album: Reveries - Grace Vonderkuhn

words: Matthew Latham

There’s a certain multi-layered meaning that’s seemingly at play when an album that incorporates elements of shoegaze is called Reveries. 

Shoegaze, was apparently named for musicians who were so focused at staring at their feet on their effects pedals that they seemingly got lost in a reverie of their own. Locked in a daydream within their music; playing their own instrumental reveries that resulted in a musician's own dream-like state of being.

Within thirty-six minutes, Grace Vonderkuhn lives through her own daydream; separating herself from reality into imagination. However, Vonderkuhn adds a bit of grit and grunge to her imagery, creating an album that takes you by complete surprise. Amping up a distant-like distorted sound before throwing even more at you, she manages to wander into your conscious mind, triggering an album that practically leads you into moments you can only dream of.

Book ended by two songs called “Living in a Dream”, the album starts and ends with sharp and clean guitar sounds In “Pt. 1”, the guitar's loudness and distortion is slowly amped up, leading one to drift away in the noise. Meanwhile, the acoustic guitar in “Pt. 2” closes those daydreams and sadly brings you back to back to reality; bridging that small gap that exists between snapping back to the real world and the world we can only imagine in daydreams.

The album is full of incredible songs that lull you into its haze. Album highlight “Cellophane”, with its gradual building throughout, uses imagery of driving to enliven a realization of whether you're truly in control. The track again links to this idea of daydreams/reveries and how our dreams can pretty much take control of you.

Albums can get under your skin and hit nerves, but it takes some skill for an album to get into your subconscious. Vonderkuhn’s Reveries is a brilliant album that you definitely need to listen to get and get lost in.