Dutch-Hungarian duo Light By the Sea (Eszter Anna Baumann and Davy Knobel) are fascinated with how the past reflects on the future, informing cultural and musical trends that balance between reverential and experimental. Drawing from Euro-pop traditions and 80’s club theatrics, they’ve developed a sound that feels blown-out and vividly arranged but maintains a central core of honest sentiment — art-rock-meets-dancefloor aesthetics abound as sweeping choruses run amok and melodies are stretched beyond all recognition.
During the 2020 COVID lockdown, they barricaded themselves in their apartment, surrounded by vinyl records and various live recordings, and began a process that led to the creation of their debut 2021 album, Only Death Makes Icons, reconfiguring inspiration from the past into something that could speak to people trying to exist under this new reality. Using vintage equipment, and relying on producer Eddy Bopp’s innate understanding of the sound they were attempting to foster, Baumann and Knobel concocted a joyous and slightly skewed take on modern indie rock designed to cause spontaneous bouts of movement in its audience.
Recently, the duo have been working on new music, aiming to release a few new singles throughout the year. On their latest, “C’est Le Voyage”, they conjure visions of neon-lit clubs beckoning to 2am wanderers. There’s definitely an 80’s sheen coating everything, a synth-pop perspective drenched in dance-y rhythms and muscular arrangements. Fuzzed-up guitars run heedless into the early morning hours as synths wallop and stumble around looking for their next fix. beneath everything, there is a dauntless emotional need to connect despite common struggles, to find ways to alleviate our shared pain in masses of bodies and sweat-soaked rooms.
Marcel Verschoor handles the visuals for the accompanying video, using clips of city streets and wide-open roads surrounded by shifting psychedelic flourishes to convey a sense of adventure and mystery that lingers on the periphery of our daily lives, just waiting to be discovered by someone with the drive to find it.
Watch the video below.
