Over the past year, American trio Sonder have been discreetly releasing artful R&B tracks surmounting to a three-part series ‘Victoria’, ‘Undone’ and ‘Sheath’ and a seven-track EP, mysteriously titled Into. Their latest collection of nu-soul songs was released just three days ago, worth a listen as a whole, but for the purpose of the List Picks we’d like to draw your attention to ‘Sirens’. A paired-down piano ballad delicately covered with bare acoustic strings, a quietly moody bassline, finger snaps and lusciously classic R&B vocals. This delicious combination could only have come from the collective minds of vocalist Brent Fiyaz, DPAT (producer for the likes of Wiz Khalifa and The Weeknd) and Atu (producer for Tinashe). Their backgrounds in both the R&B and hip-hop worlds seem to collide in the almost chaotic ‘Sirens’ where increasingly emphasised old school beats, complete with that shaking high-hat, step onto centre stage as the twinkly keys and lo-fi layered up vocals from both Faiyaz and an unnamed female singer bleed into one another. It’s a very informal track, but one that comes back to Sonder’s central idea behind the Into EP; that is “the realization that each random passerby lives a life as vivid and complex as your own and with that, our unique experiences all flow into one another.” - HT