Anna
Montreal trio Afternoon Bike Ride are my new favorites for chill electronic music for when you need to get into your work mode. It helps me stay focused and relaxed at the same time, move forward gently, and enjoy intermittent sun rays streaking through the lace of the leaves.
Marina
The leitmotif of this ending summer – a truly heart-warming and emotional chapter of my life – became the song Swing Lynn by Twin Cabins (currently known as Harmless). But although the usual version is great, believe me, the slowed one is a real banger. They weren’t lying when they said “slowed to perfection”. This song is such a goosebump. Somehow, it gives you that warm feeling of being happy but also a bit sad and nostalgic with millions of thoughts and memories keep flashing in your head. This fits perfectly for the end of summer.
Elizaveta
For me, August broke in halves, just like the weather in St. Petersburg – one was cloudles, the other one – not quite, and somewhere in the middle there was a Stavlyu Na Zero (put to zero) by Natalia Sorokina. Originally performed by the Leningrad rock band Coffee, this song also got a cover from modern Chernikovskaya Hata, who turned it into one of the doomer hymns. But, to my surprise, I found the female version closer to me. Without any bit of impending hopelessness, it’s a touching and lively story on love and risks you take because of it.
Ksenia
Les Fées Carabosse by Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis was shared with me by a stranger on VK – I don’t even know their name but I’m quite thankful for this small gesture. It’s an extremely energetic and powerful song from 1969 and it’s in French, so I can only understand its lyrics from a mediocre Google translation but it seems to be about the love-driven protest of an ordinary person against the establishment.
Catherine
Though Billie Eilish’s Not My Responsibility deserves an honorable mention, my listening time this month was divided between two tracks. One is the truly autumnal but also transcendental Door (Neverwhere vibes, anyone?) by Alfa Mist and John Rakei mixed into a Jacob Collier playlist at just the perfect time, thanks Spotify. And the other is one of the best August soundtracks imaginable, Rosyln by Bon Iver and St. Vincent that I somehow hadn’t heard before. I don’t know what the academic year has in store, but this summer does end on a hopeful chord.
