Good music is international; if it hits, it hits, no matter what style or language it was written in. That’s one of my core principles as a music listener, and I know my Everything Is Noise colleagues take a similar stance on this matter. You don’t need to understand something to feel it, you know? Which comes in handy once again today, as we’re premiering “Graven” by Danish-German dream/art pop duo Vil – not only the song, but a video for it, too.
Vil is essentially the working partnership of Lovis Bechmann and Julius Pollux Rothlaender; since 2016, the two have established a certain atmosphere of floating melancholia over two EPs and a full-length record, all released via ListenRecords. ‘Circling in stillness, inviting the listener to explore and question the space they inhabit‘ is how the band puts it in their EPK, and I genuinely couldn’t agree more; there’s just something deeply gloomy yet uplifting, consoling about their music.
“Graven” comes as part of the duo’s moons project, which consists of the album itself and the cross-media attempt to collaboratively enhance the music through creative interaction with different artists. Each song will, in the end, be accompanied by another piece of artwork, be it a video (as is the case today), a poem, a painting, or something else entirely. It’s an intriguing concept, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it ultimately pans out.
Check out the video for “Graven” below!
The song’s title refers to the street called Graven in Aarhus, Denmark, a location which influenced the song’s atmosphere and lyrical content. Judging from the sound alone, one might expect it to be a quite melancholic affair, but looking at the lyrics (and the subsequent English translation, which was thankfully provided to this poor non-Danish-speaking muso) actually reveals a moment of uplifting interconnectedness in rainy weather:
