But running alongside this is a sense of melancholy too. For every dream is counterbalanced by a sense of loss and longing, a mourning for what does not exist. After tender opener ‘soft gestures’ introduces the savedhistory sound with its slow style and whispered vocals, ‘within me’ charts the depth of this sadness. Ostensibly about the loss of something once held, the track pushes beyond the specificity of any given moment, serving as a elegy not only for the past but the unrealised future too. The places you’ll never visit, the people you’ll never meet.

i wish i could tear these thoughts away
listen to the voices (it’s calling for you)
is this existence?
around me i see,
lost and falling
running and hiding

There’s an urgency to ‘everyone else seems to have left’ that pushes beyond stereotype, casting loneliness as something desperate and consuming. There are vocals to the track but nothing you can quite parse, the voice unable to cut through the swirling noise. Closer ‘trying’ adds a newfound depth, the steady drum beat ironing the ambient tones into a sense of forward motion. It might not be enough to break free of the cloudy soundscape, but it feels like a possible beginning—an attempt to confront the tension at the heart of things, be it through keeping up or letting go.

distantly speaking in the language of silence is out now and available from the savedhistory Bandcamp page.

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Various Swell Sounds is a new collaborative playlist series from Shana Hartzel of Swell Tone, Jon Chin of Cereal and Sounds, and myself. Instead of constantly exchanging tracks amongst each other, we have decided to work together to bring them to more ears. Every month, we will match a selection of our old and brand new favourites to a specific theme, as decided on a revolving basis month by month.

After the brutal summer, the leaves are finally turning, which can only mean one thing. Yep, it’s the time of year to slip on pavements, make tired jokes about pumpkin spice coffee and hide behind closed curtains to ignore the calls for candy from ghouling children. We’ve made a playlist of songs to see you through the cool and crispy season.

There’s a Playmoss and Spotify version below, so choose what suits you best, though due to incomplete catalogues the are slight discrepancies between the two.

Check out our other Various Swell Sounds entries here and here, and head over to Swell Tone and Cereal + Sounds for the edition over there.

The post Various Swell Sounds #9: Cool & Crispy appeared first on Various Small Flames.