SKYLARKA explores dreams and life on new album Somnorine

Somnorine is the latest musical release by SKYLARKA, and it comes as a “very immersive and contemplative release that integrates organically into the ever-expanding creative universe of the artist.” Currently out and ready for listening, the musical release comes as a “sonic journey of dreams, consciousness, and nihilism, where all of the tracks are inspired by actual dreams the artist has had.” Through the musical release, the artist articulates the emotional perspectives of the dreams through the use of sound.

Somnorine has been developed primarily from a series of live streams on the streaming platform Twitch, and it is not only for its topic that this album stands out—also for its development process. SKYLARKA was a collaborative album, inviting her listeners to take part in the production process of this album, with songs developed through feedback and discussions in a collective creative environment. The lyrics of the songs were developed with the input of her listeners, and the production was further aided by the collective energy of the creative environment.

Musically, the album is illustrative of SKYLARKA’s diverse musical upbringing, incorporating elements ranging from DIY punk, metal, and jazz through to electronic music, but channelling the whole through the lens of synthwave that is heavily influenced by 80s culture. Underlying musical inspirations such as bebop and existential punk are present in the songwriting, interweaving intellectual concepts for harmonies with thoughtful lyrics in a synthwave musical construct that is heavily influenced by 80s culture by virtue of its synthwave inspiration.

Somnorine also marks a significant point in SKYLARKA’s evolution as a web-based artist. Being her second full album as such, it definitely shows a level of growing expertise over her previous works. The album develops as if flowing through a psychological experience, starting with a dreamy introspection, spiraling down to black and attacking tracks, before arriving at a realization born out of acceptance and awareness.

On the production front, Somnorine is all about texture. This goes all the way from the album cover to the artwork. The decision by SKYLARKA to ignore the need to have everything perfectly produced goes to show that sometimes it takes going out of the routine to discover something truly memorable. However, to fully appreciate Somnorine, it would appear that it is necessary to join Somnus in the world of dreams.