“An echoed voice, far away, takes me back to the old days…”. So speak the opening stanza of ‘Až Príde Večer’, but unless your Slovak is good, you won’t understand them – and yet you don’t need to. Daša’s pure voice and the simple, folk melodies made it instantly clear that this is a song of longing and dreaming of home. It’s stunning.
Daša – Až Príde Večer
London based artist Daša pays a bold tribute to her Slavic roots here, with a cover of popular Slovak musician Jana Kirschner’s 2013 release ‘Až Príde Večer’. But where Kirschner’s original is more sweet and traditional, Daša takes the song into something more modern, more overwhelming.
‘Až Príde Večer’ is a haunting folk-electronica tribute to nostalgia and memories of a homeland – you can almost see the mountains.
The translated lyrics are worth looking up, full of lush imagery and poetry – ‘I open doors to all memories clean/The day is cradled to sleep…’.
Daša’s striking, surprising arrangement is the star here, with shades of Bjork and Imogen Heap. Though there is use of synthesisers, the focus is the multi-layered vocals, distorted, shifted, quivering, like the voices of all Daša’s identities. The track constantly switches between a solo voice and grandiose walls of sound, finishing with a lingering, dying echo. It’s a bold choice to release a non-English cover of a song that likely won’t be known to most listeners, but with Daša’s fearless performance it absolutely pays off. Listeners should look out for further singles and an EP next year, and in the meantime, press replay.
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Words Eden Tredwell
