Ethereal music
| Ethereal wave | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Early 1980s, United Kingdom |
| Derivative forms | |
| Other topics | |
Ethereal wave, also called ethereal darkwave,ethereal goth or simply ethereal, is a subgenre of dark wave music and is variously described as "gothic", "romantic", and "otherworldly". Developed in the early 1980s in the UK as an outgrowth of gothic rock, ethereal was mainly represented by 4AD bands such as Cocteau Twins and early guitar-driven Dead Can Dance.
“Known for its slick, gauzy package design and quasi-Gothic bands invariably described as "Ethereal" (q.v. Cocteau Twins), the label did have an unpredictable streak.”
– Ben Sisario, The Pixies' Doolittle
In the second half of the 1980s, the genre continued to develop in the United States and was primarily associated with C'est La Mort Records that featured artists such as Area (later The Moon Seven Times) and Heavenly Bodies – a band formed by ex-members of Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil.
The origin of the genre term(s) is not known with certainty. In the mid-1980s, several Cocteau Twins/This Mortal Coil records have been described as "ethereal","etherealism" or "ethereal romanticism". In September 1988, Staci Bonner of Reflex magazine described the music of 4AD as "gothically ethereal". Print media in the U.S., e.g. Alternative Press, SPIN, and Option music magazine, used the term "ethereal goth" more frequently, whereas European music magazines, especially German fanzines such as Glasnost, Aeterna, Entry, Black, and Astan, labeled the genre "ethereal wave" in the same vein as new wave, dark wave, and cold wave.
The defining characteristic of the style is the use of effects-laden guitar soundscapes, primarily based on minor key tonality (which unfolds a serious, dark and wistful atmosphere), frequently post-punk-oriented bass lines, restrained tempi (ranging from down- to midtempo) and high register female vocals (sometimes operatic and with hard-to-decipher lyrical content), often closely intertwined with the aesthetics of pre-Raphaelite imagery.
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