Friday is here, and before our usual Leftovers and Between The Cracks features, we give you our latest guest playlist. From the same label that brought you Enji, Fazer, PILLBERT, Damian Dalla Torre, and more comes Zylva.
The Berlin-based singer and electronic artist returns to Squama today with ‘Bare‘, a collection of stripped-down reinterpretations of songs from her past releases, ‘Poems From the Dark’ and ‘Antiroom’.
The recordings were made over two years in collaboration with longtime friend Pia Allgaier, a process Zylva describes as “intimate and characterised by depth and mutual understanding”.
While her previous releases sat squarely in the electro/avant pop realm, Zylva chose a different approach for ‘Bare’: “Apart from a few vocal samples, only acoustic instruments and vocals were used, which were recorded live and can be heard virtually unprocessed on the record. I wanted to reduce the songs to their core message and, based on that, only add what would give the songs more plasticity and beauty without getting lost in superfluous details.”
We’re excited that Zylva created this amazing playlist, offering us a glimpse into her musical headspace. Hit play, listen, read on and enjoy.
I put together a playlist of songs that I absolutely love and have been playing on repeat on my headphones. I love sharing music with my friends and bandmates, Arne Braun and Angela Requena Fuentes. Things can get quite nerdy when we delve into music history and recent releases together. Recently, we listened to some records featuring the drummer Jeff Porcaro, and I found myself getting stuck in a loop, checking out the many songs he had played on. One example is the song ‘Whisper in the Dark’ by Dionne Warwick, which I hadn’t heard before. I was blown away by the hook and the groove. I’m always looking for new music, but I also keep going back to tracks that truly feel like the soundtrack to my life. These include ‘Private Joy’ by Prince, ‘Equatorial’ by Lo Borges (what a melody!) and ‘Delightful’ by Narada Michael Walden. The track ‘2choufat’ is by my friend and collaborator ‘Zouj’, a producer with whom I travelled to Egypt and worked with and for artists such as Nour, Lella Fadda, Zaid Khaled and Hadi Birajakli. My new EP, ‘Bare’, is out today, and I aimed to create an honest and authentic record based on human connection, play, and reduction to the core message of the songs. I was fortunate to collaborate on this project with my best friend of many years, Pia Allgaier, who co-produced the album, played the strings and guitar, and sang backing vocals. It’s a transitional record, announcing my second album which I’m currently recording with my band. – Zylva
