A mysterious blue graphic looped, revealing itself to be a cryptic karaoke selection menu. The sweating, impatient crowd intensely scanned the projection’s every move. Jonathon Ng, known as EDEN ( formerly THE EDEN PROJECT) emerged from a door behind the graphic to a roaring crowd. The loop ended, selecting ‘End of the World’ by Skeeter Davis’. Lyrics flashed on the screen, and the crowd sang along to this eerie and mournful 1960s classic. Back came the blue menu screen. Finally, we watched Jon select his first song:
EDEN > 2016 > i think you think too much of me > ‘xo’
A song of love and loss, a deceptively simple acoustic guitar progression marries Jon’s signature impassioned, powerful, yet delicate vocals. You could sense mine and many others’ emotional connection to EDEN’s music, and to this minimalist, sarcastic ballad of "not singing for an ex though, just singing ‘cause it’s over".
9 hours earlier, I was one of a lucky 200 on Instagram at the right time to secure a ticket to an exclusive popup show in Shoreditch that same evening. While initially planned as a first come first serve event at a secret, unnamed venue, GeoGuessr pro Rainbolt was quick to solve the mystery, and the location was made public. The venue then pushed through a ticketing system, spooked by diehard fans arriving from 6am to camp outside the venue, and fearing thousands of fans queuing up as the day continued.
There was a friendly camaraderie amongst the fellow fans I met, almost all attending solo due to the exclusivity of the ticketing process. Some had similar stories to my own, of fortunate timing, joy, and an unforeseen evening. Others had always planned to camp out. Some couldn’t believe their luck at snagging a ticket, travelling from further afield, or simply visiting London as tourists. One person, nervously checking his phone, didn’t have a ticket at all. After the concert, I saw him grinning in pure elation for a gig he so nearly missed.
Inside ‘The Studio’ room of the Courtyard Theatre, EDEN took us on a journey across his past 3 LPs. After ‘XO’ he premiered ‘Zzz’, his then-most recent single, to jubilant cries and chanting of “it’s your loss, your loss, your loss, if you’re lost”. An altered rendition of ‘How to Sleep’, from 2020’s No Future, stoked the crowd to a breaking point with its hypnotically repeating refrain, then slowly dissipated to bright, ethereal acoustic guitar. In this dark, underground room EDEN is at his best: at once both relaxed and low-key, yet intensely vulnerable, exuding nostalgia, longing, and despair.
That night, EDEN premiered a trio of unreleased tracks from his upcoming album dark. Despite some technical difficulties, it was here that the unique karaoke format was at its best, balancing EDEN’s typically word-laden lyrical approach with immediate accessibility to this new material. ‘Ghost in the Shell’, named after the Japanese cyberpunk franchise (which also adorned Jon’s t-shirt that night), oscillated from airy reverb-soaked vocals and moody pads to a violent, pulsing drum beat. It told the story of a broken relationship fading away, marred by infidelity and the contradiction between the protesting “don’t you know you’re throwing it away” and the introspective “I just wanna throw it all away”. ‘Friday night’, backed by crashing drums fading in and out, explored the duality of existential angst and self-obsession versus feeling unstoppable whilst partying intoxicated. Ng laid bare the highs and lows of a life of excess:
“Cos when Friday ends
What the fuck is left
I can’t lose
Again”
The final song performed was the then-unreleased ‘5ever’, since released as a single. Sombre and introspective, EDEN contrasts heavily distorted bass and piercing hi-hats with a bright and open acoustic guitar sound, weaving together a story of what could’ve been. There is a powerful obsession with temporality; the song presents the singer lingering inescapably in the past, powerless to change or else to make time to stand still and prevent consequence.
The direction of EDEN’s upcoming project dark remains shrouded. The distorted angularity of his previous record ICYMI is present but contrasted with softer passages more reminiscent of older material such as 2018’s Vertigo. This culmination of past works can be heard most prevalently in ‘5ever’, utilising a sonic language of both continuity and evolution that has sparked a passionate reception from fans. It is ‘Friday night’, however, in both subject matter and instrumentation and particularly in the use of a live drum track as opposed to programmed beats, that takes EDEN into uncharted territory. Satirical yet agonisingly real, here Ng displays his remarkable ability to both follow and subvert pop conventions with ease.
Far removed from his prodigal breakthroughs nearly a decade ago, EDEN remarkably remains a lone figure both on stage and in the writing, recording, and production processes. A month after his London performance, he released 'Pocket (Montreal)', a sombre, plodding ballad written in a day alone in a Montreal hotel room in 2023. Proclaiming"'it might be one of my favourite things I've ever made", the relationship between the Irish songwriter and his art evidently is as passionate as it ever was. This came two days after a second exclusive popup show on the 28th of August, this time in New York City. His global cult following is vibrant, and remains hungry for their next fix, unable to find music quite like his anywhere else - and while this dark art of manipulating soundwaves to emotional affect is not new, traceable across Medieval and even ancient history, EDEN is its modern-day master.
‘Zzz’, ‘5ever’, and ‘Pocket (Montreal)’ by EDEN are now out on all major streaming platforms.
Image taken by the writer.
Comments