REVIEW

The debut album from doomgaze band Softsun, featuring members from Norway and the United States.

The project began when Norwegian dronegaze maestro Pia Isaksen collaborated with Gary Arce of California desert rock legends Yawning Man on one of her solo works. That collaboration led to a natural creative alignment, with Isaksen traveling from Norway to California to complete this album alongside Arce and drummer Dan Joeright.

Throughout the record, Isaksen anchors the sound with bulldozer-heavy bass lines while delivering an ethereal, almost otherworldly vocal presence. Arce’s guitar work, by contrast, introduces a melodic sense of shimmer and levitation that leans firmly into shoegaze territory. Where Pia Isa’s solo work might evoke a mist-covered forest, Softsun suggests a vast desert landscape—windswept, desolate, and charged with motion. The listener is placed in the role of a traveler, wandering through darkness in search of light amid a raging sandstorm.

The closing track, #6 “Soft Sun,” offers a comparatively brighter moment, suggesting the storm’s end and the sun slowly emerging beyond the horizon. Heard in full, the album unfolds with the pacing and emotional weight of a feature-length film set in the desert, leaving a lingering sense of completion rather than simple catharsis. It stands as a particularly striking entry in this year’s doomgaze landscape.

Softsun’s momentum does not appear to be slowing. The band has already recorded several tracks for an upcoming split release with Yawning Man, with plans for a second album and live performances also underway. The transatlantic bond forged through a shared devotion to crushing volume and immersive atmosphere is one worth following closely.