Milan based duo Pinhdar, (Cecelia Miradoli and Max Tarenzi) released their first album in 2019, after leaving their previous band, Nomoredolls. Moving onto their next project, Cecelia and Max found that the world had stopped and life was very different. Luckily for us though, their creativity didn’t stop and they created the eight tracks of their new album, Parallel, entirely in lockdown and with the production skills of legendary Scottish producer Howie B (U2, Bjork).
Parallel takes us into a parallel reality, through the bewilderment felt during the months of lockdown, a universe of surreal and abstract sounds and concepts. The album is a dream like journey through existential anxiety borne from the global experience of Covid-19. The experimental nature of the sounds created are enhanced by Cecelia’s vocals, by turns ethereal and earthy, reminiscent of Kate Bush, particularly when paired with the swirling melodies of the lead track ‘Anacreonte‘.
The title track brings in the earthiness to the vocals, reflecting the theme of environmentalism and the threats our world faces. Additionally, ‘Parallel‘ explores the extremes of what sometimes seems like living in a parallel universe of our own – so much has happened, yet lives have been on hold, so much time has passed yet 2019 seems a heartbeat away still.
Another issue that has been thrown into focus this year has been our collective introspection of what it means to be human; I guess being faced with our own mortality on an unimaginable scale will do that for you. In ‘Glass Soul‘ and ‘Atoms and Dust‘, Pindhar take a look at the nature of vulnerability, we are all “emotionally undone”,
light is all around…all I can see is darkness
‘Atoms and Dust’ takes this a step further by using the whole song to express humanity’s battle since early 2020. The first one and half minutes have a held back sound, like the world holding its breath in shock, before building to a crescendo that once more fades back to a slower rhythm.
The album finishes with two tracks that encompass both a track filled with nightmarish images (“all your dreams are gone” in ‘Hidden Wonders’) and a dreamlike finale in ‘The Hour of Now‘. The latter is very much a song of two halves, the first three minutes featuring Cecelia’s haunting vocals followed by a powerful, pulsating bass line, reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac. It’s almost disturbing yet peaceful. Parallel is an album that feels experimental, abstract, surreal albeit with it’s feel planted firmly on the ground.
Our advice is to follow your instinct and emotions first. But that is not going to be enough: you’ll need to listen to a lot of music, be curious and open to new things and then mix all this to work on your own identity,
Don’t mind about trends because they pass by fast but music is a form of beauty that human beings are always going to need. Somehow, who makes music lives forever.”
Parallel is released on 26 March.
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