Swan•seas, hailing from Milan, are a dream-laced indie rock ensemble composed of Corrado Angelini (vocals, guitar), Daniele De Liberato (guitar, synths), Andrea Di Dedda (bass), and Enrico Buttafuoco (drums, programming). Bursting onto the scene in 2022, they have unveiled their debut LP, Songs in the Key of Blue.
Songs in the Key of Blue have distilled their experiences into nine tracks that shimmer with ethereal rock beauty, each serving as a snapshot of the band’s formative period, marked by the turbulence of the pandemic and shifting personnel line-ups. Rooted in the classic guitar/bass/drums foundation, the album is augmented with electronic elements and drum machines. Their sound navigates the 90s indie rock landscape of both the UK and US, subtly infused with shoegaze and dream-pop textures, evoking anything from Suede, Ride, and The Jesus and Mary Chain, washing over the senses with a tactile wall of sound.
On Songs in the Key of Blue, Each track is a journey—a soundscape of longing and loss, woven from gossamer threads of whispers and echoes that crash like emotional tidal waves.
Themes of absence and its ramifications, articulated through a personal lexicon that merges metaphors and allusions, serve as the connective thread uniting the nine tracks. This exploration of absence creates a cohesive and reflective atmosphere.
The album opens with Frosted Glass, which drifts through a hazy dreamscape, its shoegaze melodies laced with a gentle wistfulness. The song carries a subtle melancholy, like distant memories viewed through a fogged window, evoking a bittersweet longing. Fuzzy Feeling gently envelops you in its shoegaze embrace,. The accompanying performance video captures the band’s live energy, set against a backdrop of kaleidoscopic lights, enhancing the song’s dreamy atmosphere and leaving an echo of bittersweet longing in its wake.
Next comes A Line Slowly Tracing, spinning a delicate web of metaphors and allusions, its melody lingering like whispered secrets. Following is Clarity, with a steady, slow pace that mirrors the weight of emptiness, each note a step through the echo of what once was, a poignant meditation.
Ethan continues the theme with a melancholic tenderness, unfolding with a graceful elegance. Fountainhead follows, its deliberate pacing and haunting melodies reflecting the weight of absence, underscored by its eerie guitar.
Then arrives 2002, haunting in its stark simplicity, with plaintive, almost angelic minor chord guitar. Drop to the Floor offers dense layers and blissful percussion, creating a hypnotic, almost trance-like state, pulling you into a swirling vortex of psychedelia. Finally, the album closes with Such a Drag, enveloping the listener in a haze of plodding, swirling guitars and delicate synths. The track’s dreamy, almost lethargic pace transports you to a place where everything seems beautifully blurred.
Songs in the Key of Blue is out now on CD, LP, and digital via Waddafuzz! Records and Shore Dive Records.
Particular care and imagination have been lavished on the album’s artwork and its singles, springing from the minds of Corrado Angelini and Andrea Di Dedda. The central visual theme—blue—draws its essence from the cyanotype photographic technique. This distinct visual approach amplifies the thematic resonance and unity of the music.
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