In my early introduction to the ambient indie project Early Signs, I stumbled across an interview with the band’s songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, Petter Näse. In the interview, Näse is asked to name a perfect song, and he offers “8 (circle)”, a massively underappreciated track by Bon Iver that lives on my own “Best Songs of All Time” playlist. You can hear Bon Iver’s influence in the thrumming, hypnotic atmospheres crafted by Early Signs. Their new release “Just As If New” gleams with soft, vibrant texture, each instrument and synth pad stirred in like paint on a mixing pallet. You can see why the band is known for creating “sonic paintings”; even with its lyrical minimalism, the song is an exercise in imaginary visuals.
Time and time again / I fall for the same
The song opens with a relaxed, curling acoustic guitar riff. The guitar is placed against a loose, droning background pad, which creates a sense of expansion, like you’re sitting in an empty room with your eyes closed. I see blues and purples, an anxious sky that’s cooling into twilight. Drifting streetlights and hands fumbling into jacket pockets. Then, just as you’re getting comfortable, the vocals slip in. The vocals arrive in a crooning falsetto, reminiscent of the beloved atmospheric artist Novo Amor. The guitar hooks into a loop, repeating in time with the vocals as Näse sings about falling into old patterns. The repeating chords make for a circular sonic effect, which seems to align with the lyrical message of the song.
Twists and turns I thought straightened out / Reappear and just around the corner
Lyrically, the song finds its speaker amidst a strange realization: that things are the same as they always were. To me, this seems to be the story of someone who has been around the world and back. I picture a hungry traveler or a curious artist, someone who has always itched to get away. Yet after all their time spent running, every hour devoted to following every opportunity, they find themselves again and again back at the beginning. Maybe it’s a person, maybe it’s a place, maybe it’s a career or a project or a state of mind. But while their attention has been cast in a thousand directions, now they stand back at the starting line and they see that all the squiggling backroads and escape routes have led in the same direction—that the “twists and turns” were a straight line all along.
Look what’s more now
The synths deepen after the first verse, enhanced by drifting layers of vocal stacks. It’s dreamy, it’s wistful, and it’s familiar, like pausing midway down the stairs and being washed over with a sense of déjà vu. It’s both nostalgic and forward facing, and expertly produced. “Just As If New” is the third single off of Early Signs’ debut album, set to drop in April 2022.
