The Artist Dania: Listless – Intimate Underground Music Inspired by Medical Late-Night Work
In addition to crafting atmospheric digital pieces, the Iraqi-born, Spain-based artist Dania also serves overnight duties as an emergency doctor. These late-night shifts serve as the inspiration for her latest release Listless: all 7 songs were composed and produced after midnight, while the cover features the spindly blossom of the Japanese snake gourd, a plant that flowers exclusively at night. However, you won't find much of the chaos of her late-night schedule here: rather, the record embodies a serene peacefulness that is sometimes euphoric, occasionally eerie.
Converging at a point amid downtempo, shoegaze and atmospheric, and a hint of pop, the layered songs slink along hypnotically, propelled by washes of synths and, for the first time, percussion. An innovative feature to the artist's typical arrangement, they lend a soft slow-paced rhythm to a number of the tracks. Its shuffling, hazy beat in Personal Assistant recalls the 1990s-era groups one group and Seefeel, while Car Crash Premonition is the nearest things get to urgent. Written following an disturbing cab ride to her studio one night, it is both brooding and dizzying, fit for a film montage.
Additional songs, including I Know That and another called Write My Name, are more reminiscent of Dania’s previous output: minimalist and amorphous. The final song, named A Hunger, possesses a underwater quality, with bubbling and beeping electronics that sound like hospital monitors, blended with distorted answerphone-style singing.
Dania’s soft, murmuring voice is featured across almost the entirety of the record. Its words are hardly discernible as her vocals are floating, repeated, layered, sometimes almost absent entirely. Having been raised in a household where singing was frowned upon, she has stated that it is an activity she has always felt personal. Yet it’s additionally an inspired choice, augmenting the surreal atmosphere on this beautiful, personal album.
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