Atwood Magazine—ONE YEAR OF ‘BLUE ANGEL SPARKLING SILVER’: REVISITING QUIET LIGHT’S SWEEPING SONIC COSMOS
Atwood’s Rachel Leong reviewed Quiet Light’s Orange Label Records CD re-release—read on atwoodmagazine.com here.
We’ve included the full article below!
Celebrating Quiet Light’s new limited CD release, Atwood Magazine looks back at one year of her critically acclaimed ‘Blue Angel Sparkling Silver.’
A patchwork blend of sonic moments, Quiet Light’s expansive confessional Blue Angel Sparkling Silver hasn’t for a moment lost its glow since its release in 2023.
One year on, the ambient-folk artist celebrates with the release of a limited run of CDs for the LP, via Orange Label Records.
Quiet Light, the solo artist project of Riya Mahesh, has synonymously announced her opening slot for Nilüfer Yanya at Levitation Festival in Austin this November.
Blue Angel Sparkling Silver is sentimental as it is abstract; with sparkling synths that dominate soft guitar progressions and muted percussion, while Mahesh’s vocals lay atop no louder than a whisper. A true peek into her thoughts, the album is interspersed with murmurs and conversations, creating hypnotic mixes of genre, sonic universalities and moments in time.
Confessionally vulnerable, the LP peers into mundane moments that only seem to gain its sparkle in hindsight. “Normal,” in fact, is an identity Mahesh adorns confidently. Raised in Austin’s band scene, the artist relocated to Boston for medical school, where she continues to pursue a medical degree at UMass today. On her artistry, Mahesh shares, “[Quiet Light] makes you feel like you’re floating, music that feels like soft light.”
Blue Angel Sparkling Silver opens with “You Know That I’ve Stayed,” a layering of vocals and voices that envelops you in a low, hypnotic hum. As Mahesh transverses seamlessly to “I Went To The Community Pool,” leading with upbeat synths and ethereal vocals, quickly passing into “Whiplash 2” which introduces slow-strummed indie rock guitars. “Hey Char Baby” produces a live effect reminiscent of early noughties rock sensibilities, where “Fairy Princess Dreamland” is the ultimate escape into her soundscape – her dreamland, as she calls it. The LP is a mix of these sonic bites that act as interludes in between the full-length compositions, breaking up the tracklist and creating a bridge between each of Mahesh’s dreamlands. Her standout musical style almost translates itself to the off-streaming listening experience.
The reticent quality of “View of the City” contrasts other tracks like “Nightmare/Party” and “And There He Goes,” which burst forth with an affective synergy. A truly authentic creative achievement in and of itself, the experimental strides of this LP are a rare gem in the current flows of the music industry. Indeed, like an atmospheric soft light that peeks through the clouds, Mahesh’s indie rock sensibilities are housed with ambient constructions. Playful voice note conversations fuse with Mahesh’s ethereal vocals, freezing a passing moment to the present.
Quiet Light shines in authentic reckonings and fearless experimentation with form. Celebrating the mundane moments, she makes it something truly impressionable in Blue Angel Sparkling Silver.
:: stream/purchase Blue Angel Sparkling Silver here ::
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© Leah Blom
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