In 2022, I was introduced to the music of Gloria de Oliveira through my work. When I first listened to her collaborative album with Dean Hurley - Oceans of Time - I instantly fell in love. Such a captivating and unique record. I got the chance to meet Gloria in Berlin, where we talked about life, our shared interest in movies, and of course, music. Life happened, time passed and we didn’t speak for a while. That was until January, when I sent her my second newsletter, sharing her solo EP La Rose De Fer. We kept in touch and caught up again on life, music and her upcoming album The Lying Swans. Gloria sent me the music and after we exchanged some ideas, she asked me to write her album bio.
Below, I share the piece I wrote for her upcoming album, produced by Randall Dunn, which will be released on the 30th of October through her own record label La Double Vie. I hope it makes you want to listen to her music as much as I do!
Sonic Nurse is just eight months old. Writing the album bio for an artist I highly value is such a big compliment. Thank you again dear Gloria for trusting me with this. 💜
THE LYING SWANS
Darkness makes beauty visible in a way that pure light never can. Emotions of joy feel different after moments of grief - sharper, more clear. Finding beauty again after times of desolation is incredibly challenging, especially when the past is still haunting the present.
The Lying Swans is a deeply personal story about both romance and betrayal in the broadest sense. I numb my hurt one last time, sings De Oliveira in the first single Fading Faces, as a farewell to darker times. The ambiguity in the album’s narrative finds itself within the imagined picture of love. How beautiful it can look from the outside and how we project our romantic ideals onto them. Like in the Greek myth, where Zeus tries to seduce Queen Leda by transforming into a swan. As with all myths, Leda and the Swan can be interpreted in different ways. On the one hand, it can be seen as a romantic tale about seduction and love. On the other, there’s a darker approach where the focus lies on betrayal and overpowering. This duality is also present in romance itself. Intense emotions such as love and happiness often coexist alongside feelings of fear, jealousy and grief - which is exactly what can make romance so complicated.
In comparison to her previous work, De Oliveira takes The Lying Swans in a new sonic direction. The ethereal references are still there, however they are much less prominent. Her voice recalls those of early 4AD artists like Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins and the music is dreamlike and incredibly enchanting. Although the sound is still very recognizable, The Lying Swans is quite distinctive from her earlier work. Unlike De Oliveira’s previous two records, which were practically created in isolation, The Lying Swans is the result of companionship. It’s a collaborative album with great musicians. The rich, predominantly acoustic instrumentation is something that immediately stands out: from the harmonium and grand piano to the vibraphone and the Segulharpa - an electromagnetic acoustic instrument, created by the Icelandic Úlfur Hansson. The transverse flute - engineered by De Oliveira herself together with Australian flutist Lina Andonovska - has a leading role, which gives the music both an airy and unsettling tone. The broad sonic spectrum of the various instruments give the music such a warm and full sound - whether it’s the upbeat Sacred Hearts containing electric instruments or the rather tranquil The Perfect Con, where light piano parts and strings form the foundation of the song.
Film always plays a huge role in the music of De Oliveira. The two 2019 EPs La Rose de Fer and Lèvres de Sang and debut album Fascination (2020) - all named after Jean Rollin’s horror classics - reveal her attraction to cult and horror movies. For Oceans of Time (2022) she worked together with Dean Hurley - frequent collaborator of David Lynch. A huge inspiration for The Lying Swans are the soundtracks of 1970s and 1980s Giallo films - the atmospheric Italian horror mysteries that contain both stylized graphic violence and voyeurism. Especially The Valley, a captivating piece by Bill Wyman and Terry Taylor for Dario Argento’s film Phenomena (1985), is an important musical reference. The Giallo inspiration explains the prominence of the transverse flute on so many tracks, which can be used to contrast dreamlike and dark or even ominous atmospheres.
The Lying Swans carries the aesthetic of Gothic fiction, where fear and haunting are crucial themes. With this album, De Oliveira creates beauty and uses her passion and intuition in order to comprehend the dark.
There is no “old” music - only music you have already heard and music you haven’t.
Thank you so much for your lovely words. 🌹🦢
Thank you for the wonderful description of this marvelous phenomenon in music!