All We Need. Aerolinea

The stream of releases is slowly drying up for 2024. One of the later ones that called for my attention is the collaboration between an Atlanta musician and an Argentinian singer-songwriter. All We Need is an album that has a modern, wide sound but is well grounded into 80s and 90s style music.

Aerolinea is a duo, Victoria Real and Eric Weissinger. The latter was on this blog before as one half of the duo I Am A Rocketship. Real and Weissinger have been sharing music files since 2023, met up in between and late in 2024 the result is the album All We Need.

Musically the album is extremely rich. From French electronic pop stars Air to David Bowie, influences are found everywhere on All We Need. What strikes me, is the wide sound of the music, while at the same time it seems like both singers are standing right in front of me. The music is part digital and part electric. Both Real and Weissinger play a host of instruments and programming and sampling. Only on 'Dreamer' there is an "organic" drummer, Kellii Scott.

What I love about All We Need is the clear sound. Despite there being many and different sounds and instruments, they can all be heard. No matter how layered, the individual instruments stand out. This would all be inconsequential if the music wasn't to my liking. It is, as you will have gathered. The atmosphere on All We Need is somewhat mysterious. The contrast between the song and the presence of the rhythm and the lead guitar in 'What Is Love' is almost disconcerting. What mood to follow?, until the guitar really takes over, only to drop away bringing back the mystery.

Photo: Nico Pudia

The way Weissinger and Real sing together is another feature of the album. Real is the principle singer, but Weissinger joins regularly. And although he can be called more a whisperer than singer, it is extremely complementary. It is the starting point of the adventure Aerolinea offers its listener. Like 'Desire'. It's possible to call the song a dance track. The rhythm is quite prevalent. A heavy version of 'All I Need' or 'Sexy Boy'. Victoria Real sings just as dreamy. And to think that she was trained as a guitarist in Robert Fripp's project 'League of Crafty Guitarists'. Since she released four solo albums in Argentina. And then she met Eric Weissinger in an online festival during Covid. Since this week the rest is history.

All We Need is only eight tracks long. It has one foot in the 2020s but one foot soundly in the past. The mix works for someone my age, musically conscious of both decades, able to pick out the many references. Some more to my liking than others but overall scoring All We Want positively. This seems just the right way to bring it all together.

 (And that Air connection. Is the title All We Need a nod to Air's single 'All I Need'?)

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

You can listen to and order All We Need here:

https://aerolinea.bandcamp.com/album/all-we-need