It’s disingenuous to place “Sun Song” into one genre. A recent release by UK artist Natalie Evans, the song could be called dance, or maybe ambient. But, neither really seems to capture it in totality.
Evans uses a beautiful repertoire of instruments on “Sun Song.” The soft and shiny harp arpeggios across the piece, rising and falling with the light and sparkly vocals – the sound is primal and natural, emphasized with the sounds of water through the piece. Plucky violin notes land with the emphasis in Evans’ lyrics, which creates this interesting effect alongside the quieter backup vocals. The composition and the lyrical content feel mythical, like a leitmotif for a phoenix in some hypothetical larger work.
There are many natural elements of the song that work with and build from one another as the composition continues on. From the instrumentation used, it evokes an artsy feel: like a piece that was written with a dance in mind. The rhythms and mood promote motion and a rising falling pattern that leads smoothly into these slow “recovery” statements. Evans separates her song into these smaller “movements” with clear delineations cued by the changes in vocal performance, and the rising or falling of her lead instruments in the soundscape. The use of water through the track is subtle and like many elements of the “Sun Song”, fades in and out over the course of the performance. Many repeated elements feel cyclical, as does the choice to bookend the song with the same watery noises it opened with.
It’s difficult to ascribe a genre to “Sun Song” because describing it is simply easier. It’s a blend of traditionally beautiful sounds and vocals, kept together with choices of natural sound to give it a strange ambient quality. It is an enchanting listen, tugging the listening into a relaxed and gentle daze.
