Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist Jon DeRosa released his second single “Delicate Waltz of Shadows” from his album as Aarktica, We Will Find The Light (Darla Records), out September 30, 2022.
“Delicate Waltz of Shadows” is a journey through love, loss, and healing through growth. With gentle acoustic plucking, a slowly building string arrangement, and subtle, comforting electronic atmospheres, the song showcases Aarktica’s prowess in bridging meditative, grounded folk music with glistening ambient, bridging all sides of DeRosa’s sonic spectrum and setting the scene for nuanced emotions to pollinate. Lush electric guitars glide in the background, and guide the song through a lullaby-like exhale. “I remember, when you were kind / just like yesterday of another lifetime / and the love still flows / even when it’s got nowhere to go,” sings DeRosa.
For DeRosa, “Delicate Waltz of Shadows” was an experiment in being more observational, and opening himself up to “what is” without judgment or attachment. “In an ideal healing scenario, I can move past the pain of lost love, and appreciate the beauty of the memory of that person,” says DeRosa. “Who they once were to me, and the feelings we shared, without blame, judgment, and regret.”
“The album is about this idea that once we acknowledge certain wounds, weaknesses or unpleasant feelings, and instead of ignoring them, we dive headfirst into the darkness and face everything that is terrifying, there’s at least the possibility (and more so, the likelihood) that we will come out on the other end feeling stronger and more empowered,” says DeRosa.
Aarktica is the brainchild of Jon DeRosa, who has been releasing a diverse catalog of music under this name since 1999.
Beginning in 1999 with the ambient guitar opus No Solace in Sleep (Silber), the classically trained DeRosa has spent the last two decades charting his way across cosmic terrains and ambient soundscapes through patient songwriting and a curiosity in experimentation. It’s a journey that began with DeRosa recording guitar experiments on a four-track cassette recorder in his college dorm after going permanently deaf in his right ear.
“I was having aural hallucinations. Everything I knew as sonically ‘normal’ suddenly changed. When I started Aarktica, it was a bit like a sonic journal, trying to recreate and reinterpret sounds as I was hearing them.” These recordings, which would become No Solace in Sleep, translated those classical musical forms he’d studied for years to electric guitar, stretched them into infinity, soaked them in reverb and delay, and created an entirely new sound identity that would evolve over the years.