Soley "HEX" (2024)

 

Its been a minute since we've heard from Soley. This short movie soundtrack lures us back into her creepy side. The opening theme conspires a soft whirl of 60s sci-fi horror synth with haunting layers eerie voices. It has just enough strangled percussion to muster a Victorian freak show theatrical charm. Powerful but brief. After a stint of tense dark ambience, Entering Of The Witches reignites this flame, a spaghetti western guitar spangle soured by mischievous choral voices floating through limbo. It to is halted by short duration not looking to flesh out the experience into a full song.

Desert is different, starting out a quirky oddity of childlike innocence, colliding with thee obscure. Soley's voice enters tame and gentle, getting lost as atmospheric ambiguities melt into the forefront with cursed shapeless intensities. As crescendo approaches, never arriving, she disappears, only for the cackle of crows to cry through the eerie ether. Her return brings harmony to this restlessness, a powerful resolve.

Nostalgia briefly dabbles in spooky de-tuned piano melodies but ambles back into the shadows swiftly. The nature of this format forces Soley into brief compositions, complimenting the cinema setting. Even with those limitations, flashes of brilliance still arise, a reminder she has much to offer. A craft still strong from chilling inspirations.

Rating: 4/10

Soley "Mother Melancholia" (2021)

 

Last Christmas I experienced the magical resonance of a sparkling wintry record, Endless Summer. On the heals of that excitement I leaped upon this latest release. What I've found is far from that beauty and spirited charm. As implied in its name and powerful album art, Mother Melancholia wallows in the pains of an eternal attachment to a melancholy Soley explores with her music. This time the construct is sparse and atmospheric. Little inklings of song, blossoms out of the darkness with chilling piano melodies fading into bleak elongated ambiences aligned with hints of deviousness on tracks like Parasite and Elegia.

 There are scarce moments of warmth but Soley mostly sings with shyness from a vulnerable place. Accompanied by lonely brooding instrumentation the record often feels sad and lost, as if wandering through limbo for an eternity. Many of the compositions leads to swells as the gentle atmospheres steadily gather gusto. The devilishly slow and sluggish Blows Up has a grabbing two note guitar riff to conclude the progress. Its so apt and timely as much of the record is with its aesthetic and musical choices. Many ideas play out to a point.

Mother Melancholia is a fine record, bravely exploring despairing lonely spaces and other degrees of human sorrow. Where it falters is perhaps in the listeners mood. Contented to relax and absorb, then its a fine experience but its charm is a calm current to gently drift with. There isn't a lot to jump to for hits of excitement and skipping around the track listing reveals a lot of lengthy ambiences. A fine but fair record. I do like the darkly mourning of Soley's performances but without a counterpart, it does feel hard to get excited about in its persistent gloominess.

Rating: 6/10

Soley "Ask The Deep" (2015)

 

Prompted by the stunning Endless Summer, I wanted enjoy more of Icelandic singer songwriter Soley's music. Ive found myself on familiar ground, as the twisted darkly album art would suggest, this is the creepier side of her sound I remember from We Sink. It has a hint of the direction to come with Dreamers in its closing phase but mostly resides in the ambiguous shadows of eeriness. Always without danger or threat these songs revel in a childish wonder surrounded by a darkness that never gets close. Its clearly a bridge between the two aforementioned records.

Ask The Deep strolls through its lukewarm apatite, songs croon by as warm pianos cushion the waves for her soft voice to gently act as the sails pulling it along. Each track steadily builds with a wonderful but not overwhelming variety of instruments brooding towards swells of sound often risen by luscious airy synths. Its percussive drive is refreshing, grooves snap, shuffle and patter with the less conventional drum tones the snare and kick would normally occupy. The mood break to a grave tone with the subdued One Eyed Lady and Ohljoo, I Will Never brings in a funeral gloom later on. Its contrasted but provides variety that shifts deeper into any unease.

 

Follow Me Down has this Dungeon Synth arrangement on loop, buried bellow other instruments. I could swear its from Trolldom. Probably just a very similar melodic composition. All in all its a lovely record. Mysterious and slightly esoteric, my focus is always pulled away from the brightness that emanates from Soley's voice over the warm pianos. Its not actually that dark of a record but isn't quite as remarkable as what she will go on to create and the brighter songs are all my favorites.

