Today, synthwave duo CD Ghost shares their gorgeous debut album Night Music. The release is the follow-up to Cody Han and Blake Dimas’s 2020 EP’s Here It Comes Again and Dreams We Share, and places more emphasis on darkwave inspired synth and reverb-heavy vocals; there is a phantom-like quality to these tracks, at once shadowy and impossibly lush, that make them a an absolute dream to listen to. They have mentioned that the debut is akin to “quietly sitting through the night, observing its changes and watching the rise of the moon as cool air begins to surround,” but it’s just as beautiful and pensive when listened to while driving in the cold rain, like I did this morning. Written while the duo was split between Los Angeles and Beijing, Night Music is also an ode to “solitude, change, and the passage of time,” and each of the eleven tracks, atmospheric and otherworldly, lend incredibly well to pondering all of the above.
“Sleepwalk,” our favorite track on Night Music (although “World Spins Slow” and “Nowhere” are close seconds), is at once nostalgic and futuristic, seemingly hearkening back to the past as well as the future. Han’s vocals, icy and echoed, call gently from behind dense synth curtains, evoking the reflection of cobalt moonlight on a twice frozen lake. The vocals are ensconced in this frigid water at the chorus, a moment bordering on catharsis. Bright and hypnagogic, the track is a deep dive into the subconscious.
Night Music is out now via Born Losers Records.
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photo courtesy of artist
kid with a vinyl 