Ethereal wave

Origin of the term

The origin of the genre term(s) is not known with certainty. In the mid-1980s, several Cocteau Twins/This Mortal Coil records have been described as "ethereal", "etherealism" or "ethereal romanticism". In September 1988, Staci Bonner of Reflex magazine described the music of 4AD as "gothically ethereal". Print media in the U.S., e.g. Alternative Press, SPIN, and Option music magazine, used the term "ethereal goth" more frequently, whereas European music magazines, especially German fanzines such as Glasnost, Aeterna, Entry, Black, and Astan, labeled the genre "ethereal wave" in the same vein as new wave, dark wave, and cold wave.

Characteristics

The defining characteristic of the style is the use of effects-laden guitar soundscapes, primarily based on minor key tonality (which unfolds a serious, dark and wistful atmosphere), frequently post-punk-oriented bass lines, restrained tempi (ranging from down- to midtempo) and high register female vocals (sometimes operatic and with hard-to-decipher lyrical content), often closely intertwined with the aesthetics of pre-Raphaelite imagery.

“The Ethereal tradition began with singers like ... Siouxsie Sioux. Later came Liz Fraser, shrouding herself in an unworldly aura of child-woman innocence.”
          – Simon Reynolds, SPIN magazine

Another significant feature is the extensive use of drum machines, typical of many 4AD productions and initially established by Cocteau Twins' Garlands album and the first full-length work of Dead Can Dance. Acoustic guitars – often combined with electric guitars and/or bass guitars – are sometimes used to create a more folk-oriented feel (e.g. Love Spirals Downwards).

Aside from the genre's post-punk and gothic rock roots, some ethereal bands, namely Lycia and Soul Whirling Somewhere, were equally influenced by ambient and soundtrack-oriented music and/or by more traditional progressive rock textures.

Alicia Porter Smith, maintainer of the website gothicsubculture.com, describes the genre as being

“... most characterized by soprano female vocals combined with ... bass, lead guitar, and drums which creates a surreal, angelic or otherworldly effect, e.g. Love Spirals Downwards, Cocteau Twins. Ethereal music often ... uses the female voice as an instrument. Sometimes, a male vocalist will also be in the group along with the female vocalist. Even more rarely will there be only a male vocalist, but it is still considered ethereal if the mood created is otherworldly and surreal ... It is currently a small division of music, and people who like this music are often called Goths.”

1982–1988: Roots and initiators

Although post-punk bands, such as The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Chameleons, and The Durutti Column, are often credited with inspiring later ethereal wave groups (e.g. This Ascension), the Cocteau Twins and their widely cited early works Head over Heels and Treasure are considered the initiators of the genre.

“The band began to ditch the spikiness of Garlands‘, as [Robin] Guthrie developed a lush cascading guitar technique, creating a rich texture and an otherworldly feel ... From this point on, music journalists found it impossible to describe the band's work without resorting to the word ‚Ethereal‘.”
          – Peter Buckley, The Rough Guide to Rock

“... it was the Cocteau Twins, whose debut album, Garlands, appeared on 4AD in 1982, who proved to be the label's first major artists and did much to crystallize 4AD's image in its early years as an other-worldly purveyor of Ethereal music by reclusive groups who preferred the shadows to the light.”
          – Rick Poynor, Vaughan Oliver: Visceral Pleasures

“The Cocteau Twins remain ground zero for the Ethereal subgenre and ... gave Romantigoths a soundtrack for clubbbing.”
          – Liisa Ladouceur, Encyclopedia Gothica

Other bands from the 1980s who spawned a similar sound were Dif Juz, Breathless, All About Eve, A Primary Industry, Vazz, and Drowning Pool (not to be confused with the metal band).

According to Heather Phares (University of Michigan, arts editor at The Michigan Daily), the genre reached its first high point in 1986/87. At that time, Siouxsie and the Banshees released their studio album Tinderbox, followed by All About Eve's In the Clouds, A Primary Industry's Ultramarine, and Cocteau Twins' last ethereal E.P. Love's Easy Tears. In 1987, U.S. band Area debuted with Radio Caroline while Vazz from Scotland, a former new wave/synthwave band, brought out Feverpitch that follows the footsteps of the Cocteau Twins. In the same year, Robin Guthrie produced A.R. Kane's Lollita single that features Cocteau Twins' ethereal trademark, comparable to the band's early records. A.R. Kane themselves called their musical style "dreampop", which later became a descriptive term for gentle indie-pop music (cf. Bel Canto, Pale Saints, The Sundays).

