Dania: Her Album Listless – Intimate Experimental Pop Shaped by Hospital Night Shifts
In addition to crafting atmospheric digital compositions, the Baghdad-born, Spain-based musician Dania furthermore works night shifts as an emergency physician. These nocturnal shifts serve as the inspiration for her new release Listless: each of the 7 tracks were composed and produced in the early hours, and the artwork showcases the spindly blossom of the Japanese snake gourd, a species that flowers exclusively after dark. However, you won't find much of the chaos of her overnight schedule in this music: rather, the record exudes a quiet peacefulness that is at times euphoric, sometimes uncanny.
Converging at a point between trip-hop, ethereal rock and atmospheric, with a touch of catchy melodies, the textured songs glide dreamily, propelled by waves of synthesizers and, for the first time, drums. A new addition to the artist's typical setup, they lend a soft slow-paced rhythm to several of the tracks. The meandering, hazy beat in the track Personal Assistant recalls the late-90s groups one group and Seefeel, while the song Car Crash Premonition is the closest things come to urgent. Written following an disturbing cab ride to her studio late one evening, it is simultaneously brooding and woozy, ideal for a movie scene.
Additional songs, such as I Know That and another called Write My Name, are more reminiscent of the artist's previous output: stripped back and formless. The final song, A Hunger, possesses a underwater quality, with bubbling and pinging electronics that resemble hospital monitors, interwoven with altered voicemail-like singing.
Dania’s gentle, whispering voice is present through nearly the whole of the record. Its words are almost imperceptible as her vocals are floating, looped, stacked, sometimes almost absent entirely. Having been raised in a home where singing was frowned upon, she has stated it’s an activity she has always felt personal. But this is additionally an brilliant choice, enhancing the dream-like haze on this beautiful, personal record.
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