A haunting sonic portrait of a body post-trauma, from Palestine's Dakn

Seared and sighing, the textures of Dakn’s debut release express pain and mourning. But these aching sounds find some feeling of grace. They are hurt expressed, like a cry.

too low, too far | شوي كتير بعيد is the first-ever outing of this group, based in Ramallah (and between Palestine and New York). It all evokes balance, even in its contrasts. Smeared granular edges rub up against cool chimes, slowly breathing rhythms and swells, distant taps in the background. One Bandcamp reviewer says it’s “hard to listen to” – and there’s a stabbing feeling in the heart in those digitally-degraded screams, muffled. But the music itself is aware and calming, not violent.

Thanks to Iti Teder, who got hip to this cat at Ramallah’s Exist Festival.

Maybe it’s that self-awareness that makes this something you want on repeat. The artists say they wanted to leave it open to the listener, saying only that the tracks listen on the different parts of the traumatized body:

A new release by Dakn, too low/too far, made up of 9 tracks evoking different parts of a body in post trauma. Harmonic textures resonating alongside dissonant layers are disrupted by pulsing fragments of distant rhythms that, at times, feel like they are sounds emanating from within one’s body or perhaps the land
إصدار جديد لداكن، شوي كتير بعيد، يتكوّن من 9 مقطوعات تحرّك أجزاء مختلفة من جسم يعاني من اعراض ما بعد الصدمة. هي نسيج متآلف من أنغام تتردّد أصداؤها على طول طبقات متنافرة تزعزعها شذرات نابضة من إيقاعات سحيقة نشعر أحياناً وكأنّها أصوات تخرج من داخل جسد المرء أو ربّما من داخل الأرض.

Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme produced the artwork and video; transmedia artists –