"Saline drips like lead / Coursing through my veins / I can’t move my mouth / I can’t move my legs..."
Sometimes when modern artists dare to write songs that feel so vintage as to feel from another time (as if you are listening to sonic found footage) it might relegate the song, the artist to that specific era and unable to escape that time's perceptions but that isn't the case with the cutting comfort and discomfort of "Dark Night Cometh" by the somewhat mysterious, darkly drawn Vancouver, BC Canada artisanal musical duo Victoria Sun. The track swept up in drones of sonic fog and classic folk music shapes, that you might associate with 60's folk iterations themselves shaped by medieval-esque chant meets traditional Irish folk music (or something like that) is further shaped by singer-songwriter Eliza's vocal aesthetic that feels aloof with a kind of gilded stoicism that made me think of Nico a bit but this is the thing, as sculpted by Eliza's melodies as well as Robert's musical embellishments and further shaping as producer and multi-instrumentalist, the song feels more than classic but instead, folk noir more specifically and highly cinematic. This is to say that I could see "Dark Night Cometh" in a movie like 'Love Lies Bleeding' by Rose Glass just as much as a movie like Céline Sciamma's 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire'.
The lyrics are darkly manifested with metaphors galore for so many things that can impact ones' body and soul. The sense of loss impacted me as a listener even before LINER NOTES revealed the personal seeds of those melancholy lyrics.
Coursing through my veins
I can’t move my mouth
I can’t move my legs
Body so heavy
nailed to the chair
I’m so tired
It’s the look that I wear
I won’t cry
A single tear
Not for me
For they will hear
And I don’t have it in me
No I don’t have it in me
Anyway
Hmmm..."
LINER NOTES (bracketed):
With Victoria Sun's distinctive melancholic sound, "Dark Night Cometh" explores the heavy, cold darkness in which we sometimes find ourselves, along with its accompanying fragility and hint of hope. Part reflection on Eliza's experience living with Multiple Sclerosis, it was one of the first songs written by the duo. "Dark Night Cometh" went through many iterations over the past two years, from something resembling an early Leonard Cohen song, to the thicker, medieval-and-Grace-Slick-influenced sound it has become, particularly through the use of a Mellotron in the studio.]
{With an EP "Pollinator" released in Fall 2022, Victoria Sun's debut LP will be released early 2024. It is a collection of songs that reflect on theories of time, Viking journeys, synesthesia and conversations by candlelight, and has been described as “Medieval meets totally modern. Layers of sound experiences that keep surprising.”}
If I had one slight criticism of "Dark Night Cometh" is that it ends without a resolving chord but then maybe that is the point.
Great, moving track from a mysterious musical duo who don't reveal too much about themselves except through their songs.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/victoriasunmusic/
https://soundcloud.com/victoria-sun-213520982/dark-night-cometh/s-k8t7FiDyNs7
Victoria Sun is a duo based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, who have been involved in musical projects together since 2007. Eliza is a singer/songwriter, equally influenced by musical theatre, ‘90s British indie, and Gregorian chant. Robert is a producer and multi-instrumentalist intrigued by historic chamber music and retro electro acoustic compositions. You may never see their faces, but their sound is unmistakable.
Victoria Sun emerged from beyond the horizon in early 2022, as Eliza started considering what the spaces we inhabit would look like if, after the sun went down, all we had was candlelight. These ponderings resulted in a series of musical ideas: a few dark—at times dissonant—chord structures, multilayered vocal melodies and poetic lyrics, which Eliza proposed to Robert as a new direction for a musical partnership. Now, Victoria Sun is blending medieval tones, moody alt-folk and downbeat synth sounds; musical influences include Extradition, Led Zeppelin, Blur, and Matt Berry, among many others.
With an EP "Pollinator" released in Fall 2022, Victoria Sun's debut LP will be released early 2024. It is a collection of songs that reflect on theories of time, Viking journeys, synesthesia and conversations by candlelight, and has been described as “Medieval meets totally modern. Layers of sound experiences that keep surprising.”
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