Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.
A lot of recent synth-based artists opt for maximalism, throwing as many sounds and textures into the mix as they can for both variety’s sake and to show off their gear a bit. Montreal-based artist Nick Schofield took the opposite route on his forthcoming album Water Sine (out on May 4th via Backward Music), using only one synthesizer, one effects pedal and a batch of field recordings he made of the natural world. Those simple elements are more than enough to create something soothing and pellucid, meditative and transporting.
The track “Pale Blue Dot” is perfectly evocative of its title, a reference to a photo taken of our planet by the Voyager 1 space probe as it floated nearly 4 billion miles away from us. It feels as weightless and haunted as that picture, tinged with a deep yearning for home or for some kind of connection.