Sound & Vision with Communions

A sound both full of gorgeous indie pop jangle and teenage angst, communions feel birthed straight from the late 80s. Possessing a mournful vocal tone the Danish brothers are just as capable of soundtracking an early spring rise as they are a hazy late night.

Celebrating the release of their latest record, Pure Fabrication, we caught up with the pair to check in and see what pieces of art stick out to them. Here are their choices:

3 Favourite Albums:

Bob Dylan –  Bringing It All Back Home 

To me, Dylan is like the Mozart of modern music. There’s not really a songwriter that affects me in quite the same way. Bringing It All Back Home was the first record I heard by him after my cousin introduced me to it in my mid-teens. Songs like She Belongs To Me, It’s Alright Ma, and It’s All Over Now Baby Blue were like little revelations. A record like this probably isn’t something that has directly seeped into Communions’ music sonically. When it comes to Dylan, it’s more the approach to songwriting that I try to take inspiration from; the concrete way these songs make me feel, is something that I try to emulate in my own stuff.

Leonard Cohen – Songs Of Leonard Cohen 

This is an album that has haunted me ever since I first heard it. With songs like Suzanne and Sisters Of Mercy its poetic quality is immense. It has a totally unique introverted and intellectual aesthetic that I haven’t really found in any other music. It’s not so much a record I listen to, as it’s one that I ‘live’ with, in the sense that I revisit it constantly during certain seasons. Cohen is definitely the kind of songwriter, next to Dylan, that I admire the most. Like with Dylan, it’s the approach to the writing that sticks. Writing lyrics in a manner in which they can be gauged as little poems in their own right is certainly an ideal I’ve strived for on our new record.

Radiohead – In Rainbows 

Only recently have we really discovered Radiohead, and In Rainbows was our first contact. I remember the first time we listened to it, we were taking some pictures for our album cover, and listening to music while doing so. Somehow Weird Fishes was put on repeat by Spotify. We ended up listening to it over and over again for about an hour (we were completely hypnotized by it), after which we looked at each other and said “Wow that was a good song.” We immediately put the whole record on.

Favourite Film:

Mulholland Drive – David Lynch.

I don’t think I will ever get tired of this film. A lot of the storytelling is based on intuition and emotion, and not as explicit as in other films. Nothing is simply handed to the viewer, so there’s a lot of interpretation to be done as the viewer, which makes it feel new every time you see it.

Favourite book:

The Map And The Territory – Michel Houellebecq

I could have picked any Houellebecq novel here, but this is the latest one I’ve read. Houellebecq writes about the art world, and he includes himself as a character in the book. In his usual style, he combines indirect critiques of society with passages that are extremely funny. His use of humor is definitely something that has inspired my writing.

A song that is important to us:

Alice Coltrane – Journey In Satchidananda 

This was my introduction to spiritual jazz, and jazz in general, making it one of the most significant songs for me. It was so radically different from anything I was listening to, or had ever listened to. Obviously something that sparks an interest in something so significant as jazz is unforgettable.

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