Winterlight manages to unearth a sense of nostalgia that temporarily converts darkness into light, sharpness into haze, and grittiness into serenity. These surreal audio elements skitter along like cottony tones peppering the landscape with sweet and tranquil complexity.
[Listen | Purchase] Did you enjoy Herrmann & Kleine’s warm and emotive instrumental-electronica back in the early 00’s, especially as featured on Our Noise with Morr Music? Remember how this particular album meshed highly contagious melodies with an instrumental punch bouncing in multiple directions? Now, fast-forward nine years, slow the velocity a few notches, and consider this relative newcomer offering similar (albeit lighthearted) anthems. Mix in a few strands of lightly tapping percussion, torn guitar extracts tied to softened harmonies, and you have Winterlight‘s debut, Hope Dies Last on n5MD.
Spilling instrumental shoegaze and electronic-tinged beauty, this release has a high degree of ebb and flow mirroring life. And while we can’t really know or understand all of the frustrations during our time on this circular cosmic spot, Winterlight manages to unearth a sense of nostalgia that temporarily converts darkness into light, sharpness into haze, and grittiness into serenity. These surreal audio elements skitter along like cottony tones peppering the landscape with sweet and tranquil complexity. Brushed noise and floating ambience sways through the ears as subtle beats and drifting lyrics are exposed to the furthest depths. The entire album delivers featherlight electronics intermixed with a hands-on instrumental flare; this is where Winterlight really sparks. Though these relatively smooth tracks slip away on first rotation, they begin to take magnetic shape the second time around.
Fans of Ulrich Schnauss, Syntaks and Bitcrush (Mike Cadoo contributes bass / drum programing while Becca Riedtmann delivers vocal stretches on “A Sky Full of Clouds”) will not regret submerging their ears in Hope Dies Last‘s musical surroundings.
Hope Dies Last is out now on n5MD. [Listen | Purchase]
[audio:http://igloomag.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Winterlight_Natvardsgästerna.mp3|titles=Winterlight “Natvardsgästerna” (clip)]
