PINHDAR - Comfort In The Silence

Alienation that leaves you unable to react, inertia as poison in a society that blends everything and absorbs nothing, and silence conjured up as a lifeline and the only form of resistance in a highly toxic world. These are the thematic coordinates that shape the moods and anxieties at the heart of "Comfort In The Silence", starting with the lead single from the new album by Pinhdar, "Mute", which rests, fittingly enough, on the power of silence as a shield against everything, in a track built on the kind of darkwave sound so dear to the Milanese duo made up of singer Cecilia Miradoli and guitarist/producer Max Tarenzi, joined on this occasion by Lee Pomeroy, bassist of Archive.

"Comfort In The Silence" contains nine songs that move through the dark in a desperate search for a crack through which to let a sliver of light pass, an attitude just as revealing of Pinhdar's own nature. This time round the duo plays its cards by opening up the sound, gradually filling it with murky, deliberately lopsided wave rhythms as on "Neon Light", while Miradoli's voice becomes even more piercing and concise, evocative of a state of mind as troubled as it is hungry for life.

Light and shade are in fact the backbone of a work that's also finely calibrated on a melodic level, with a few desert-rock hooks ("Fade") adding further spice to the harmonic weave.

Of course, the common thread remains a leaning towards 80s darkwave, reinterpreted here with a contemporary edge and a distinctly personal vision, as for instance in the trip-hop groove of "We Float", another moment of soaring emotional disorientation that draws the listener into an undefined yet enveloping limbo, or in the spectral "Old Kind".

In this back-and-forth of low-lit rollercoasters, "RED" stands tallest of all (included only on the physical CD or vinyl edition), written strictly in capitals, or capslock, if you prefer, whose video — produced by Milan-based Blackball and directed by Matteo Magi — is a little gem shot entirely in Morocco, while the music, drawing on Depeche Mode, underscores the duel between its two protagonists, actors Alessio Bettarello and Mirko Frigerio, dressed one in white and the other in black to symbolize an endemic duality.

With "Comfort In The Silence", Pinhdar confirm themselves as masters of a vibrant darkwave, in a broader scene that's on average growing ever more dismal and, at times, largely cloying. Which is a kind of godsend, pardon: a bottom-of-the-barrel send.

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18/06/2026