Although often devoid of lyrics, electronic music has the power to make us feel a groundswell of emotions. Tom VR’s new record ‘Blue Sky Unravel’ is one such piece of music.
Arriving as the second to last track on his new album Please Keep Shimmering (which I’d highly recommend), the tune consists of a flurry of digitised stabs with pads that remind me of a sunrise. The trip is a gentle one, and for reasons I can’t properly put into words, ‘Blue Sky Unravel’ makes me excited for the future. On each and every listen, I look forward to tomorrow. A new day.
With a deft touch, the producer marries peculiar and disparate sounds as few others can. There’s a ricochet-like feeling to the notes, as if they’re glancing off a wall or skimming across the water’s surface. It’s intricate. It’s clever. It’s joyous. Spend some time with this one–there are layers upon layers upon layers.
Tom was generous enough to fill in some of the blanks for me on the song’s creation.
“Blue Sky Unravel is one of the first tracks I started working on and one of the last I finished. The song was originally intended for another project but I rediscovered it while trawling through older stuff. I then recontextualised and tweaked it to work in the sonic universe of Please Keep Shimmering.”
The title came to him while gazing out a bus window in his hometown of Manchester. “I just had this vague feeling of being swallowed up into blue sky. It’s hard to explain, really…”
Listen below and get lifted.
