ARTISTS

Bliss Nova began as a tentative side project for Daniel and Joel Trzcinski, siblings from Toledo, OH. They had been the backing band for a singer/songwriter whose health issues put the project on indefinite hiatus. Without so much as a name, the sonic direction only became clear with Daniel’s initial bedroom demos — lofi melodic pop with samples and softsynths. Adding Joel’s dynamic drumming to the mix, the songs were released as their 2015 debut EP, Do You Feel, which quickly garnered traction on indie blogs as well as chillwave-adjacent channels like Youtube’s 80s Ladies (30M+ views to date).

Lauded as “one of the top promising artists from the Midwest,” the band developed their live show — “a tapestry of ethereal electronic soundscapes set against explosive, booming rhythm” — embarked on several short-run tours, and explored new sounds in 2017 with EP Light & Shadow and double A-side “Say It” / “Now.” In 2019 their first full-length, Going Places, served up a cohesive collection of synthy grooves, simultaneously fresh and vintage, followed by their 2021 EP, Silence, a frenetic song cycle about desire.

Returning in late 2022 with “Feel So High,” the band cinches up their dreamy danceable pop for an in-the-pocket number with as much poise as passion. Ghostly artist Brijean (Toro y Moi, Poolside) contributed lush percussion and vibey vocals paired with her partner & bandmade Dougie Stu’s dialed-in bass parts.

Their latest single “Always Be Young” taps into the boundless energy of being carefree in love, knowing we don’t live forever. 

“Always Be Young” is a supremely catchy effort of blissed-out indie pop. Carried by shimmering synth textures, lo-fi production touches, and dreamy washed-out vocals, the track fits effortlessly into the lane of indie pop carved by outfits like Beach House or Toro y Moi. Yet, Bliss Nova also conjures their own sun-lit iteration on the style, one that trades in lush melancholy for pure vital joy. That element is captured perfectly in the lyrics, which find the band celebrating youth and love in a way that feels both classic and timeless一“So as long as / We’re together / We will always be young.” — Under the Radar

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Shores of Echo is the electronic ambient solo project of Daniel Trzcinski, one half of synth pop duo Bliss Nova from Toledo, Ohio.

The debut self-titled album was recorded in late fall 2020, after Trzcinski’s mid-pandemic move to Akron, then mixed and mastered by Steve Hauschildt, and released in 2021 on Magic Mood Records.

Hauschildt’s subtle touch expands the full-length’s sense of space — unsurprising, given his work as part of acclaimed experimental electronic trio Emeralds (also hailing from Northeast Ohio) as well as his immersive solo efforts put out on Kranky, Editions Mego, and Ghostly over the past decade.

Shores of Echo turned out to be both symptom of and antidote to the unmooring many experienced in lockdown: muted melodies swim below swells of reserved melancholia and tranquility, something evoked by minimal synths, pianos, and vocals — along with personal field recordings of several bodies of water — all awash with delay and reverberation.

Trzcinski’s lifelong nearness to the Great Lakes, as well as learning the likes of Chopin, Satie, and Debussy by ear in earlier years, account for the aquatic calm, whose emotive waves take listeners further out into murkier abstractions as the album progresses. While only retrospectively conceptual, it’s almost as if the album soundtracks a single day of coastal exploration on some water exoplanet orbiting another sun — alien, yet intimate.

The project also marks the expansion of Trzcinski’s artistic endeavors into audio-visual work. Securing a fellowship with Akron Soul Train in 2021, Shores of Echo A/V: Screensaver, featuring a visual component using CRT-TVs developed for the residency, has been installed twice in the gallery. Akron Beacon Journal has described it as “a painterly and expressive swath of sound [and full color] that glows, dips and undulates through the air.”

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