Dania: Her Album Listless – Personal Underground Pop Inspired by Hospital Night Shifts
In addition to producing atmospheric electronic pieces, the Baghdad-born, Spain-based musician Dania furthermore serves night shifts as an critical care physician. Those nocturnal hours serve as the inspiration for her latest release Listless: each of the 7 tracks were composed and produced after midnight, while the cover showcases the slender flower of the Trichosanthes cucumerina, a plant that flowers exclusively after dark. However, you won't find much of the chaos of her late-night routine in this music: instead, the album exudes a serene peacefulness that is at times blissful, occasionally eerie.
Converging at a point between trip-hop, shoegaze and atmospheric, with a touch of catchy melodies, the layered tracks slink along dreamily, propelled by washes of synthesizers and, for the first time, drums. An innovative feature to Dania’s typical setup, they lend a soft downtempo rhythm to a number of the songs. The shuffling, murky beat in Personal Assistant evokes the 1990s-era bands Scala and Seefeel, whereas the song Car Crash Premonition is the nearest the album come to urgent. Written following an unnerving taxi journey to her workspace one night, it is simultaneously contemplative and woozy, fit for a movie scene.
Additional songs, including one titled I Know That and another called Write My Name, are more reminiscent of Dania’s previous work: stripped back and amorphous. The closing track, named A Hunger, has a subaquatic feel, with bubbling and pinging sounds that sound like medical equipment, interwoven with altered answerphone-style singing.
The artist's soft, whispering voice is featured across almost the entirety of the album. Its lyrics are hardly discernible as her vocals are floating, repeated, stacked, sometimes almost absent entirely. Having been raised in a household where singing was discouraged, she’s said that it is an activity she’s always felt private about. Yet it’s additionally an brilliant choice, augmenting the dream-like haze on this gorgeous, intimate album.
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