Driven by Alessandra Gismondi (vocals, bass) and Luca Bandini (guitar, synthesizers and drum machine), the Italian duo Schonwald has already became one of the 'hot' names in the European dark underground scene.Their fourth album 'Night Idyll' contains ten songs and released on Manic Depression Records in 1st of June in vinyl, CD and digital format.
The new album follows the same path with the previous albums. Minimalist, synthetic and hypnotic atmospheres reminding legendary bands like ‘Cocteau Twins’ ('sleepy destiny' ,'austral') , ‘Jesus and Mary Chain’(‘love Collides’), 'Suicide'('a secret') evoking the spirit of the 80s but also bands of today like : Soft Moon , Kvb e.t.c. There is a perfect balance between dream pop , shoegaze and post punk carried by sonic guitars , driving beats usually with danceable tempo and the sensual sometimes ethereal ,sometimes childish vocals of Alessandra.
This album reveals an impressive number of great songs talking about love-passion lasting over time. My favourites: The bright 'Austral' with the great basslines, the melancholic and hypnotic 'Sleepy Destiny' that gives an ethereal swirly feel , the first single 'Love Collides' with the beautiful video, the blissful 'Oceans' with the great dreamy vocals and the closing song 'temple' a perfect blend of cold electronic sounds riddled with hypnotic vocals.
In conclusion , Night Idyll is a carefully chiseled piece of dark pop that sounds really fascinating everywhere,in the club, in the car, in home . As a pure listening experience, Night Idyll, like all of the Schonwald albums, delivers a lot of musical ideas in a modern way. Highly recommended to all shoegaze, dreampop,postpunk listeners.
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