We first met online artist Skylarka back in 2023, celebrating her previous album ‘Radish IV: Digital Frontier’ as “music that feels hypnotising, highly cinematic and, first and foremost, timeless”, a description that makes perfect sense when considering the project’s obsession with anything synthwave, and its nostalgic 80s-driven sentiment. While we do believe that synthwave has been partly overdone in the past decade or so, nothing about Skylarka is ordinary, a feature that makes her stand out in a rather crowded and uniform musical landscape.
To start, Skylarka develops her music unconventionally by producing it live on Twitch, even allowing the viewers to have a say in the process. Is this the first instance of community-based music-making? Perhaps. What we appreciate about the project, as we have already mentioned, is its ability to always strive for originality and futurism, all qualities that well fit its nocturne, synth-powered aural outlook. The end result of such a powerful process took shape back in December, with Skylarka releasing her second album to date, ‘Somnorine’.
Packing nine lush and retro-flavoured pieces, ‘Somnorine’ is quite an interesting body of work. Championed as a synthwave album by Skylarka herself, the record doesn’t shy away from exploring neighbouring genres, be it darkwave, chillwave, or even leftfield new wave and hints of post-punk gloominess. Those influences are not declared, but they are there and help the album remain fresh and relevant. ‘Half-Remembered’ is a fitting example of how eclectic Skylarka’s music can become, while ‘A Man Beyond Death’ jumps back into kinetic synthwave territories, yet with a little sprinkle of acid on top of it. ‘Hero’s Homecoming’ delivers a touch of internet music, so to speak, with videogame flavourings and early ‘2000 memories.
Let’s keep our eyes on the ball: this is a synthwave record for the modern world. Aural lines are blurred, and an immense sense of nostalgia wraps listeners into dreamy escapism, a feature that’s much appreciated during such gloomy times. Delving deeper into ‘Somnorine’, Skylarka explains: “Artistically, this journey is like the one I’ve been on emotionally exploring this stuff. I started out dipping my toes in, dreaming, pondering, and eventually, I endured what you could call a dark night of the soul, after which I was finally able to wake up. In that sense, this album comes from a pretty deep and vulnerable place for me.”
Recommended! ‘Somnorine’ is out now everywhere: