The Artist Dania: Her Album Listless – Personal Experimental Pop Inspired by Medical Night Shifts
Besides producing atmospheric digital compositions, the Iraqi-born, Spain-based musician Dania also works overnight duties as an critical care physician. These nocturnal shifts are the influence for her new album Listless: each of the seven songs were composed and produced after midnight, while the artwork showcases the spindly flower of the Japanese snake gourd, a species that flowers exclusively after dark. But, there is little trace of the chaos of her overnight routine here: rather, the album embodies a quiet peacefulness that is at times euphoric, sometimes uncanny.
Meeting somewhere amid trip-hop, shoegaze and atmospheric, with a touch of pop, the textured songs glide dreamily, driven by waves of synthesizers and, as a new element, drums. A new addition to Dania’s typical setup, they lend a soft downtempo kick to several of the songs. The shuffling, hazy beat in Personal Assistant evokes the late-90s bands Scala and another, while Car Crash Premonition is the nearest the album get to intense. Written following an unnerving cab ride to her studio one night, it is both brooding and woozy, fit for a movie scene.
Other tracks, such as one titled I Know That and another called Write My Name, are closer in style of the artist's previous work: minimalist and amorphous. The final song, named A Hunger, has a underwater feel, with bubbling and pinging electronics that sound like hospital equipment, blended with distorted voicemail-like singing.
The artist's gentle, murmuring voice is featured through nearly the whole of the record. The lyrics are almost imperceptible as her vocals are suspended, repeated, stacked, at points almost absent entirely. Having been raised in a home where singing was frowned upon, she has stated it’s an activity she’s always felt private about. Yet it’s additionally an brilliant decision, augmenting the dream-like haze on the gorgeous, personal record.
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