Words by MC Galang

There’s a lightness in crwn’s music, like a thin film that lies delicately on your skin; weightless, almost.

His tracks—affirmed yet again on his latest double-sided single “Moment to Moment,” his first release since 2019’s Labyrinth EP—are often, if not almost, deceptively simple in structure and form. This is hard work, at least from this writer’s and editor’s perspective. To pluck and pull loose ends even from the most unexpected places, to center your work and do so firmly. 

With electronic music, overt narrative often escapes or eclipses rhyme or reason and crwn’s not above this characterization. Intent is open to interpretation. This is why his style, which itself carries an air of sophisticated mystique, lends itself generously to others (his collaborative projects with Jess Connelly and August Wahh).

“This project was the first time I felt compelled to create again, to fulfill a need to create something new,” he says about the project. Longing seems so abrupt a phenomenon that when it happens, it’s almost always a quick flash, a snapshot of a memory—but somehow it lingers and casts a soft glow. “Moment to Moment” (and it’s swanky deep house b-side “From Time to Time”) stretches longing, still by still, every bit as urgent. Its trick though is that it allows one to surrender to it but not fall prey to desolation. It’s a stopgap until we reach its end, until things get better.

HEADER IMAGE: COURTESY OF KING PUENTESPINA