Los Angeles-based artist Jean Ryden dwells on an aggrieved longing for the past with her new song “Parallel Universe.” It serves as the latest preview alongside “Chlorine” the rising singer/songwriter and producer has shared. Arriving as a powerfully poignant lament drawn from the depths of personal trauma and loss — the song embodies the tenderhearted rapture that unfurls itself from Ryden’s music.
Guided by a glimmering but mournful piano “Parallel Universe” finds Ryden grappling with the cruelty of dreams that blur the lines between fantasy and reality: reuniting us with deceased loved ones that are snatched away once more when we wake. “I keep having dreams I’m in your room,” she murmurs dolefully. “Everything’s how it was / Just how you left it.”
The song drives home an anguished understanding that the realms of memory and imagination are now the only places Ryden might be reunited with her parents. But it also explores the visceral and surreal feeling that such dreams impart — leaving behind a vividly uncanny impression of a world that could’ve been if only tragedy had not struck.
As the liminal spaces in the song’s melody fill with a swell of resounding tones and strings, Ryden yearns and grasps for a pathway toward a reunion in one of these parallel universes. “After losing both my parents I felt like I was robbed of the life I had and the future I could’ve had,” she explained. “I still feel like my life, as it was, continues on in some parallel universe unscathed by this fault in the stars — but that I am trapped in the wrong one.”
“Parallel Universe” also comes with a music video directed by Angela Ricciardi and Silken Weinberg. Overlaying ghostly black-and-white shots of Ryden laying in bed with sepia-toned archival family footage, the video projects her memories as these gossamer moments both fleeting and eternal. It offers both an incredibly moving portrait of grief and a gentle contemplation on the bittersweetness of what’s left behind in the aftermath of such heartbreak.
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Ryden began her musical endeavors when she was just three years old — joining a familial tradition inherited from her maternal grandparents and mother. She’s also the sole producer of her music, a virtuoso of emotionally grandiose atmospherics and instrumentals akin to Rostam, James Blake, and Sufjan Stevens. While also taking cues from a round-up of lyrically driven singer/songwriters: from Elliott Smith to Regina Spektor and Mitski.
Visit Jean Ryden on their Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Words: Steven Ward
Watch the music video for “Parallel Universe” the new single from Jean Ryden below!
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