1989–1999: Peak and decline

Within the gothic/dark wave subculture, the genre reached a higher level of popularity throughout the 1990s, especially in the first half of the decade. During this time, ethereal wave and genres such as shoegazing (aka dream pop) interacted with each other, with many artists being heavily influenced by 4AD bands, such as the aforementioned Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil, as well as early All About Eve, The Chameleons, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The American ethereal band Siddal, for example, described their music as follows:

“A product of influences such as the Cocteau Twins, Low, Slowdive, The Cure, and Dead Can Dance, use a blend of ambient music, shoegazer style guitars, synths and sequenced rhythms.”

Other examples of these overlaps (partially referred to as "ethereal pop") include Hugo Largo, Chimera, An April March, Hex, Common Language, Miranda Sex Garden, Cranes, Rose Chronicles, The Glee Club, Lovesliescrushing, and Rosewater Elizabeth. Members of British shoegazing group Slowdive have repeatedly cited being influenced by bands such as The Cure, Cocteau Twins, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

“... the huge irony with the bands called ‚Shoegazing‘ was that a lot of those bands really were into the Cocteau Twins. And they all used choruses, flangers and other effects pedals to create a certain kind of sound.”
          – Kevin Shields, My Bloody Valentine

Since the 1990s, ethereal is strongly associated with the Projekt label, which had already used the term in 1987. The label features some of the most well-known names of the US scene (Love Spirals Downwards, Lycia, etc.). Other record labels that featured some of the leading lights of the movement were Tess Records (This Ascension, Trance to the Sun, Autumn), Bedazzled (Siddal, early Mistle Thrush, An April March) and Yvy Records (Faith & Disease, Ninth Circle). Many of these labels and artists ceased activities over the years or changed the musical direction, incorporating elements of other genres such as ambient, trip hop and drum & bass.

“... there are the unexpected fringe crossovers, such as Love Spirals Downwards, whose recent album ‚Flux‘ offers Ethereal Breakbeat fusion.”
          – Bryan Reesman, CMJ New Music Monthly

2000–2016: After the decline

In the early 2000s, two Cocteau Twins tribute compilations, Dark Treasures (Cleopatra) and Half-Gifts (Dewdrops Records), have been released, underlining the band's significant influence on the ethereal gothic sound.

More recent bands who partly represent the genre are Autumn's Grey Solace, Tearwave, Ashrae Fax, Mercury's Antennae, Melodyguild, Faded Sympathy, Saigon Blue Rain, Scarlet Mother, and Broaddaylight.

Notable artists

Besides these artists, a number of darkwave-oriented bands have been worldwide loosely associated with the ethereal wave genre, such as The Dreamside and Sophya (Netherlands), The Breath of Life (Belgium), Crimson Joy (Germany), Rise and Fall of a Decade (France), Cello (Portugal), Faith & the Muse, The Shroud and Sunshine Blind (United States), This Burning Effigy (Ireland), and Mellonta Tauta (Argentina). Most of these artists were heavily influenced by the music of the Cocteau Twins and the 4AD record label.

Genre distinction

Though ethereal wave and shoegazing (also referred to as "dream pop" by Simon Reynolds) share some similarities (e.g. the use of guitar effects such as flanger, chorus, echo, and delay), there are substantial differences between the genres.

Shoegazing developed primarily from the 1980s' noise pop/indie rock scene and a conventional instrumentation, based on guitars, bass and drums. Initially, drum machines were not a regular part of the shoegazing genre but a basic component of new wave, post-punk and gothic rock. Most ethereal wave bands used drum machines and electronically generated rhythms (e.g. Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Area, Love Spirals Downwards, Lycia, Autumn, Speaking Silence, etc.). Commonly, ethereal wave often features a traditional early 1980s post-punk/gothic rock signature – devoid of any influences of the twee- and noise pop movements.

“Women have a much larger role in Darkwave and ... the Ethereal subgenre that developed in Europe (e.g. Dead Can Dance).”
          – Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible