Arone Dyer & S T A R G A Z E Share New Single ‘Sugar Friend‘
Arone Dyer | Photo Credit: Lucy Bohnsack
"Absolutely stunning, isn't it? Her voice is just so good. That is Arone Dyer from from the critically acclaimed and kind of uncategorizable duo Buke and Gase." — BBC 6 Music on her "It's Over" single
"sweeping chamber pop" — Brooklyn Vegan on first single "Define"
"Arone Dyer’s words morph into subliminal messages" — Stereogum
"unpredictable but meticulously plotted rhythmic and melodic routes"— Pitchfork
Arone Dyer, an artist renowned for her captivating vocal talents and reputation for pushing creative boundaries, recently announced a new album titled ‘ARONE x S T A R G A Z E’, which sees her join forces with the trailblazing European classical-contemporary ensemble, s t a r g a z e. The album is out 1st December via Transgressive Records in collaboration with Brassland, and today they share a new track titled ‘Sugar Friend’.
A project years in the making, ‘ARONE x S T A R G A Z E’ sees Arone Dyer - a founding member of the borderless and critically acclaimed duo Buke and Gase, who were recently the subject of a self-titled new concert film and documentary – working with the 13-member European orchestral collective s t a r g a z e – who were founded in Berlin by contemporary-classical heavy-hitters André de Ridder, Emanuel Florakis and Merle Scheske. Having met some years ago at the somewhat legendary PEOPLE movement/festival created in Berlin with members of The National and Bon Iver, they reached out to other in the middle of 2020, and when it became clear that there wasn't going to be much performing or touring possible any time soon, the pandemic hiatus became a creative opportunity for their collaborative project.
Together they have created a genre-hopping triple crossover ranging from indie to avant-garde pop to modern classical. Featuring diverse and eclectic fragments of songs written by Arone Dyer between 2016-2021, the album is a deep, intricate, and captivating journey into the mind of a musician who has evolved from a underground buzz artist into an icon for a new generation of genre-agnostic artists.
The new single ‘Sugar Friend’ explores the experience of dealing with an entitled friend and realising the importance of setting boundaries to avoid being mistreated, ultimately reflecting on the bittersweet aftermath of the friendship. The track is a mesmerising classical inchworm march, which fully exemplifies the poignant power of the s t a r g a z e ensemble as they weave in and around Dyer’s ethereal vocals.
Speaking on the themes behind the single, Dyer says, “the song is about a friend’s entitlement, and how I tried to sugarcoat our experience to maintain a friendship despite being taken for granted. I became the scapegoat for their broadly lived frustrations, the whipping post, thinking I was helping them to vent. Not true! Never let a friend abuse you. “You made a bitter plan, better than meeting me in plain sight, like I was blind before you turned on the light.” That’s the shit there, when a friend treats you like you’re so lucky to have them, in a way that squashes your autonomy. “Since you left, my rightness seems no different than the glowing moon" refers to my inner truths, who I know myself to be, that I am a good a loving friend, and this person basically claimed I was wrong about myself, that I was actually not a good person and they were going to fix me. Which is bullshit. IYKYK. “We still hunger for caramel licks of each other, Wouldn’t it be sweet if sugar was all we needed” - We just couldn’t find the love after all of that. It was a shame, to me. I still think about them and wish them well.”
Hear / share ‘Sugar Friend’ here
Where the pandemic brought much of the population’s world to a halt, it gave Dyer and s t a r g a z e the space and encouragement to go back and compile smatterings of work from as far back as seven years ago. The result is a musical odyssey that defies pigeonholing, balancing both outfits proclivity for uninhibited experimentation and collaboration, to the point that the tracks and their meanings are still evolving as the work comes to finally be released. Dyer explains, "since the music was completed without audience participation, in other words, since I’ve rarely performed these tunes in public, it has been impossible to separate these juxtaposed sentiments. I hope to find the overarching motif through the process of performing and adapting to it in the coming year."
‘Arone x S T A R G A Z E’ is out 1st December via Transgressive Records in collaboration with Brassland – Pre-order here
Arone Dyer x s t a r g a z e
Arone x S T A R G A Z E
1st December 2023
Transgressive Records
1. Yessiri
2. Don’t Say
3. Spider Practical
4. Reductions
5. Define
6. Sugar Friend
7. Carwash
8. Voicecream abbrv.
9. It’s Over
