Kyiv
Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes
This one carries weight. Named after the Ukrainian capital, "Kyiv" opens with a spaciousness that feels almost geographical — wide, unhurried, as though the music itself is trying to hold something vast and difficult. Misch's guitar playing here is at its most lyrical, less concerned with groove than with melody that bends and breathes. The tempo is restrained, and Dayes resists the temptation to fill space, instead letting silence become part of the composition. There's a modal quality to the harmonic language, borrowing from Eastern European folk and jazz in a way that sounds less like cultural reference and more like genuine emotional resonance. The mood is elegiac without being sentimental — it evokes a kind of dignified grief, the sort you feel when contemplating something irreplaceable. For listeners aware of the context the title suggests, the track takes on additional dimension, but even stripped of that knowledge it communicates loss and beauty with unusual directness for instrumental music. This is music for sitting still — for a grey afternoon with strong coffee, or for processing something you haven't yet found words for. It asks more of the listener than the other tracks on the album, and rewards that attention completely.
slow
2020s
spacious, mournful, airy
London UK jazz, Eastern European folk and modal jazz influences
Jazz, Contemporary Classical. modal jazz. elegiac, contemplative. Opens with vast, unhurried spaciousness and deepens into dignified grief, holding loss and beauty together without sentimentality.. energy 3. slow. danceability 2. valence 4. vocals: instrumental, no vocals. production: lyrical guitar, restrained sparse drums, silence as compositional element, wide open arrangement. texture: spacious, mournful, airy. acousticness 6. era: 2020s. London UK jazz, Eastern European folk and modal jazz influences. A grey afternoon with strong coffee when you need to process something you haven't yet found words for.