Ears Wide Open: DAMYN

Kevin Bronson on August 10th, 2018

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The new single from left-field electronic artist DAMYN wonders a lot about possibilities, and whether we truly have any. Are humans really “mutable, a blank slate,” as he sings? And does it matter since we’ll all be “ashes by tomorrow?” With threads of the music of pop explorers such as David Bowie and Thom Yorke, DAMYN’s music is fraught with existential weight and the fragile emotions that come with it. That his debut album, coming this fall, is titled “The Dark Corners” is no accident.

DAMYN — real name Damen Easton Liebling — took a circuitous route to his mission as synth shaman. Prior to embarking on college studies, he went on a vision quest to Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park in Madagascar. His path clear, he studied music composition in college, eventually earning a master’s degree. It doesn’t take somebody who understands chromatic harmonies to latch on the mystical feel of “Could Be,” which, along with “On a Dance Floor,” comes from the “darker first half” of the album, the artist says. Complexities aside, he says, “I hope it makes you feel things.”

||| Stream: “Could Be” and “On a Dance Floor”