Ailee Jones

In their 2024 single, “Nerves,” producers Jonah Paz and Yaelle Avtan synthesize natural instruments with artificial sounds to create an intimate and experimental style of music. Established in 2024, this duo goes by the name ear and formed while the two were students at Bard College. In their shared appreciation of genres like twee pop, post-punk and intelligent dance music, ear has put forth a new, somewhat whimsical yet grounded approach to electronic music.

“Nerves,” one of their popular tracks, exemplifies ear’s grasp on the relationship between tension and release through music. The song begins with strings harmonizing in a manner reminiscent of horns, whispers and thunder. From underneath rise strange, unrecognizable noises, soft and urgent. Piano is introduced briefly, along with gentle, layered vocals. The piece develops into chopped vocal snippets and quiet percussive rhythms before dropping an insistent bassline. After a cut out, the bass reincarnates as a sharper, synth-like sound with a new pattern that draws pressure directly into one’s ears. Joined by panned out riffs, a simple beat and audio ad-libs, the song gathers all its components to conclude as one eclectic sound.

For the past several months, I’ve been acquiring a newfound appreciation for electronic artists such as Bassvictim, Cowgirl Clue, Neggy Gemmy and more. I first heard “Nerves” while on a deep dive into Bassvictim’s music, in fact. There’s something extremely fun about these kinds of songs that lack conventional structure and instead incorporate diverse elements at random moments. Songs like “Nerves” play with expectations, demonstrating how artists can make and break formulas in original ways.

I decided to speak with my friend Liv Mann ’28 one night about ear, or more specifically “Nerves,” to gather some thoughts from a fresh mind. Liv, who was unfamiliar with the duo, responded well to our listening session. Earlier, we had been listening to the artists Solange and Blood Orange, and I was hoping that her love of their uniquely eclectic styles would extend to ear.

“I liked the vocals, and then I was like, ‘Oh, shit, there’s a beat coming in,’ and I was like, ‘That’s dope,’” Liv said.

I’m pretty sure I had a similar reaction when I first heard “Nerves.”

We talked about the usual stuff, like whether or not Liv liked it, what she felt, what stood out, et cetera. Liv shared that she enjoyed how the vocals were “very soft but the synth is … harsher” creating “a cool vibe.” She added that the song made her feel “pensive” (the original word she used was “ponderous” lol). We talked about how the vocals and build-up worked together to amplify the emotional intensity of the song. We’d been listening from a small speaker, but in a different setting with a better, stronger sound system, a song like “Nerves” generates great swells and beat drops. Liv’s ideal setting for listening would be blasting the song on a late night drive with a good subwoofer.

Overall, Liv liked the progression and the beat most. She commented on the dual-nature of the song: “That’s the thing about it, cause the beat’s hype, but the vocals make me think.” In a blog piece I was reading on an ear show, the author referred to some songs as “structureless collages.” While I’m not sure I’d agree that their songs have no structure at all, “collage” feels like a perfect word to describe the intentional chaos of ear.