Monelise – Silver Lake (Spotify)
“Monelise knows very well how to attract and captivate your mind. Different sound styles have been used to produce something unique and "Silver Lake" is the final result. The artist's epic voice and the clarity of mixing, are basic elements of success. Good job!”
-Nagamag.com
Shapeshifting, genre-bending and aesthetically captivating artist Monelise releases ‘Silver Lake’, the latest product of her evocative mission to bring a new, refreshing and mystical quality to the world of experimental dream pop. ‘Silver Lake’ follows the release of ‘Sliding Worlds’ in February. Monelise’s music has gained over 250,000 streams in less than 9 months, and she is becoming known for entrancing audiences with her mysterious audio-visual live shows - both in person and online.
Speaking on the track, Monelise quotes: “Silver Lake is a mythical story as old as time itself; yet woven into a shimmering, kaleidoscopic soundscape that occupies a world of its own. When writing I was inspired by the song ‘Mysteries of Love’ from David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. I wanted to create something transcendent, celestial and unlike anything else out there. A soundscape that blends all of life’s most intense and moving experiences - life, death, love, loss - into one, ultimately beautiful and complete whole. Lyrically, Silver Lake tells the story of a woman who, upon losing her lover, discovers his spirit floating above the mystical silver lake. Their worlds momentarily collide in this liminal space and they manage to touch one last time before she is able to ‘release him’. Yet, we are left with a cliffhanger - during the song’s last moments, does she follow him into the afterlife or accept the fact she can now ‘find’ him only at Silver Lake?
Monelise forges a unique blend of nostalgia and futurism in her work. It is as though she stands at the gateway of past and future as her music weaves an uncanny yet beautiful dance between the two. She proudly defies singular categorisation, having been compared in equal measure to Kate Bush, David Lynch and Sevdaliza. Recently, she began to release a series of singles that mirror the zeitgeist of 2020 -2021 in creative and unprecedented ways. “Clockwork Heart”, “Insane” and “Sliding Worlds” echo the signature hypnotic quality of Hauntology (2019) yet surprises listeners with industrially inspired beats, kaleidoscopic sound mixing and more prominent, cinematic strings.
Reviewed by Nagamag on April 21, 2021