A Song for You: Home review – soulful, spacious harmonies

Berlin-based vocal ensemble A Song for You formed in 2022 to showcase the thriving alternative soul and jazz scene that operates outside the city’s reputation as Europe’s techno capital. Beginning as an impromptu gathering for local musicians, the group has since amassed more than 50 members aiming to harness the power of collective singing.

On their debut album, Home, the ensemble produces 17 tracks of soulful, spacious music that features group harmony in its most inviting form. The title track sets the tone, developing a melodic motif over interweaving piano and guitar lines that repeat cyclically, as if inviting the listener to join in. A Song for You, meanwhile, intersperses ecstatic whoops over a funk-inflected groove to invoke a lively gospel atmosphere.

While the two-part spoken word features of Postcards from Home are so minimal as to feel unfinished, downtempo ballads such as Beautiful showcase the poignancy of the ensemble’s singing in their gently overlapping vocal lines. It is in this softness that A Song for You finds its strengths, drawing the listener in with the impact of their many voices singing as one.