Shoegaze has spent the past decade enjoying a sustained renaissance, but its most compelling contemporary practitioners understand that reverence alone is rarely enough. Swiss trio Zabriskie approach the genre less as a nostalgic exercise than as a framework for emotional excavation, using its familiar haze of distortion and atmosphere to explore something altogether more intimate. Their forthcoming EP, ‘Ghosts In Time’, finds the Zurich outfit refining the immersive sound they’ve steadily developed since forming in 2016, resulting in a release that feels confident, cohesive and quietly ambitious.
Lead single ‘Stone Temple’ serves as an ideal introduction to the record’s emotional architecture. Rather than chasing explosive climaxes, the track unfolds patiently, layering shimmering guitars, slow-burning rhythms and spectral vocal melodies into an enveloping wall of sound. Every element feels carefully considered, allowing texture to become as expressive as melody. The result is a piece that captures shoegaze’s characteristic sense of weightlessness while maintaining enough melodic clarity to avoid disappearing beneath its own effects.
Across ‘Ghosts In Time’, Zabriskie demonstrate an increasingly sophisticated understanding of dynamics. Songs rarely rush towards obvious payoffs, instead allowing subtle shifts in arrangement and tone to carry the emotional momentum. Echoing guitars dissolve into expansive reverbs, understated rhythm sections provide quiet propulsion, and moments of restraint often prove more impactful than outright intensity. It’s an approach that rewards repeated listening, revealing new details as the record gradually opens itself up.
The band’s chemistry is central to its success. Founding members Alex Herter and Andreas Vischer bring decades of shared musical history to the project, while drummer Andy Hofstetter provides a measured rhythmic foundation that anchors even the EP’s most ethereal passages. Together, they avoid the common shoegaze trap of allowing atmosphere to overshadow songwriting. Beneath the cascading effects lies a collection of thoughtfully constructed compositions that retain their emotional resonance even when stripped back to their core.
‘Ghosts In Time’ may not seek to reinvent shoegaze, but it doesn’t need to. Instead, Zabriskie offer a thoughtful reminder that the genre’s enduring appeal lies in its ability to translate emotion into atmosphere. In doing so, they deliver their strongest statement yet, one that positions the trio not simply as participants in shoegaze’s ongoing revival, but as artists steadily shaping its contemporary future.