Feature: Darkroom Data Decodes “First Echo”
Photo Credit: Michael Duggan
What was the creative process like for this particular song?
Márcio: A specific event in my life led me to experience a feeling of immense vastness and loss. It was like walking through a landscape that was both terrifying and spectacular for a long time. Gradually, I started to think that searching for the sonic representation of this landscape might help me find a way out, a means to interrupt this loop. During this process, I sought synthesizer sounds that carried some of my childhood memories. This revisitation was important for me to remember a version of myself before everything, a place in time where these landscapes didn’t inhabit my imagination. When I sent the music to Gillian and she shared the first version of the vocals, I remember her voice felt like an echo of those landscapes. That first take became the official vocal — there was never a second version, never another form after that.
Gillian: When Márcio sent me the initial piece of music from which the song was built I thought it was one of the most beautiful sounds I had ever heard, so sad, so simple and with that little pulse that sounded like a heartbeat. I listened a lot to this early piece often while out walking, it goes like that, and the vocals came in that way. Márcio built up the other elements of the music then, adding many layers, some which were kept but many which were removed again to return to this minimalistic final version. The beauty was there from early on in the process.
Were there any memorable or standout moments during the recording sessions for "First Echo?"
Gillian: The recording was done alone, and separately, for me, it was a kind of meditative experience.
Márcio: The moment I found the synthesizer sound that opens the track was very special. It has this blood-like dynamic, like a heart beating firmly and sending blood where it needs to go—it was also the rhythm of my walk through those landscapes. Gillian and I talked a lot about the experience a fetus has of hearing its mother's heartbeat. The mother’s heartbeat is one of the most constant and comforting sounds the baby hears. This happens because the sound of the heartbeat is amplified by the amniotic fluid, creating a calming and rhythmic environment. Discovering this sonic horizon felt like living a piece of that uterine experience, that sensation of being inside everything, immersed in it all.
How do you feel "First Echo" represents your artistic identity?
Gillian: We are conceptual and emotive artists, comfortable in the abstract as well as in the simplicity of human emotion. We like the music to feature as a character in many ways. “First Echo” has that kind of feeling.
Márcio: First Echo is a moment in our artistic experimentation where we explored slower BPMs more deeply. Many things in our lives led to this deceleration. At that time, I was revisiting a lot of ambient music albums—long notes, expansive breaths, searching for a kind of flotation. Somehow, you find these membranes when you’re looking for them. Like children’s fingers tracing the movement of fish in the aquarium on the track’s cover art. Sometimes it takes time. But when it’s there, you just know. I needed those slower BPMs to see the images I needed to see. There’s a moment of stillness and reverence. It’s like preparing your body’s rhythm to receive a feeling, an image, a manifestation of the certainty that you have no idea who you are or where you are.
How would you describe your musical style or genre?
Gillian: I think everyone finds this question hard! We don’t have a set genre in mind although synthesizer sounds feature prominently. Probably we fit into the alt pop, art pop genre broadly. Reviewers have called the songs genre-bending, cinematic, evocative and futuristic.
Are there any specific themes or messages that you aim to convey through your music?
Both: No, not intentionally. If we consider the songs we have written, including some upcoming tracks, there are themes of hope and forbearance in there. We love a bit of melancholy but also fun and danceable moods which are more playful and deeper, darker emotions feature too. Human themes really. It’s about what’s coming up for us rather than any specific manifesto.
