Review Text
The earth rotates, seasons change... there is but one long day... Time is a beguiling, indistinct entity... sometimes standing still, sometimes bendingback upon itself with premonitions or memories of the future. Growing out of a penpal style correspondence that took place over the course of a year, separated by theAtlantic Ocean, Gloria de Oliveira and Dean Hurley passed thoughts and musicback and forth that would eventually form their collaborative album, Oceans of Time.The result is an aural tapestry of that exchange: woven from conceptual threads of thecelestial within, mortality and the realm beyond stars.The duo's partnership is an effortless merge, yet it's the steady presence of de Oliveira'svocals that endows the record with itssense of potency. Throughout the album, thereis an innate understanding of how a lyric across a chordal color can sharpen an emotional truth. Much like a sunbeam that pierces a spiderweb to reveal it's intricacy, herlyric and melody are purposely aimed in order to illuminate the truths deep withinoneself... a process that ties us all to the universal. The Danish philosopher SørenKierkegaard, a professed influence, wrote about the truth as something that was inherently subjective, less about the concrete reality of what is believed and more about howit is experienced by the believer.Frequent David Lynch collaborator Dean Hurley sets the tonal and sonic landscapeof each track on the album, lending a layered ether that envelops, frames and holdsde Oliveira's vocals. With it's impressionistic synths, shimmering guitars, and etherealsonics, Oceans of Time at moments recalls the foundational dreampop of 4AD actslike Cocteau Twins and Lush. The album feels especially attuned to the connectionsbetween the physical and transcendental realms, and the best dreampop has a way ofmaking the veil between two worlds feel just a little bit thinner.Oceans of Time is a key that has the power to release it's listener from the handcuffs ofreality, however briefly
