catalog of modular synth-driven projects as a solo artist and in collaboration with Sea & Cake drummer John McEntire. The focus remains electronic on Open Close, due Friday (Sept. 26) from Thrill Jockey, many songs from which were written for recent live performances with ambient legend Laraaji.
“I felt it was a good idea to get this stuff recorded, because a lot of work had gone into it for it to just dissipate,” Prekop tells SPIN of Open Close, which revels in layered grooves and ever-morphing soundscapes. “The basic arc and flow of the record is there from the live set, but I added quite a bit as well that I couldn’t pull off live.” One example is the heavily overdubbed middle section of “Light Shadow,” while “Para” and “Opera” were written later “in response to what I felt was missing from the record.”
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“The main sequence/body of ‘Light Shadow’ is very minimal — for sure not more than two chords. I find sequences that work like this fascinating in that for me, I just don’t get tired of listening to them, which I take as a good sign,” Prekop says by way of explaining what he loves so much about working with modular synths. “It has taken me a while to realize that a certain ‘musical’ complexity is not always the most interesting route to take. The sequence felt so malleable and seemed to work effortlessly with whatever I tried to layer above and around it.”
Prekop was initially drawn to the instruments during a period of frustration at his “somewhat limited guitar-playing abilities. Messing around with modular synths just opened a whole new approach and sound world for me. It did, however, take years to figure out how to make interesting music with this stuff, and, no surprise, it’s just as challenging as playing a guitar.”
Moving the music into a live setting has been part of that challenge, and Prekop admits he “wasn’t really that familiar with Laraaji’s work” beyond the beloved, Brian Eno-produced 1980 album Ambient 3: Day of Radiance before they teamed up. “I went into it having no idea if it would work or not,” he says. “I spoke with Laraaji before the first show to strategize a bit and basically pick a key to play in. The first time we played together was at soundcheck before the first show. I think we were both relieved within the first five minutes — we could tell it was going to be fine and I was really quite surprised that what we do works together so well. Our performances also evolved in surprising ways.”
Asked to compare Open Close to his 2020 solo LP Comma or his acclaimed 2022 McEntire collaboration Sons Of, Prekop sees a clear common thread. “Open Close is related to the Sons Of record with regard to process, as it was also developed from ‘live’ recordings, but John and I added a lot to it in the studio,” he says. “The long forms of the pieces are related as well. How they unfold over quite a bit of time, which references back to what happens live, is something I’ve been interested in taking on as a challenge for a few years now. Playing modular shows with John for some years now has been great and it was super exciting to make a record together, which is something we had thought about since the beginning. Comma is more a traditional collection of ‘songs’ and in a way felt like a departure and a bit more ‘pop’ than my previous synth records. I think a big differentiation is I felt I could have sang on many of the pieces on Comma. Maybe on the next one.”
Prekop will celebrate Open Close with a concert tonight at New York’s Public Records, and says “there are plans to do something with the recordings” made during the prior Laraaji concerts. As for fans of the Sea & Cake, which hasn’t released an album since 2018 and has only played live on a handful of occasions since then, future activity will likely hinge on the availability of McEntire and bassist Doug McCombs, who are both founding members of fellow Chicago experimentalists Tortoise. That group’s first album in nine years, Touch, is due Oct. 24 from International Anthem.
“I do really miss playing in a ‘rock band’ and I have been thinking about singing more these days as well,” Prekop concedes. “It’s looking like John and Doug will be pretty busy with Tortoise for a while, but I do need time to come up with new songs, so the timing might be just right. I’m sure at some point we’ll be getting something happening again.”
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