Intimate and gutting, School of X’s ‘Dancing Through the Void’ is the perfect soundtrack for life in a global pandemic: It’s a beautifully raw reckoning full of passion and upheaval, movement and desire.
Stream: ‘Dancing Through the Void’ – School of X
‘Dancing Through the Void’ captures a motion in a context. I thought of the lyrical themes and probably my life and the world situation. It felt right that ‘that’ was the name to embrace it all.
Intimate and gutting, School of X’s sophomore album is the perfect soundtrack for living in the midst of a global pandemic, or any kind of massive life-altering turmoil: A raw reckoning full of passion and upheaval, movement and desire, Dancing Through the Void aches with moody indie pop as the Danish alternative artist charts a path through darkness and light, bad times and good.
If you like your new friend
More than me
And you know we’re wasting
Every day we seize
Say that you love me
Send me flowers
And I can guarantee
You and I will meet
If you want it like that
Your old friend’s gone
We’re better of like that
If you want it like that
Your old friend’s gone
And it’s better like that
Released September 24, 2021 via Tambourhinoceros, Dancing Through the Void captures School of X’s warm melancholy at its finest. Following earlier EPs Faded. Dream. (2017) and Destiny (2019), and 2020’s debut album Armlock, Dancing Through the Void finds Danish multi-instrumentalist Rasmus Littauer dwelling in moments of isolation and intense self-reflection as he gives a voice to some of life’s hardest emotions and more turbulent experiences.
“I started recording this record right when the world closed down last year,” Littauer tells Atwood Magazine. “I had just finished another one (Armlock) so it felt like I just kept on working in a way. I was probably motivated by the fact that I was about to release an album in the middle of this coronavirus thing, and so I really wanted to just keep on creating and releasing. It’s so easy to dig a whole and jump in and so hard to get out of again. I try to stay away from digging.”
Littauer’s process started off without a grand, sweeping vision or specific idea for this overall project. “I never have a theme or vision beforehand,” he smiles. “It develops through writing and composing. The music and expression changed quite a bit from where I was coming from (creation of Armlock). I try to express myself as precise as possible. I really try to do my best, and I only release it because I believe that someone else might enjoy or benefit from the music to. To me this album definitely has a more full circle storytelling than my previous work. Basically it’s about going through life and fighting for your dreams and the life you wanna live, with the ups and downs it brings.”
‘Dancing Through the Void’ is an ode to live and be exactly who you are no matter the noise that surrounds you.
Dancing Through the Void is best listened to from start to finish; the artist doesn’t have any personal favorite, but rather cites the listening experience as a meaningful entity in and of itself. “It’s like they all contain something I wanna say, so to me that’s the most important: They work best together,” he explains. “All the songs that were not my favorites didn’t make it to the album.”
Highlights nevertheless abound on this stirring, heartfelt affair – from the cinematic, upbeat, and groovy “Feel of It” and the hypnotic, yearning pulse of “Race for Caress,” to the achingly visceral heart-on-sleeve opener “New Friend,” the smoldering saxophone-tinged “Away,” and the poignant “Heart Turned Cold” (featuring Clairo collaborator Kim Tee). “You so right about me? Why are you staying not leaving here, so casually, in your fantasy? You say that this is just a phase… You’re gonna come along and stay, like family,” Littauer sings longingly in the latter ballad, his voice a plaintive cry above wallowing, glistening guitars. “Leave the worst in history, I’m not gonna leave you, but you use me.” The chorus is a bittersweet catharsis:
If I told you my heart turned cold
I’m tired of trying
To tear my eyes apart from yours
You’d be on your own
If I told you my heart turned cold
I’m tired of trying
To tear my eyes apart from yours
Even Dancing Through the Void‘s highest energy moments (and there are a few) are tinged with a kind of inescapable sadness, capturing the irresistible sorrow that has permeated the globe over the past year and a half. For the artist, the important part of this record is sharing in those feelings, and recognizing their universality; understanding that we’re not alone, and connecting to ourselves as well as the world around us.
“I hope people will listen to the album and I really hope that that will make them come to our shows,” he shares. “Hopefully It will be an everlasting love/hate relationship.”
In a way, we’re all still dancing through the void: Making our way through the unknown one minute, one breath, and one step at a time. School of X’s sophomore album is out now on Tambourhinoceros.
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Stream: ‘Dancing Through the Void’ – School of X
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