Kedr Livanskiy – Sky Kisses
Not even a full second into the song, Kedr Livanskiy’s voice sweeps me off my feet, right into the mesmerizing beat of her new single, “Sky Kisses (На Танцполе).”
Kedr Livanskiy’s real name is Yana Kedrina. In Russian, her musician name means “Lebanese Cedar.”
It’s a beautiful name apt for an artist whose utilization of synths, beats, and ethereal vocals melts into music that just simply takes your breath away.
While her previous album, Ariadna (2017) establishes her experience with electronic music–especially the underground scene in Moscow–this glimpse into Kedrina’s new album, Your Need, shows exactly how she’s changed in two years.
Part of the change can be attributed to how Kedrina turned to DJing post-Ariadna, in an attempt to break out of the confines of being labeled as simply “electronic.” Instead of surrendering her electronic background altogether, “Sky Kisses” contains delicious influences from a variety of dance genres, so skillfully combined that it would be a most egregious sin to only call the track electronic. The song is an experimental audio-collage without any discordance: techno, house, and jungle are meshed together; chants layered over trance-y vocals; reverbing synths merging seamlessly through an overall energetic melody.
It’s a holy amalgamation of everything good in the world of dance and electronic, but the thing that will draw you in is Kedrina’s own spin on these genres as she proposes her own brand of “lo-fi electronic pop.” The pop aspect is indisputable, considering how easily digestible and catchy the song is — regardless of your exposure to electronic music.
“Sky Kisses” is a song for dancing, relaxing, and never getting sick of.
Check out Kedr Livanskiy’s new single, “Sky Kisses,” down below:
Vanya Truong is a Cal Poly English sophomore and a KCPR staff member. She wrote the article. Image credit to Kedr Livansky.