Nicolas Jaar

Don't Break My Love EP Nicolas Jaar Limited edition

In the dead of winter, I visited Nico in his apartment in Providence, Rhode Island. He had just finished composing “Don’t Break My Love,” the A-side of his new EP and his first song since Space is Only Noise. He seemed solemn, but I didn’t ask why. The next night, I witnessed a rare occurrence: Nico DJ-ed a small party. We danced all night in a brick-walled loft as snow fell outside. Half a year later and a continent away, the B-side, “Why Didn’t You Save Me,” arrived. Nico wrote it one sleepless night after a show in Germany. He spent the rest of the tour developing the song, letting it grow. The rhythms on the EP unravel slowly. As the songs progress, they fill up with rapid-fire hi-hats and mechanical percussion. The faster strikes meet slower beats and the songs seem to stretch; they feel pulled in both directions almost ad infinitum. After the tour, I re-listened to the EP, a ten inch vinyl, with Nico in his apartment in New York. He told me he had been singing more and more, and sampling less. The EP foreshadowed an evolving sound within Clown & Sunset, he explained, and previewed an upcoming compilation by the same name, replete with new talent. When the B-side wound down, and the clavinet faded out, Nico placed his finger tip on the edge of the record, slowing it to a crawl. With the resonance of our feelings, we remained still for a while after, as silence enveloped us. Tracklisting: A: Don’t Break My Love B: Why Didn’t You Save Me?