Patchnotes Doesn't Need Words to Explore a Pallet of Emotions on 'Endless Surrender'

The Portland-based chillwave musician is back with a gorgeous follow-up to last year's 'Golden Hour.'

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Western superstition says Friday the 13th is an unlucky day, but when I check in with Kyle Schwendinger on the day’s most recent appearance, everything is going his way. Fresh off a moment of employment status panic earlier in the week, he’s had two interviews with a hopeful prospect. Midway through our conversation, he gets the good news: the potential turns into a job offer. Not only does the development ease his mind, but it’s also a chance to work at a not-for-profit that is hopefully more fulfilling than the position left behind.

For the Portland-based musician, the day kept getting better. “I’m going to break a streaming record today,” Schwendinger tells me. Pointing out that forty-five people are simultaneously listening to his new single, “I Love You,” the second and final before the release of his new album, Endless Surrender, he says, “It’s been going like this since three a.m.”

This is fantastic streaming legs for someone creating atmospheric chillwave music, an offshoot from an already niche genre with a dedicated fanbase. Patchnotes is his performing name, and it’s been a year since the release of his debut record, Golden Hour. With hit single and album centerpiece “Baby” at the heart of the long-player, Golden Hour became a surprise hit for Patchnotes.

Praise from established ear candy miners like Gorilla Vs. Bear soon followed, with Reddit’s dedicated r/vaporwave subreddit naming it one of their favorites of the year. Yours truly listened to Golden Hour more times than any other record last year, resulting in the album finishing at number two in my 2022 Album of the Year wrap-up.

Not everything has come up roses for Schwendinger this past year, though, as he found himself at the end of a relationship. Endless Surrender is the result, as Schwendinger processed heartbreak through his Patchnotes outlet. “It’s basically about exiting and relationship and going through the steps of falling in and out of love with someone,” says Schwendinger.”For me, this entire thing is just kind of a therapeutic out, I suppose you could say.”

Endless Surrender shines attractively as an outright album as its twelve songs flow from one to the next during a forty-seven-minute journey. Though he didn’t exactly know how the deck would stack, Schwendinger knew he wanted to create an unbroken experience and looked to Washed Out’s expansive Paracosm as an inspiration. “I didn't really have an idea of where things would go or how they would be tied together,” Schwendinger tells me. “After completing everything, I took all the tracks, put them into Ableton, and tied them together after finding out where everything should go. I definitely wanted to make it a continuous piece of music.”

One of the signature sounds of Patchnotes is the progressive buildup and layering of textures that blossom into electronic beauty, and according to Schwendinger, it’s no mistake. “Most of my stuff has this kind of slow buildup in the beginning like it's really a kind of a chance to set the tone for like the rest of the song. That was the whole purpose of (Endless Surrender's opening song) ‘Relapse.’ It’s a buildup to exhale.” Sometimes the process begins with the song’s hook and Schwendinger working backward, as he tells me, “While all of my songs start with a pad, sometimes I make a catchy loop and then think, ‘alright, how do I get to here?’ before returning to the beginning.”

With Golden Hour, Patchnotes excelled at creating a particular listening experience simply by molding an atmosphere and including a few vocal samples. Endless Surrender does an even better job of this, as the primarily wordless instrumental album conveys the emotion in the music, allowing the listener to experience Schwendinger’s pain and grief without lyrics. Few in the chillwave scene convey as much emotion without words as Patchnotes. There is once again plenty of chopped vocal samples, but including poet Kayla Hall on “Exhale” kicks things off with refreshing ideas. Schwendinger’s increased interest in spoken word is also present, and songs like “Reminiscent” and “Still” include pieces he wrote for the album.

“Can you recall the rain-drenched sidewalks after golden hour?

We found cover under canvas awnings and at bars to escape, but only for a moment.

It was somewhat reminiscent of the lives we lived before.

It doesn’t rain here like it does back home, but, we remember.”

-Patchnotes on “Reminiscent.”

Golden Hour and Endless Surrender are companion pieces that thoroughly explore that slow-building Patchnotes sound. Still, Schwendinger is eager to chart new territory, starting with “Last Call,” his new single for the latest Coast to Coast Collective EP. Longtime readers are familiar with the group, formed by Luxury Noise (Paul Nunn, who also has an excellent guest spot on Endless Surrender's “Tessellate”) and Patchnotes last year. The project saw the release of its third installment this past weekend with Vol III: Pacific Winter. The Patchnotes song installs a more uptempo beat than anything we’ve heard from him previously while including the phone call theme found on Endless Surrender.

As Schwendinger looks to the future as a working musician, he’s full of new inspiration. “I want to do something in between (what I’m doing) now and more DJ-oriented sets,” says Schwendinger. “So for the next Coast to Coast Collective show, I basically sped up everything from Golden Hour and Endless Surrender. I want to go a little faster, but I don't want to stray away from the chillwave feel too much. There needs to be a mixture. I want to fuck with the spoken word a lot more, but mostly I'm just going to take everything that I've learned so far and expand on it.”

For now, lose yourself in the Endless Surrender. It may just be the album that surprisingly defines your year.

Endless Surrender is available now on Pacific Plaza Records.