Songs of Silence

So since our current comp is themed around silence and borrows its title from a famous song on the subject, thought I would share some songs on the theme of silence. Others are welcome to contribute.

First up, the song that that gave the comp its title. "The Sound of Silence" was released by American folk legends Simon and Garfunkel as an acoustic folk ballad in 1964, with a version that added electric overdubs in 1965. Paul Simon wrote the piece, one of many brilliant compositions from his pen. It had a bit of a revival in the past decade following a cover by American metal band Disturbed, who put a darker edge on the song. David Draiman's magnificent baritone was perfect. And with that revival came a wave of new covers.

My favourite, after the Disturbed cover and original, is this one by English choral octet Voces8. It is kind of its own thing, leveraging the vocal style of the group, whose repertoire includes everything from Renaissance hymns to contemporary folk and pop.

Sadly, this group has a lot of turnover and several of the vocalists in this video, including the bass-baritone who leads it off, have moved on to other projects and lives.

Skipping ahead 60 years, this song is a new song from a new band. Sort of new. Cemetary Skyline is a supergroup whose members are veterans of the death and black metal scenes across the Nordic countries. This group, though, is neither of those genres. The title of their (amazing) debut album probably sums it up best: Nordic Gothic.

Lead singer is Swede Mikael Stanne, lead singer of Swedish melodic death metal act Dark Tranquility. I think this is the first album I have heard where he never growls or screams, just sings in his remarkably smooth baritone clean voice. "When Silence Speaks" was one of the singles and this haunting ballad is one of my favourite songs of this year. Not sure why it didn't come to mind when I was writing my comp entry. I might have ended up with a rather different story if it had.

How about a song called just "Silence"? Electronic music act Delerium put this one out 25 years ago. The track features Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan on vocals (the band is also Canadian). There's a ton of remixes out there by various DJs but this is the original track.

Silence is Golden - The Tremoloes

Found this whilst surfing.

The Silence by The Manchester Orchestra