The Artist Dania: Listless – Personal Experimental Pop Shaped by Hospital Night Shifts
In addition to producing atmospheric electronic pieces, this Baghdad-born, Barcelona-based musician Dania also works overnight duties as an critical care doctor. Those nocturnal hours are the influence behind her latest album Listless: each of the 7 tracks were written and recorded after midnight, while the cover features the slender flower of the Japanese snake gourd, a species that flowers exclusively at night. However, you won't find much of the turmoil of her late-night schedule here: rather, the record embodies a serene peacefulness that is at times euphoric, sometimes eerie.
Meeting somewhere between downtempo, ethereal rock and ambient, with a touch of pop, the textured tracks glide dreamily, driven by waves of synthesizers and, as a new element, drums. An innovative feature to Dania’s typical setup, these drums add a gentle downtempo rhythm to several of the tracks. The meandering, hazy rhythm in Personal Assistant recalls the late-90s groups one group and another, while the song Car Crash Premonition is the nearest the album get to urgent. Composed following an unnerving cab ride to her workspace late one evening, it is simultaneously contemplative and woozy, fit for a movie scene.
Additional songs, such as I Know That and another called Write My Name, are closer in style of the artist's previous work: minimalist and formless. The final song, named A Hunger, has a subaquatic feel, with bubbling and pinging electronics that resemble medical equipment, interwoven with altered voicemail-like singing.
The artist's soft, whispering vocal is featured through nearly the whole of the album. The words are hardly discernible as her vocals are floating, repeated, stacked, sometimes almost absent entirely. Having been raised in a household where singing was discouraged, she’s said that it is something she’s always felt personal. But it’s also an inspired decision, augmenting the surreal haze on this beautiful, intimate album.
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