Departures by Dalot & Sound Awakener

Departures is the second joint release between Greek sound artist Maria Papadomanolaki aka Dalot and Vietnamese composer Nhung Nguyen aka Sound Awakener. Following on from their 2018 release on Fluid Audio titled Little Things, Departures dives deeper into the exploration of place through migration and the feelings of impermanence it embodies; migrating from one place to another, treading lines, crossing borders and facing challenges.

Departures sees Nguyen and Papadomanolaki echoing the vibrations of loss and grief often tied to those migrants who seek refuge but cannot find it. With tracks such as Segregation lines, a drowning or Nighttime, long paths the album creates a deep travel into empathy and reflection through the combination of known and mysterious textures and motions. Departure is not always painted with dark tones and offers moments of contemplation and anticipation as in Unknown parks, unknown cities or Interlude where Nguen and Papadomanolaki weave piano around field recordings and synthetic tones.

The composition process between Dalot and Sound Awakener always takes a long time and follows different stages of working, reworking, erasing and adding. Having started as early as February 2019, the making of Departures reflects on a series of sociopolitical changes and disruptions that took place during its making with the most recent being the COVID-19 pandemic. Titles like nebulous, a part of loss or enigma document the composers’ frustrations and responses to the impacts of the pandemic not only on their personal lives and microcosms but on a global scale.

Departures offers a deep reflection on how our world feels at the moment and suggests a possible way to consider the future by feeling empathy, taking responsibility and contributing to collective actions toward change. It asks us to depart from the known and dive into the remote, nebulous and dark future by understanding what is at stake today. Dalot and Sound Awakener paint these thoughts with at times sombre, dark and troubled textures but leave us with a positive message.

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