EP Review: Lars — Journey Of The Soul
Journey Of The Soul, the new EP from artist and producer Lars, combines multiple influences from Big Room, Progressive House, Melodic Techno and Future Rave, creating a stylistically and emotionally unique story that indeed feels like a journey.
Control, the first step in this journey, slowly draws you in. Its synths are creeping in like feelings you haven't realized you've had until they hit you on the head like a hammer. After two minutes piano, tambourine and deep synth bass provide a moment of rest, and then the vocals come in. Along with the main vocals we can hear some reverberated samples that sound like a crossover between synth and human voice. They create tension that leads to a moment of release and satisfaction.
Control, the first step in this journey, slowly draws you in. Its synths are creeping in like feelings you haven't realized you've had until they hit you on the head like a hammer. After two minutes piano, tambourine and deep synth bass provide a moment of rest, and then the vocals come in. Along with the main vocals we can hear some reverberated samples that sound like a crossover between synth and human voice. They create tension that leads to a moment of release and satisfaction.
It's interesting that the vocals only appear in the track once and don't come back, playing with the listener's expectations. The second song Don't Tell A Lie is quite the opposite in this regard. The highly emotional vocals are its central element. Another standout part of this song are the epic synth strings, creating a sense of drama that highlights the powerful emotion in the singer's voice.
Four starts with a juicy bass tone and subdued reverberated synths creating a feeling of emotional unrest, followed by brighter synth stabs and white noise risers eventually leading to a drop that returns us to the state of meditation only to start slowly building tension again.
The eponymous final track of the EP is built around the female voice saying "This is the journey of the soul". Both the lyrics and the delivery bring in associations with new age and meditative music. This track is the most detailed and even kaleidoscopic – with nuanced percussion and a wealth of additional atmospheric sounds creating emotional accents.
"Since the EP was named "Journey of the Soul", I wanted each track to feel like its own journey while blending into one another in similar keys," explains Lars. And this is exactly what this stylistic and emotional rollercoaster of an EP feels like. We can't wait to see where the musical journey takes Lars next.
