reLISTEN #13: Ethereal
In today’s reLISTEN #13, we delve into the haunting yet beautiful universe of ethereal voices, fantastic sonic landscapes, and evocative melodies.
The landscape is dipped into a forest green and purple twilight—an astounding sight, somewhere between surreal and fantastic. Is it a dream or some kind of alternative reality?
Music's capability to teleport your mind to far-away places—even such completely made-up—is a continuous wonder. While some songs are sonically profoundly rooted in our world, others conjure up whole universes that spring from the endless creativity of human imagination.
In today's edition of reLISTEN, I collect five of these fantastical songs that could very well be the soundtrack to a fairy tale—although not necessarily happy ones.
They're coined by evocative melodies, similarly alien and familiar, uncanny soundscapes, and ethereal voices. Songs that could haunt your nightmares or spark images of imaginative worlds. Sounds that are flowing and cradling but only occasionally rise to epic proportions.
Hilary Woods – Black Rainbow
The song's title already gives it away: it's a sinister atmosphere, created by Dublin-born artist Hilary Woods, that awaits the listeners. Black Rainbow drags and writhes itself in darkness, spreads a velvety blanket across the mind like the night.
Woods' voice, half preaching, half whispering, seems almost detached from the composition. The instruments blend into a vast and pulling field, with only the short piano notes providing an oscillating relief.
Hilary WoodsMyke
Midas Fall – Evaporate
It starts melancholic, with the swelling strings slowly mutating into a constant melody. But then, a sharp e-guitar sneaks in, and as soon as the buzzing synthesisers appear, Midas Fall's Evaporate gains a haunting quality.
The Scottish duo unites Elizabeth Heaton's pleading voice and Rowan Burn's post-rock guitars with captivating, electronically driven soundscapes into a Janus-faced song with a goth-like quality that simultaneously feels almost violent.
My Time
In edition #81, we discover exceptional pop music, vintage vibes, and sonic poetry.
Welcome to today's curation of handpicked songs worthy of your attention. We are discovering the more playful expressions of pop music—from the ancient notions of chamber pop to the glowing lights encompassing Italo Disco.
Porto
Edition #80 brings you exciting new tunes to dance to and some edgy songs that provide unusual experiences.
Guilty Pleasures
I confess that I actually like these songs.
Weekly5 is taking a quick holiday break. So, instead of new tunes, I open my chest of shame and present you with five of my guilty pleasure songs.
But what is actually the definition of guilty pleasure? Wikipedia states:
«A guilty pleasure is something, such as a film, a television program, a piece of music, or an activity, that one enjoys despite understanding that it is not generally held in high regard, or is seen as unusual or weird.»
We could argue for days and nights about whether there's something like «bad taste» or bad music. All my guilty pleasure songs have racked up millions of streams on Spotify alone. They definitely struck a chord with the mass audience; however, they might be considered trashy by more music-affine people.
In the end, it doesn't matter that much. If you enjoy a particular song more than you feel you should, don't worry. Simply enjoy!
Gigi D’Agostino – L’Amour Toujours
Trash or classic? It's always a tricky question with Gigi D'Agostino, a staple boy of Italo-Dance around the millennium. L'Amour Toujours, only one of his megahits, is oddly two-sided: There's the annoying altered female voice, but nobody can refrain from humming the undying synth melody.
God Complex
Edition #79 heavily leans into new electronic sounds with some rap and indie-pop thrown into the mix.
🎵 About today's curation: You'll find a predominantly electronically driven set of tracks that house a particular sinister or archaic atmosphere. Breaking up the stomping beats are two songs residing in hauntingly beautiful indie-pop and dreamy hip-hop.
Bedroom Sunshine
Edition #78 embraces the misty and slightly sleepy atmosphere in music. The soundtrack for a slow Sunday morning when the sunshine gently hits the bedroom walls.
It’s rare that a regular edition comes together and unifies in a common theme. However, once in a while, it surprisingly happens like today.
This week’s five carefully curated tracks feature the perfect Sunday morning soundtrack when you feel a bit lazy and maybe still a bit sleepy, yet the sunshine hitting your bedsheets promises a beautiful day.
February Recap
Check out some of the best songs released in February by Jon Hood, Markus Nikolaus, Sensu, Amber Arcades, and Rosa Rendl.
reLISTEN #12: Zeilensounds
reLISTEN #12 brings you five tracks recommended by my colleagues at work.
In August 2022, I started a new job at the software agency Zeilenwerk in Bern, Switzerland. One of the first Slack channels I was invited to was #music_n_stuff, where we mainly post random songs or albums.
The channel has been a great source of inspiration, especially in the electronic music department. So I decided to give some of my work colleague's recommendations a bigger platform.