Beat the Monday blues with a motivating song to get you going through the rest of the day, maybe even the rest of the week. Today’s music is “Tearing the Wings off an Angel (Teared Apart)” by Dark Smoke Signal x CONNÖR.
CONNÖR is the musical moniker of Xavier, a German composer and producer from Bavaria. His musical career started at 14 and played guitar in several bands. While he considers synthwave to be the most concise word to describe his music, he’s not too keen on being “put in a Genrebox.” Interestingly, the word “synthwave” spans several different sounds and motifs, many of which can be found in CONNÖR’s diverse song catalogue. “The Devil in Me,” his pop inspired duet with Australian singer ELYXIR would sound perfect in the soundtrack of Stranger Things or Wonder Woman 1984. Whereas “The Conjuring.” a track he worked on with darksynth artist Draven, could easily be played during an 80s slasher flick without sounding out of place.
While CONNÖR has a wide range of musical influences ranging from classic metal (Black Sabbath/Motörhead), instrumental soundtrack composers (Hans Zimmer/Jerry Goldsmith) and fellow synthwave legends like Carpenter Brut” and “Gunship,” he lists Nine Inch Nails and specifically Trent Reznor as the biggest inspiration for his work.
Dark Smoke Signal is a one-man musical project founded by Alex Pope, a British musician and aspiring producer from Bristol. His musical career started in his early teens when he made his first recording using the inbuilt mic on a battered old 80s ghetto blaster. His music crosses a wide spectrum, ranging from lighter vocal electro to nightmarish soundscapes designed to push his listeners out of their comfort zones. His main musical influences are drawn from 80/90s metal bands like Slayer, Metallica and Iron Maiden. However, he also draws inspiration from the latest darksynth and cyberpunk sounds as well as early nu metal, art rock and grunge.
“Tearing the Wings…” is not the first musical collaboration between these two artists. Their initial joint effort was the April 2022 single “Watch (‘em burn)”
CONNÖR has a similar attention to detail as me and the final result has no corners cut. Hoping to work together again in the future for sure.
Dark Smoke Signal
…the process was very smooth and chill and I think we did a pretty good job there…
CONNÖR
CONNÖR confessed to being an avid fan of Dark Smoke Signal’s debut album “The Antipop Resurrection,” especially song number 5, which was also released as a promotional single. The intention was to simultaneously bring more attention to the original song while introducing it to a slightly different audience with the cyberpunk infused update. Since the creative process with Watch (‘em burn) was such a positive one, permission was happily granted for a “Tearing the Wings…” remix.
He was kind enough to send me such lovely words about my original track. When he asked to remix it I jumped at the chance as he has such a fine body of work and felt we are a perfect fit in styles in the scene. I loved his album Out of Traumaville and was really hopeful he could bring that sound to the remix and he totally smashed it.
Dark Smoke Signal
Want to hear more music by this Dark Smoke Signal and CONNÖR? Head to their Bandcamps!
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