Producing a haunting art-folk immersion reminiscent of Beth Gibbons and Marissa Nadler, “What We Call Love” is a moving new track from Berlin-based artist Joanna Gemma Auguri. The title-referencing chorus stirs in its infusions of reflective strings and brighter, sporadic brass — while the verses move with a ghostly percussive pit-pattering, eerie bass, and quivering vocal momentum. “The land stands in silence,” the descriptive vocals let out there, escalating gradually and with artful entrancement.
The standout track comes from Auguri’s new album, Hiraeth. The album title is “an untranslatable Welsh word for a place or something past that we have lost or that perhaps never existed,” per the artist. “It is homesickness, nostalgia and melancholy. I didn’t realise until after I’d finished recording that for me, the album is a longing for integrity and innocence in a world that’s out of balance.”
Conveyances of love, and ensuing crumbling, is poetically conveyed. “My heart bursts inside my chest. I can feel your pain with my own skin, still I see us fail again,” Auguri sings, developing seamlessly into the heartrending impact of the chorus. “What We Call Love” is a fantastic piece of songwriting from Auguri, from an album that contains an abundance of such.
Stream the entirety of Hiraeth:
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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
