Marina
Since I’m a big fan of '80s & '90s vibes and new voices in music, it comes with no surprise that I picked leichter//kälter by Edwin Rosen as my go-to song this month, which was just as gray as sunny. This is one of those songs that will speak to you even if you don’t know the language. That’s something that I love so much about music. Leichter//kälter brings up a mixture of emotions: oddly enough, it manages to tell you a moving story, full of nostalgia and melancholy, and at the same time cuddle you with so-needed calmness and comfort.
Elizaveta
There’s no place to discover Leningrad Rock Club’s bands like St. Petersburg itself. Among those precious findings, Ехали по улицам трамваи (Trams Were Going Down the Streets) by Nol became the anthem of my March. The song’s lingering old-fashioned tunes of button accordion gave me goosebumps when I heard them for the first time, tenth time, and will probably do for the thousandths. Its lyrics, unpoetic at first sight, are just as powerful as the music – and having merged, they open a familiar mundane scenery from a different angle.
Catherine
This month I turned to one of my all-time favorite musicians who over the years that I followed her came to feel more like a friend or even an older sister I never had. While on tour, dodie started writing a song every month, documenting the process in monthly vlogs on her YouTube channel. Her first two songs of 2022, Hot Mess and These Things, have almost exclusively made up my playlist for the past three weeks. All I can say is, I live for the feelings bursting from her lyrics and the way these feelings are amplified thousands of times through the chords and the sound of her soothing yet powerful voice.
Anna
Do you miss the road that you grew up on?
Did you get your middle name from your grandma?
When you think about your forever now
Do you think of me?
It’s hard sometimes to see what’s important but to me, it has always come down to love. So I’ve been humming 10,000 Hours by Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber that takes me back to over two years ago, and it’s as relevant as ever. Back then, we didn’t know that that spring would be like no other, and that we’d make it. Now it’s a new spring, and we’ll make it, I know. Here’s to love.
Subhrajit
I found out this amazing German poem written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe this month and immediately fell in love with its unique style. What makes it more powerful is the music by Franz Schubert. Erlkönig is a story portraying the journey of a young boy who is being carried back home by his father on horseback. As the poem unfolds, the son gets distracted by lust, greed, and envy personified. The father reassures his son by disregarding them as the wisp of fog, rustling of dry leaves, and shimmering of willows. In the end, the father reaches the Hof only to find his boy killed by these corrupt forces. This poem, in my opinion, teaches the importance of avoiding certain distractions in life, especially as an adolescent.
