Today, let yourself cross the threshold from Sunday morning realities back into the dream scape, constructed and maintained by our dear guest and guide, LEYA. Their latest album, Flood Dream, brings us to share the same breath, or rather consumes us with castles in air, sweeping us up in the album’s flood.
The rush and power of this Flood Dream signals a step far beyond the flourishing Duane Michals poem:
Ah dreams, Those Luminous Meteors That Light the Night Skies Of Our Consciousness, Their Own Reality.
Instead of the fleeting nature of night skies, LEYA offers us eternal dream scapes in their album releases, and the pleasure is ours as we welcome the Brooklyn-based duo to bring this alternate reality to the tangible forefront. Formed by harpist and vocalist Marilu Donovan and violinist and vocalist Adam Markiewicz, LEYA consistently pushes past accepted and expected boundaries of music. Together, the artists have crafted LEYA into an other-wordly musical current of classical, ambient, metal, and experimental sound; delightfully refusing to conform to any one genre of music.
LEYA’s selection
dog – to depths descend
LEYA: ” dog is one of the best bands in NYC - close friends to us and beautiful people. They were central at The Glove (RIP) and lived under the floor of our old spot The Wallet (also RIP), like literally dug into the dirt and built a room and lived down there. REAL OGS WILL REMEMBER THE LEYA + DOG TOUR IN 2018. “
Ana Roxanne – Camille
LEYA: ” We love this nighttime chiller - a sensuous at-home kind of feeling, maybe a good vibe for driving in the rain or making extended eye contact with someone across a room? This is a weird pick on a record so draped in minimal landscaping - it has a beat and moves in this hazy way while everything else on the EP is more deconstructed. To us it’s like a revelation that we’re all a little bit the same, playing to the austere in our days, slipping into something a little more comfortable in the dark. “
Pa Salieu – My Family ft BackRoad Gee
LEYA: ” A special track with such a strong connection between the two of them - seamless waves of syncopation punctuate the whole thing. We’re obviously late but this is still so under-sung. “
MailTape’s selection
LEYA – INTP
Sarah: ” Speaking with LEYA, Marilu and Adam describe feeling actively protective of their creative vision, cultivating a shared and isolated arena of courageous conversation and collaboration between the two of them. This track stands out to LEYA as the most electric composition process of their Flood Dream album. Their comfort and embrace of alternate tunings lure listeners into a new and deeply intricate universe of harp arpeggios and violin swells, all textured along celestial vocals. Let this track surround and carry you like the flood dream of the album’s namesake :) “
charlie zacks – deadwaltz
Sarah: ” The emotion on this song is so readily created by charlie zacks and felt by each passing listener. The range of intensity throughout, all surrounding and then noticeably sparse, feels like a heartbeat. I’m obsessed with the medium blending all along this track, especially as each movement patches together with the next into a connected lattice of sound; listen for the break toward the end :) “
Eartheater, LEYA – Stronger
Sarah: ” This track comes from LEYA’s 2019 collaboration with Eartheater on their shared EP, Angel Lust. The melodic dissonace and spirals of transcending harp and violin movements bless this song with soul-stirring momentum, vaguely religious. The operatic stretches haunt the track with the most creative and captivating balance. With so much varied texture, you may find yourself listening through this one over again :) “
Desire Marea – Zibuyile Izimakade
Sarah: ” This last track comes off of Desire Marea’s 2020 album, Desire, and translates from Zulu as The Eternal is Back. Celestial and industrial at the same time, Desire Marea combines divine exploration with the modern tendencies of club music, expanding into new space within trance music. The organ scatters accent the build of the song’s motion in the most striking way, just until the break, where Desire Marea’s vocals elevate this track’s energy into something spiritual. ”
That’s all for this morning, but we hope you carry this dreamscape energy throughout your week :) As always, thank you for taking the time to listen. It was a joy and pleasure to welcome LEYA for this eclectic and engaging Sunday selection. A thousand thanks and bravos to Thibault Daumain for this episode’s stunning illustration.
