The DIY scene has had an impressive year thus far for new artists in the online sphere. Counted among that incoming generation is Parannoul, the music project of an anonymous student from South Korea. Seemingly overnight, an unrelenting tide of listeners from every echelon of the internet flocked to his breakthrough hit, To See the Next Part of the Dream.

In an instantaneous flash, he went from a diddy-making, self-loathing teenager, to a masses-proclaimed DIY virtuoso comparable to Kevin Shields or Adam Demirjian; thrust onto the throne as an idol of independent musical success.

Despite the apparent transformation to said virtuoso, it’s clear in the statement and lyrics within his latest track that Parannoul considers himself anything but. This year’s To See the Next Part of the Dream ends on a more triumphant and confident note sonically, and on “Into the Endless Night” we see what could be that hopeful outlook materializing. 

However, “Into the Endless Night” is not the robust summation of confidence that you might expect from someone whose dream to be a musician has essentially been realized, but rather a bittersweet confessional of an artist still navigating himself, the people around him and his newfound world. 

As a serenading backflip of math rock plucks in the distance, the tantalizing jaunt of a theremin weaves between the gardens and meadows of an infant wall of sound. Seraphim chimes and synths crystallize on the rippling echoes in the distance. In rhythm with a busky bassline, the march of hi-hats and a kick drum fill the soundscape with an unusual sense of clarity and wonder. These four distinct portions interlock in the mix as a grainy machinescape is constructed before your very eyes. 

In a grandiose supersession, the bellowing howl of stardust grows louder. A flicker collapses into a singularity, before exploding over the track like an incandescent firework. 

A crestfallen, yet triumphant instrumental becomes overladen by dejected vocals. The lethargic fog is both pierced and restrained through the bridge, creating a free, yet confined mumble jaggedly atomizing into the layers of sound. The haunted and pained hook projects a hologram of its tired delivery in a paradoxically energetic wail. 

As quickly as it came, it vanished. 

The noisey backdrop ascends into ephemerality. Against the sisyphysian strum of chords, distant vocalizations decadently materialize between the grazed pump of a hi-hat and tambourine; a sudden burst of sunlight breaking between a squall of clouds. 

The distant howls reach their apex, their ascension free falls into a sobering drum break followed by a coda. 

“Into the Endless Night” he croons; against a dazzling tapestry of sonic gossamer. The omnipresent theremin riff pipers the vocals and underlying instruments into the sunset, where the track dissolves into a fade like a kinetic sandcastle. 

Between the staggered and expansive movements of “Into the Endless Night,” Parannoul shows us the immense beauty beneath his sadness and pain in an exhausted, yet convictive breath. Is this what the next part of his dream may prove to be? One can only hope, and Parannoul has dared to dream.