There are songs which one can’t help but listen to for their infectious riff or groove. And there are others because you never know what’s around the corner. The latter is certainly the case for “Within A Dream,” the latest lavishly produced single from Munich, Germany-born and now Toronto-based trip hop singer Nathalie King. It’s a song which is equally unnerving and dreamy as King’s commanding voice works perfectly in tandem with the hushed trip hop structure.
“Within A Dream,” written by King, features musicians Joseph Paris John Snook providing cinematic soundscapes that could be mistaken for a title song from a forthcoming James Bond film. Bringing to mind the work of Portishead and the band’s singer Beth Gibbons, PJ Harvey, and Bjork, among others, “Within A Dream” has a dreamy, lullaby feel at times while brimming with industrial-tinged tension and gravitas in others. This dichotomy provides the single with a beautiful blend of highs and lows, darkness and eventual light.
Do you know what it feels like
Waking up in sweat all night?
Do you hear the screams?
Do you know how it feels?
Within a dream, within a dream
Wake up within a dream
The song’s tone mirrors the trauma of bullying, verbal and physical abuse King experienced growing up, hence the aptly titled EP PTSD. “PTSD is about the hurtful stuff I’ve gone through as a child, the stuff that affects you negatively as you grow up and the stuff that needs work on, to dig and reach deep down into the well of compassion and self-regulation of the nervous system,” King wrote on Instagram days prior to the EP’s release. “I cried, I pondered, I felt anxiety, and I did it. Writing music plays an integral part in my life and is one of many outlets to heal trauma and grow out of it. PTSD is a looking glass at my childhood trauma, my journey through it and the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Within A Dream,” written by King, was co-produced, co-recorded and co-engineered by Joseph Paris John Snook. Both Paris and Snook perform on the song providing various beats, textures, and atmospherics to give the single such wonderful weight. Anastasia Petrova mixed “Within A Dream,” which was mastered by Reuben Ghose. King says the song’s process started with her on piano and developing her “vocal melody and lyrics” before Paris’ production commenced.
The single, the follow up to her dynamic single “You” also from PTSD, is another high-water mark for the singer who grew up in Munich, Germany. King’s affinity for music began when she was nine years old and started playing saxophone. By 16 she was singing in a weekly class focusing on jazz and musical theater. A dream of learning musical theater in England morphed into film making classes, then studying animation and acting in Vancouver. But then things took a downward spiral.
King says “an inner voice” or “female angel-like entity told me to do music” when she was at her lowest. Heeding that advice, King launched her music career as a jazz singer in Toronto while performing songs that would be placed in television shows and commercials. In 2013, she released her debut album Odyssey. Since then, she’s had songs appear in The Fosters, Love Island Germany, Law and Order: Toronto, and the 2022 nature documentary Soul of the Ocean.
Now with a slick, cathartic, and mesmerizing single “Within A Dream,” the reality is Nathalie King’s trajectory is rising sky-high, coming into the light after a dark personal tunnel.
