Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Marva Von Theo, Wave records 2021.
Afterglow is what do you get when you combine two classically trained musicians from Vienna with the tools of electropop; keyboards, synths, drum machines and a digital studio.
Marva Von Theo is Marva Voulgari (vocals, piano, keyboards, synths,) and Theo Foinidis who is a classical music and jazz pianist as well as contemporary Electroacoustic Composer and they are graduates from the University of Music and Applied Arts in Vienna.
Afterglow is the follow-up album to their debut release, Dream Within A Dream (2019) which was well regarded in the dance scene and gained the duo substantial world-wide recognition and entry into the lucrative European festival Circuit.
The album deals with the big issues of love and loss, sorrow, hope, dreams, and the struggle to survive in a complex world and it strives to do so by combining danceable rhythmic patterns with electronically produced soundscapes that are often dark and moody.
It’s an interesting and challenging project that many would falter with but the duo is uniquely trained to attempt.
Marva Voulgari has a lovely, expressible, and adaptable voice that occasionally reminded me of Debbie Harry and she has the ability to move the listener through varying emotions from excitement to sorrow and back again.
Her voice is another instrument in the complex palette that the duo produce.
It’s a palette that I found to be much more interesting than the usual electropop offerings I receive.
Marva Von Theo shows what’s possible when you have the skill and training to match your ambition.
They are masterful musicians and talented songwriters.
There’s an interesting video of Love, the first single from the album, on YouTube.
While the overall feeling of the album leans to the melancholic it’s not depressing; it’s introspective but also strangely uplifting at the same time.
Straddling electronica, Arthouse and Dark Pop, and still mostly meeting the requirements of a dance album is no easy feat but Marva Von Theo come much closer than any other electronic outfit that I’ve heard.
Afterglow is certainly the best electronica album I’ve heard this year.
