The Artist Dania: Her Album Listless – Personal Experimental Music Shaped by Medical Night Shifts
In addition to producing evocative digital pieces, this Iraqi-born, Barcelona-based musician Dania also serves overnight duties as an emergency physician. Those nocturnal hours serve as the inspiration behind her new album Listless: all seven songs were composed and produced after midnight, and the artwork showcases the slender blossom of the Trichosanthes cucumerina, a species that flowers exclusively at night. However, you won't find much of the chaos of her overnight routine here: instead, the record exudes a quiet calm that is sometimes blissful, sometimes eerie.
Meeting at a point between downtempo, shoegaze and atmospheric, and a hint of catchy melodies, the textured tracks slink along hypnotically, driven by waves of synths and, as a new element, drums. A new addition to Dania’s typical arrangement, these drums add a soft downtempo rhythm to several of the songs. Its shuffling, murky rhythm in Personal Assistant recalls the late-90s groups one group and Seefeel, whereas the song Car Crash Premonition is the nearest things get to intense. Written after an unnerving cab ride to her workspace late one evening, it is simultaneously brooding and woozy, ideal for a movie scene.
Other tracks, such as I Know That and another called Write My Name, are more reminiscent of the artist's previous work: minimalist and formless. The final song, named A Hunger, has a underwater quality, with gurgling and pinging electronics that resemble medical monitors, interwoven with distorted voicemail-like singing.
The artist's gentle, murmuring voice is featured through nearly the whole of the record. Its lyrics are hardly discernible as her vocals are suspended, looped, stacked, at points barely there at all. Growing up in a home where singing was frowned upon, she has stated it’s an activity she’s always felt private about. Yet this is also an brilliant decision, augmenting the dream-like atmosphere on the gorgeous, intimate record.
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