There’s going to be a great debate over the next few years about just what psychological effects the Covid-19 era will ultimately end up having on society. We’ve become a sheltered and shuttered species over the past year or so, a trend that sees no real sign of changing as the seasons continue to blend into each other. Our gradual removal from the existence we’ve been accustomed to will take a long while to overcome, with many of us never really reverting to the outgoing social creatures we once were.
Those are the thoughts that fill the mind when listening to “Sensory Deprivation,” the new electronic-pop single, out today (February 19), from Finnish duo Lalalow. It’s a gentle, almost daydream-like floatation through stark beats and synth fades, gently nudged forward by the gravitational vocals of Nina Jackson (vocals and keyboard). She’s joined by Tommi Laivamaa (guitar/bass) in rounding out the pair, and together they offer up a warm, contemplative tune about the blossoming introvert in all of us.
“The story behind the single is that I felt isolated from the rest of the world because of Covid, but it was not only that,” says Jackson. “I often have this lonely and isolated feeling even without Covid. I guess it’s just my introspective mind playing games.”
While “Sensory Deprivation” swirls around a basic premise of expressing, regulating and understanding the mind, Lalalow are only beginning to create a musical experience that lean on the psychological realm, something that should become a higher conversational focus as the pandemic era sludges onward. “There are two sides in creating your own world,” they state, “as even though it might drive you crazy, you get in love with your own paranoid thoughts and develop a kind of ‘Stockholm syndrome’ relationship with them and at the end of the day want to remain isolated.”
Reconnect within via “Sensory Deprivation” below.