Ethereal wave

This article is about the music genre. For waves in ether, see light wave.
Ethereal wave
Other names
  • Ethereal goth
  • ethereal darkwave
  • ethereal
Stylistic origins
Cultural originsEarly 1980s, United Kingdom
Typical instruments
Derivative forms
Other topics

Ethereal wave,[5][6] also called ethereal darkwave,[7] ethereal goth[8] or simply ethereal,[9][10] is a subgenre of dark wave music[11] that is variously described as "gothic", "romantic", and "otherworldly".[12][13] Developed in the early 1980s[14][15][16] in the UK as an outgrowth of gothic rock, ethereal wave was mainly represented by 4AD bands[17][18] such as Cocteau Twins,[19] This Mortal Coil, and early guitar-driven Dead Can Dance.[20][21]

In the second half of the 1980s, the genre continued to develop in the United States and was primarily associated with C'est La Mort Records, which featured artists such as Area (later the Moon Seven Times) and Heavenly Bodies, a band formed by ex-members of Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil,[22] as well as with Projekt Records, which featured groups like Black Tape for a Blue Girl.[23]

Ethereal wave, especially the music of Cocteau Twins, was one of the key inspirations for the British dream pop/shoegazing scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s.[21]

  1. ^ Mimi Abramovitz, Karen Kelly, Evelyn McDonnell: Stars Don't Stand Still in the Sky. Music and Myth, New York University Press 1998, ISBN 0-8147-4727-2, p. 82. "Punk flicked its emotional switch from anger to depression, and became more ethereal in the process. The careers of the most successful atmospheric post-punk bands – The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance – tended to be long and uneven."
  2. ^ Michael Ahlers, Christoph Jacke: Perspectives on German Popular Music, Ashgate 2016, ISBN 1-472-47962-9, Chapter 14, p. 7
  3. ^ Simon Reynolds: "Pop View. 'Dream-Pop' Bands Define the Times in Britain", The New York Times, December 1, 1991.
  4. ^ Cam Lindsay: Sound of Confusion. How Shoegaze Defied Critics and Influenced a Generation, Exclaim.ca, August 2008. "Like any genre, 'shoegazing' has many parents; most date the first traces back to the drugged-out noise and motionless performances of the Velvet Underground. More obviously, the groundwork was laid in early '80s Britain by The Cure albums 'Faith' and 'Pornography', by the swirling buzz-saw noise and anti-social behaviour of the Jesus & Mary Chain, the ethereal textures of Cocteau Twins and the hypnotic drones of Spacemen 3."
  5. ^ Glasnost Wave magazine, issue # 42, p. 32/34, genre classification of the bands Trance to the Sun ("Ghost Forest"), This Ascension ("Light and Shade"), Soul Whirling Somewhere ("Eating the Sea"), Cocteau Twins and Lycia, Germany, April 1994
  6. ^ Thomas Wacker: Projekt Records label portrait, Black music magazine, issue # 7/97, p. 66, Spring 1997
  7. ^ Janet Sturman: The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture, SAGE Publications Inc, London 2019, ISBN 1-483-31775-7, p. 728
  8. ^ Propaganda: Projekt: Ethereal Gothic, advertisement, issue # 19, p. 19, New York, September 1992
  9. ^ Hyperium Records: "Ethereal, Gothic & Dark Ambient", CD order form, booklet insert of the Beneath the Icy Floe v. 3 compilation (German pressing), released in 1995
  10. ^ Discogs: Cover of the Projekt: Gothic compilation (see tagline), released in 2002
  11. ^ Reesman, Bryan (April 1999). "The Scene Is Now: Dark Wave". CMJ New Music Monthly (68): 48. Female vocals, both wispy and operatic, have become fashionable, particularly in the Ethereal subgenre.
  12. ^ Michael Fischer: "The ethereal romanticism of this EP makes for the closest thing in pop to a music for Gothic cathedrals", Cocteau Twins review ("Love's Easy Tears"), The Michigan Daily, p. 7, March 23, 1987
  13. ^ Beautiful Noise: Robert Smith (The Cure) describes the Cocteau Twins' sound as "ethereal" and "romantic"
  14. ^ CD Review magazine: Cocteau Twins album review, p. 44, issues # 1-6, 1990. "The Cocteau Twins' calling card — ethereal soundscapes marked by offbeat, haunting female vocals — was unique back in the early '80s.".
  15. ^ Rick Poynor: Vaughan Oliver. Visceral Pleasures, p. 75, Booth-Clibborn 2000, ISBN 1-8615-4072-8.
  16. ^ Fred Perry Subculture: Book presentation of Martin Aston's Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine, September 2013. "...the 4AD roots lay within a sub-set of post-punk, and it is this period in the 80s where 4AD have developed a cult status. The label, alongside its artists, nurtured and raised a new and defined sound, predominantly ethereal and dark..."
  17. ^ Staci Bonner: "Interview with the Cocteau Twins", Reflex magazine, September 1988. "In 1982, they hand-picked their record label, 4AD — a company that had corralled all that was gothically ethereal...".
  18. ^ Colin Larkin: Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, p. 1156, Guinness Publishing 1992, ISBN 0-85112-939-0. "... the label which, more than anyone else, was capable of handling their brand of ethereal, dreamlike elegance."
  19. ^ Oliver Köble: Vollendete Gothic-Ästhetik, Interview with William Faith of Faith & The Muse (and Tess Records), Glasnost Wave magazine, issue # 44, p. 11, Germany, November/December 1994
  20. ^ Thierry F. Le Boucanier: Batcave Memories, Camion Blanc, 2011, ISBN 2-357-79113-6. "Les groupes d'éthéré les plus représentatifs et précurseurs sont Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins et This Mortal Coil."
  21. ^ a b Olivier Bernard: Anthologie de l'ambient, Camion Blanc, 2013, ISBN 2-357-794151. "L'ethereal wave s'est développée à partir du gothic rock, et tire ses origines principalement de la musique de Siouxsie and the Banshees (les Cocteau Twins s'en sont fortement inspirés, ce qui se ressent dans leur premier album Garlands, sorti en 1982). Le genre s'est développé surtout autour des années 1983–1984, avec l'émergence de trois formations majeures: Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil et Dead Can Dance... Cela est rendu par des effets d'écho, de reverb et de delay très imposants sur les guitares... On relève une prédominance d'un chant féminin haut perché ou très ample et de voix masculines soufflées, douces at contemplatives. Les paroles sont parfois difficilement compréhensibles... L'ethereal wave (et notamment les Cocteau Twins) a grandement influencé le shoegaze et la dream pop. Les labels principaux promouvant le genre sont 4AD et Projekt Records."
  22. ^ Option music magazine, p. 102, Sonic Options Network 1988
  23. ^ "Black Tape for a Blue Girl | Biography, Albums, Streaming Links". AllMusic. Retrieved 7 January 2021.