Rating: 6/10

Soley "Endless Summer" (2017)

 

Endless Summer somehow doesn't seem a fitting title, perhaps the musics charm simply engulfs the current environment. With cold, pristine, shimmering pianos, a spell of calming serenity is ushered in. All too perfect for this winter and Christmas season. Its been my recent walking music of late, making it hard to not associate it with the cold weather and anticipation of spending time with family. Most the songs blossom with strings, percussion and deeper piano notes bubbling up in the later parts of these songs. It light a warmth under its brittle high keys where the tracks start from. In these denser moments one can feel the smile of the sun, a carefree spirit of summer. For me though, its been cast as a snowy record fit for early sunsets and chilly breezes.

Icelandic musician and charming singer Soley has somehow escaped my grasp. Stunned by her debut We Sink, I've managed to folly the simple task of following her output over the years. That will have to be corrected. I remember her music having a twisted shadowy edge in moments, its not present on this outing. She forges a genuine warmth, the chemistry between these graceful serine pianos and her soft, vulnerable voice is endlessly uplifting from a place just shy of melancholy and sadness. It is most often felt in the elegant piano performances, which tend to start a song drifting, bare and lonely. Soley rescues them with human expression as her voice and accompanying instruments lift them to a safe, warm and carefree place.

The playing is wonderfully dynamic. Chords and melodies weave with quite and loud dynamics, inviting measures of reverberation and a timely sense for where the music will suddenly grow with an ushering in of synths or percussion. Not hinging on any given pace or structure, the pianos lead, playing of itself, music that blossoms of its own accord. Although there may be patterns and structures, rarely does it feel obvious or like repetition is running its rotations. All of its eight songs tend to sweep you up into its own moment and hold you there. A truly captivating listen, always as a whole.

If I turn my mind to criticism, I can only turn it to myself. Her wondrous voice holds a curious space, feeling adjacent to both happiness and sorrow, childlike innocence and reflective maturity. I should of perhaps taken time to read the lyrics as her singing is not of the discernible sorts I am usually exposed too. Somehow I always listen to the emotion of a voice, not the actual words. Here there is emotions in droves. Having been spellbound for a while now, binging this record on every walk, I am now left with that familiar sentiment of wondering how this will hold up in time to come. I'm pretty certain this ones a keeper. Great record, will have to dig up another one!

Rating: 9/10

Soley "We Sink" (2011)

Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Soley has created a rather beautiful piece of memorable melancholy with her debut "We Sink". The albums theme has been stirring deep in my mind these past few months, its cutesy childlike innocence takes a dreamy, wandering stroll towards harm as playful curiosity leads to a dark haunting with a handful of the albums songs. It alone is not the only charm, where danger is not near a stream of soothing delicate emotion ripples from her sweet and graceful voice, singing humble, personal tales over folksy acoustic guitars and warm, golden piano notes. With gentle instruments and guileless percussion, aesthetics take a powerful roll in setting the tone as natural ambiences, fidelity and microphone choices characterize the instruments meaning in the music.

"Bad Dream" is the albums first turn to shadows, the microphone and its use of reverberation gives the song an early recording nostalgia that heavily emphasis the aesthetic subtlety found steering key instruments in several songs throughout. "Kill That Clown" echos an innocence passing through black flames as a sublime solo piano orchestrates a dark, harrowing presence for Soley's voice to wander by, unaware of whats lurking in the shadows. Another dark track "About Your Funeral" has a fantastic example of the childish innocence infecting the rhythm with playful beat boxed rhythm. This can also be heard on the opener "I'll drown" with its percussion made of knocks and taps like the smashing of toys for instinctive, primal sounds.

These elements come together for entrancing songs that captivate attention with their emotional connections to wondrous and personal places that flirt with darkness in moments. The lyrics constantly teeter on pain and the contrast between its inviting nature and apparently darker meanings create an air of mystery that illuminates an ambiguity lurking in every moment of this record. Its without a weak point, every song goes somewhere and a couple really do strike a nerve in their element. This is a stunning debut that will only entice me for more now.

Favorite Tracks: I'll Drown, Blue Leaves, Kill That Clown, About Your Funeral, Theater Island

Rating: 8/10