Music That Make Me Drift Away – A Mixtape by Cecilia Ebba

I think the most important thing about music is the sense of escape.
Thom Yorke

Music can play many roles in our lives; it can offer us the voice of someone who understands, it can bring groups of disparate people together on a share interest, and perhaps most regularly it can offer us some much-needed escapism.

Like literature or visual art, much of the way we appreciate music is shaped by how we interpret what the creator had intended. We listen to the words and the melodies they’ve put onto the tape, and we put our own spin on those ideas. We escape into the world they’ve created but equally we create our own world within it. We become spectators to their stories, but equally we become part of those stories. When Matt Berninger sings of, “standing at the punch table, swallowing punch”, we’re at the party with him, watching his crisis, escaping into the glamorous New York party set, and feeling every bit as alienated from it as he does.

Great songwriters, great storytellers, they create a world and take you with them into it, like Alice we follow the white rabbit down the hole, and enter a world that can be as magical, unrealistic and compelling as we want it to be. With music, there are no boundaries to where your imagination can take you.

Based out of London, but originally hailing from Northern Sweden, Cecilia Ebba is one of the year’s most exciting new voices. The singer-songwriter burst onto the scene in June with her acclaimed debut single, Sweet Summer Wine, and recently returned with the excellent follow-up, Breathe Out Breathe In.

Breathe Out Breathe In is a track inspired by a reoccurring dream, whenever life has threatened to become too chaotic and Cecilia has felt the need to escape she dreams of seeking shelter under the water, hiding away from a moment to catch her breath. Recorded with producer and collaborator Lucas Mendes, musically Breathe In Breathe Out is a slice of atmospheric alt-folk. Recalling the likes of Promise & The Monster or Daughter, the track builds around delicately picked guitars and Cecilia’s airy melodic vocals. The track is latterly lifted by the addition of swells of synths and the growling of a bowed bass-guitar.

We may only two tracks into her musical offerings, but Cecilia has already marked herself out as a talented songwriter with enough pop nous to make commercial waves in the none-to-distant future. Today Cecilia has put together a mixtape showcasing some of her favourite, “drifting-away” tracks, featuring the likes of Marika Hackman, Bon Iver and Wilsen.

“Music has always been an escape for me, it has the power to open up new worlds inside my head, feed my imagination and completely transform my state of mind. I love it when I find new music that allows me to drift away for a moment, so I’ve put together a little mixtape for you with some of my favourite “drifting away – tracks”. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do and that you discover some new music you haven’t heard before”.

1. Marika Hackman – Before I Sleep