Conceived in the early aughts – Chicago based Vissuda has been on a path of bursts, pauses, expansions and delays leading up to their debut album, On the Verge, released August, 20th 2013.

Born from a process of shaped improvisation and premeditated direction, the album contrasts melody and acoustic instrumentation within noise and texture. Written and recorded over a prolonged timespan, the process unfolded to mirror the lyrical themes of transformation and leaning towards arrival. Surrounding the recording, turmoil and personal loss both delayed the album and entered into the lyrical themes - inspiring it to become a reflection of loss and hope within confliction and uncertainty.

Musically On the Verge is a fusion of acoustic and electronic instrumentation that contrasts slow and tremoring moments with forward driven tracks. Primarily centered around acoustic guitar and piano with occasions of layered and overdriven guitars, the album’s varied tone and cadence is unified by its reoccurring interplay between melody and dissonance. From the album opener of “The Urge” with its driving bass to its final transmission in “Angelfish”, the album continually ebbs and flows between up-tempo hook based songs and evolving spacious arrangements.

At its most immediate and accessible sound songs such as “Twice” and “The Turning” deliver the album’s most forward and refraining moments layering driven guitars with focused backbeats. The album’s more textured and drifting side is best represented by “In Threes" and “The Day You Were”, the former which evolves on the decay of the album opener as a stark acoustic guitar and vocal arrangement that builds into a wall of feedback and layered melodies.

Other tracks explore less structured, electronic, and evolving arrangements. The wistful vocals and processed voices accompanied by various vintages of keyboards in "Cross the Line" and "All Things" lead the album to transition to its softer and contemplative end. A bridge between these styles in the early half, "Drone Oncet" merges electronic analog percussion and focused acoustic drums against discordant guitars and keyboards before its shift into an overdriven and melodically resolved second half. In the album’s final moments, “Field of View” returns to melodic crescendos this time against ringing acoustic drums, piano, and modular loops with the albums most lucid themes.
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