Sea of Love #2 - Tired

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At the turn of the year I posted an Introducing blog on Marie-Sophie Kanske's Sea of Love, a Dresden, Germany based singer-songwriter whom released a debut EP entitled So Loud that crossed the intimate, lovelorn mystique of Lykke Li with dark, brooding soundscapes akin to early Daughter material.

She returns with her second EP Tired (released tomorrow and available to order now via Sea of Love's Bandcamp page), with two preview tracks treading a similar path of hushed, reflective beauty. The minimalist "About" enchants, weaving a haunted web of intoxicating beauty with plaintive guitar loops and tender vocals serenading for listener into a melancholic state of dream-like bliss.

The title track "Tired" starts off similarly with stark, finger-plucked acoustic guitar and softening ambient twinkles accompanying Marie-Sophie's unique, otherworldly vocals until half way through there's a shift in sound when pounding tom beats create a darker mood in which haunting harmonies are effortlessly entwined.

If you're looking for the perfect winter balladry to warm the chilly, lonesome nights ahead then Sea of Love might just be what you were after.

Sea of Love - New Music "Introducing"

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One of the roles in running a new music blog is being positive about everything all of the time (well in this blog anyway, I don't post music that doesn't interest me as I don't see the point). It means this blog could be seen as an almost endless stream of superlatives about everything, often acts with little more than two bedroom demos to their name sometime get covered in equal glory to distinguished artists on their fifth record, perhaps it's too much, too soon, sometimes anyway. On this occasion I'm 100% behind my praise for an act who upon my discovery a couple of weeks back (I've held back the post until I wrote something I was averagely happy with) provided me with the first genuine (musical) goosebumps moment of 2013.

It was the absolutely heart-stirring live rendition of "My World" (video below) that caused it (I've got no idea about the mask mind), an absolute knock-out of a track by an act completely new to me called Sea of Love with stark soundscapes and spine-tingling vocals it immediately stopped me in my tracks.

Sea of Love is led by Marie-Sophie Kanske from Dresden (I apologise to the man in the fox mask, I couldn't find your name) who released the five track EP So Loud on January 4th (available digitally and on 10" vinyl via KF Records here). It impresses from start to finish, swelling with a similar sense of beauty to the lovelorn moments of Wounded Rhymes era Lykke Li, opener, the sorrowful lament "Your Arrangement" is drenched in slow-motion melancholia with cavernous kettle drum beats and languid, breathy vocals which creates a plaintive atmosphere which stays throughout the EP. "Go" similarly intimate, displaying heart-wrenching fragility of love lost around a haunted wall of sound and delicate guitar nuances.

"So Loud" provides a little murmured piano-led interlude into the recorded version of "My World" which casts its spell with an electronic heart-beat with minimalistic samples adding another layer to the tapestry of sounds before closing track "Like Throwing Pebbles Into The Sea" changes things up a little, leaving the acoustic sorrow behind with the EP's most aggressive moment, building up slowly amongst lovelorn lyrics to a fuzzed-up explosion of guitar riffs and clattering percussion.

Primal and pure, So Loud is an affecting EP that leaves you longing for more.



Sea of Love · Wait A Little While from Sea of Love on Vimeo.