hERON is an instrumental hip hop duo from Seattle comprised of Eric Progeny Frias of Chisme and Ghost Palace fame, and Rob Castro of Grayskul and Ghost Palace. They released their debut self-titled album a little over a year ago. They now follow that up with an EP called Desolate Paradise.

Desolate Paradise is technically a short release, with five songs clocking in at just around fifteen minutes, but once you press play on the EP, the music is so engrossing that you just might lose track of time for a moment. It’s an interesting dynamic to the duo, with Frias laying down the beats, fleshing them out with guitar and synths, and then Castro fleshing out the compositions on bass. That said, what really matters is the end result, and the result on Desolate Paradise is really good. The songs are dark and moody without being foreboding or depressing. It’s more like the soundtrack to a rainy day or something like that. They do a great job of composing fully formed songs that really take you on a musical journey, so that you can really let yourself go and get lost within the music while you’re listening. It’s the type of music that works really well on headphones, so you can really let the music bounce around in your head and get lost in your thoughts. While each song holds up on its own, the real key to the EP is how well each song comes together to create this arc over the course of the five songs.

Desolate Paradise is a shorter release, but it’s not just filler. It’s a really moving instrumental composition that takes you on a journey from start to finish, and it shows that their self-titled album was no fluke.