&Tilly x UAP – How Loud Is No Sound

How loud is silence? – &Tilly x UAP make synth pop feel again

The song starts and I'm imme­di­ately trans­por­ted – men­tally some­where between 1980 and today. The bass­line grabs me right away, the beat pulsates, and then those vocals kick in – clear, emo­tion­al, warm and access­ible at the same time. I imme­di­ately thought of Sandra and her clas­sic ‘Maria Magdalena’ or the dark flair of Kim Wilde's ‘Cambodia’. Not because &Tilly sounds like either of them – she doesn't – but because the feel­ing is there. That elu­sive some­thing that imme­di­ately cata­pults me back to that era without feel­ing like a copycat.

The warm, ana­logue synths con­trib­ute a lot to this atmo­sphere. They lay over the pro­duc­tion like a vel­vety mist, nev­er intrus­ive, but pre­cisely dosed. But what I par­tic­u­larly love are the play­ful melod­ies in between (for example at 01:04 minutes). They seem light, almost naive – and that's exactly what appeals to me. This youth­ful care­free­ness that doesn't try to ingra­ti­ate itself, but takes its place as a mat­ter of course.

Lyrically, ‘How Loud Is No Sound’ is about inner struggles, silence as res­ist­ance and the desire to resolve pain. Lines like "If I scream until I'm dead / How loud is no sound?" really grabbed me. For me, it's not just poet­ic, but also very emo­tion­ally tan­gible – without becom­ing melo­dra­mat­ic. The lyr­ics fit per­fectly with the cool, almost fra­gile soundscape.

The music video is visu­ally power­ful and under­scores the mood of the song in a very aes­thet­ic way. Incidentally, the music video can be enjoyed in black and white and in colour.

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Lyrics of "&Tilly x UAP – How Loud Is No Sound"

I wish I could be silent
Without scream­ing loud
The arms fol­ded down, violence
I could do without

No advice, no asking
Nothing I can fault
The ghosts hid­den in my skin
I may have been wronged

But if there is no breathing
But if we keep on keeping
And if I cease all grieving
How loud is no sound?

If I breathe in what you’ve said
If I scream until I’m dead
If I climb into your head
How loud is no sound?

I wished I could be myself
Then I couldn’t stop
Up in arms, a giant
Lost in tiny drops

But if there is no breathing
But if we keep on keeping
And if I cease all grieving
How loud is no sound?

If I breathe in what you’ve said
If I scream until I’m dead
If I climb into your head
How loud is no sound?

No advice, no asking

The ghosts hid­den in my skin

Maybe there is no breathing
Maybe we keep on cheating
But if we cease all grieving
How loud is no sound?

Try breath­ing in what you’ve said
Keep scream­ing after I’m dead
I will climb into your head

But if there is no breathing

And if I cease all grieving
How loud is no sound?