Somnorine by Skylarka feels like being dropped into someone else’s subconscious with a synth strapped to your chest and a philosophy book in your hand. A seasoned producer who’s spent 20+ years in the trenches, Skylarka rebuilt herself as an online artist and quite literally made this record live on Twitch, with viewers tossing in lyric ideas and live feedback as the songs took shape.
Every track is drawn from a real dream, circling themes of reality, sleep, death, and whatever strange in-between space ties them together. There are nods to bebop contrafacts, to “Fly Me to the Moon,” to existential punk in the Iron Chic vein. It’s synthwave that’s as much about consciousness as it is about cool sounds.
The journey starts with “Half-Remembered,” and the title couldn’t be more on the nose. The song is calm with ambient music flowing alongside a deep buzz. A pulse starts building with an anticipatory touch, and a swelling current beams up in bouts. It’s like the moment right before you wake up, when the dream is still clinging to your skin.
Elsewhere, “Amid the Burning Blossoms” takes that unease and turns the dial. The song has a deep, tense rev and the beats come dropping hard amidst shimmery dreaminess. Beauty and dread blur together, like watching something on fire in slow motion.
Just when you think you’ve settled into pure synth territory, “Mo(u)rning Lazarus” kicks down the door. The song has grinding, gritty guitars and thumping beats. A singer with a gnarly, raspy high voice sings tensely and frustratedly. It’s an openly existential punk rock anthem, the moment the record stops floating and starts shouting back at the void. Somnorine is unresolved, vulnerable dream logic rendered in sound, all the more gripping for it. Listen to it on Spotify.
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Review by: Naomi Joan