Ani Glass – Ynys Araul (Recordiau Neb)
Lifted from album Mirores, Ynys Araul from Ani Glass features her ethereal vocals and spiralling electronic melodies and across the EP 3 new remixes; one by electronic legends OMD, plus versions by Seka and Venus on the Half Shell.
Artist: Ani Glass
Track: Ynys Araul
Label: Recordiau Neb
Released: 11 September
Find it: Spotify | Bandcamp
For something few of us actively think about day to day, place has an immense meaning in our relationships with others and with ourselves. This year we may have found ourselves missing places and the experiences we associate with them, missing the connection to those we meet there.
We may have found new attachment to home, and the core needs it fulfils for us. We may have noticed the change of the seasons more as our lives slowed, and mourned afresh the places which now only exist in a past we can’t revisit, progress moving it forward whether we were ready or not. Place is so often thought of only as an external environment when in truth it is a shaper and reflector of our internal identity, and influences through memory our internal world as well.
It is these themes which Ani Glass covers on single Ynys Araul – which translates as serenity. With a lightness to the spinning melody, the crystalline shards, the rolling mechanical loops and a vocal which is both sharp within the track and surrounded by haze. It leads you through the ghosts of buildings, along disappeared streets, and beyond long-closed doorways to a party which never stops.
Glass says “Ynys Araul is not only about love and loss but also expands on the album’s overall themes of movement and progress. It discusses how our memories and emotions are often connected to certain places and presents the bewildering impact of development on your sense of self when those places change or disappear.”
The EP is completed with three remixes of the track. The first by electronic legends OMD stretches the track in parts but doesn’t stray too far while giving a more deeply digital feel, electro-crackle and stunning space around the vocal. Seka bring a feel of New Order-esque precision with beats to the fore, and the melody a hazy layer through which you must hand-outstretched make your way toward the centre of the song. Venus On A Half Shell bring an industrial touch, with echoing detail, and scratching melody to elevate the grittier aspects of disco and closes the circle on place by wonderfully evoking the sticky, smokey, colour-burst of clubs and bringing the theme and the genre together neatly.
The original leans in to the influence of ’80s electronic and avant-garde producers such as Giorgio Moroder, Jean-Michel Jarre and Arthur Russell to make this a track which in another time would have been a dancefloor filler, a Top of the Pops performance not to be missed. In this time, it’s enough nostalgia to bring comfort, and a balanced bittersweetness in sound and theme. Another reminder too – as if needed – of Glass’s brilliance as a musician and producer.
Ynys Araul is out now and lifted from recently released debut album Mirores, also out now.
Find Ani Glass: Facebook | Spotify | Bandcamp
If you’re interested in place and identity we recommend beginning with the work of Jane Jacobs.
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Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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