Like a UFO, Berlin Alt-Dream-Pop artist Polar Noir shines pulsating electro-discotheque warning lights all over a cold reality with her latest, the critically urgent and elegantly compelling single ‘Circles’.
The song was literally composed on an island in the Arctic Sea where she had attended an artist residency. It is written from the perspective of a climate activist who seems to be quite personally in touch with her nature and her surroundings, as well as society’s toxic relationship with the ocean and the natural cycles of a life to be inherited.
Circles has such a well crafted and yet subtle groove that it is hard not to resonate with and have your body get pulled along, then perhaps lulled out to sea on gentle waves of electric guitars, without you even really noticing. The dreamy dance-along quality makes it difficult to immediately comprehend the thematic intent of the songs lyrics. One could say this is a perfect song to drive to,
but that would be completely missing the point
At first listen Polar Noir’s intimate, cool, evaporating vocals reminds of the sweet seductive atmosphere of L.A. artist Steady Holiday, but somehow Noir comes across more trustworthy. One can tell that a lot of time and careful attention was given to the instrumentation, mix and overall production of ‘Circles.’ It is such an irresistibly catchy tune that it’s skillfully embedded environmentalist message is easy to overlook.
She is expressing that invisible weight of time, the heaviness of the future, that overwhelming, nearly paralyzing sense of terror and responsibility that has been dumped carelessly onto yet another generations shoulders. Those who will inherit the ravaged Earth and trashed up oceans.
She points to the bleakness and near pointlessness of the day to day concerns of self improvement and career choices in a burning world, but she sounds more defiant than hopeless.
Noir sings, ‘Yes, I try Try to work harder as they say, But I cannot meditate science away, You can change your job, it helps, you’ll see, Doesn’t match what I had believed, Am I even better than them? Does it even matter what I am?’
It is easy to see that Polar Noir has dedicated her artistic life to activism, with a focus on the ocean, and her music is as positively refreshing and wholly meaningful as her obvious authenticity to such a cause.
Her music seems to glow in the dark as it proposes a deeper inquiry than THAT WHICH our surface level attention has been conditioned to focus upon.
As climate change scientific research is continuously brushed aside and then swiftly paved over by the global economic fossil fuel war machine hamster wheel, the ocean waves are still touching every shore of our existence, and that is where this song is taking us, in circles towards ourselves.
All Photos credit Max Hartmann
