Maps don’t show every road that can be taken. And history books don’t tell all of the stories. But don’t start blaming some damned conspiracies just yet. The essential details are not there because, frankly, few have known where to draw them and how to call them.
If there’s one good thing that the practice of sharing modern playlists has done is that, essentially, it has organically created new musical styles based on moods and places. It’s allowed crafty songwriters, much like DJs, to pick and choose the ideas that they like and reassemble them in cohesive ways.
That’s the reason why you could swear that CERULEAN SAPPHIRE’s debut album, “soft attention”, is just one piece in an entire genre that has been developing for countless years. But, for the most part ,you’d be wrong. Dubbed by its creator, “medditarranean melancholy,” what the collection of songs does brilliantly is to concentrate on an old melancholy feeling and locate the sounds and textures that can really bring it out.
At the same time, while listening to a track, like the opener, “el cielo era rojo,” you could swear your brain could easily convince you that this music was designed and released decades ago.
And, while it is not, it’s amazing what tricks the mind can play on us when emotions are involved. Much like Sovietwave never actually existed in Eastern Europe of the 1980s, this melancolia mediterranea is a new invention, a way to rewrite the past and to make it more attractive.
It’s a delicate spell that CERULEAN SAPPHIRE casts here. And that’s the reason why each new song treads gently, doing its best not to let the illusion be disturbed. On “orientate in paris,” the soulful vocals recall love affairs in the City of Lights, and the excellent “june, dream,” blends electronic beat with moody, autumnal melodies.
Musically, CERULEAN SAPPHIRE borrows and blends musical elements from across genres, but has a preference for a kind of relaxed electro-dance sound that was popular across Europe in the 1990s. You can hear it on “dried roses” or the smooth closer “ocean blue letter.”
But where does this leave us? Hopefully, reminding ourselves that dreams are often better than reality, and memories are stronger than the present. CERULEAN SAPPHIRE is not music for endless Summers, but a soundtrack to the bittersweet feeling of remembering a Summer that seemed like it could go on forever.
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