Daniele Veronese - Surface

 

Released: May 19

Surface, which is the latest release from French artist Daniele Veronese, presents us with a strange metaphysical problem that takes head on the subject of memory. Memories are fickle and mysterious things. Veronese asks the question of how we might translate a memory in terms of its full emotional weight, rather than simply verbalize and narrativize the content of those memories as if they were simple and dry history. To get around this, he presents us with one continuous act in five parts meant to convey those fleeting moments of being temporarily transported to the past while also keeping one foot in the present. 

The album is meant to and should be listened to as an uninterrupted experience. Each nameless (aside from a numerical marker) track bleeds into the next as we are subjected to the swirling and surreal sensation of a memory playing out in front of us in all the haze a fog that long distant memories find themselves mired in. Spacey piano tones and indiscernible vocalizations dot a landscape of gentle drones and pads that feel near constant movement. I liken it to a sensation of “floating in the aether,” a stunningly well-crafted aesthetic that perfectly represents the emotional and psychological sensation of reliving distant memories.