"Sea of Voices" is a song recorded by American

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

producer

Porter Robinson Porter Weston Robinson (born July 15, 1992) is an American DJ, record producer, musician, and singer from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Robinson began producing music in his childhood. He signed to Skrillex's record label Owsla, OWSLA at the age o ...

. It was released on March 3, 2014 as the first single from his debut studio album '' Worlds'' (2014). The track revealed the tone of ''Worlds'' as emotional and nostalgic, as opposed to his older

complextro Electro house is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by heavy bass and a tempo around 130 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJs, including Benny Benassi, Skrillex, Steve Aoki ...

dance music style. The song features uncredited vocals from

Breanne Düren Breanne Dürenberger (born October 9, 1987), better known by her stage name Breanne Düren, is an American musician best known for her work with electronic music project Owl City and her own solo work. Life and career 1987–2011: Early li ...

. The song was a hit on the American

Dance/Electronic Songs The Dance/Electronic Songs chart has been published weekly by ''Billboard'' since January 2013. It is the first chart to be published that ranks the most popular dance and electronic songs according to audience impressions, digital downloads, s ...

chart.

Composition

Robinson has stated that "Sea of Voices" is one of his favorite tracks on the album in addition to "Divinity", "Goodbye to a World", "

Sad Machine "Sad Machine" is a song recorded by American electronic music producer Porter Robinson. It was released on May 13, 2014 as the second single from his debut studio album '' Worlds'' (2014). Robinson wrote, produced, and performed the track. The so ...

", "Fellow Feeling", and " Flicker". He has stated that "Sea of Voices" went through many versions, including a version where he used the

Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...

voice,

Avanna Vocaloid 3 is a singing voice synthesizer and successor to Vocaloid 2 in the Vocaloid series. This version of the software is a much more expansive version, containing many new features, three new languages and many more vocals than past software ...

, to provide the vocal.

Release and promotion

"Sea of Voices" was the first single that was released from ''Worlds'', in March 2014. Robinson stated that

Astralwerks Astralwerks is an American record label primarily focused on electronic music owned by Universal Music Group. Its material is distributed via Capitol Music Group in the United States. The label was founded in 1993 and, in its early years, featur ...

, the record label he is signed under, wanted to release the

EDM EDM or E-DM may refer to: Music * Electronic dance music * Early Day Miners, American band Science and technology * Electric dipole moment * Electrical discharge machining * Electronic distance measurement *Entry, Descent, and landing demonstrat ...

-fueled "Shepherdess" as the first single, but Robinson declined. He wanted to do the exact opposite, and release the track that reminded him the least of dance music. He decided to release "Sea of Voices" first, to inspire conversation among his fans about his change in style, and released "Shepherdess" as the bonus track on the vinyl version of his album. The song peaked at number 28 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

chart in the United States on the issue week of March 22, 2014."Hot Dance/Electronic Songs"
March 22, 2014. ''

''.

Prometheus Global Media Prometheus Global Media was a New York City-based B2B media company. The company was formed in December 2009, when Nielsen Company sold its entertainment and media division to a private equity-backed group led by Pluribus Capital Management and ...

. Retrieved September 13, 2016. A remix by

RAC RAC or Rac may refer to: Organizations * Radio Amateurs of Canada * RATCH-Australia Corporation, electricity generator * Refugee Action Collective (Victoria), Melbourne, Australia * Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, US * Rent-A-Center, ...

was released on March 18, 2014. Another remix by Galimatias was released as a single off of Robinson's debut remix album ''

Worlds Remixed ''Worlds Remixed'' is the debut remix album by American electronic music producer Porter Robinson. The album features remixes of each track from his debut LP '' Worlds''. Remixers include artists and producers such as Mat Zo, Odesza, Sleepy Tom, ...

'' on September 18, 2015. An official audio video for "Sea of Voices" premiered on August 14, 2014 on Robinson's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel.

Critical reception

"Sea of Voices" was very well received by critics. Elissa Stolman praised Robinson on the track by saying "This was the first track I heard from Worlds, and it blew me away. I've blabbed about it to my snob friends and gushed about how he's crafted the first ambient EDM track I've ever heard. A beat kicks in later, but the first few minutes pit slow-moving big room synths against ... nothing. No drums." In his mixed review of ''Worlds'', Derek Staples of ''

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...

'' stated that "Sea of Voices" was "a few months too late for inclusion on the '' Divergent'' soundtrack."

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

journalist Andy Kellman said of "Sea of Voices" that, "For over three minutes, it's nothing but softly swelling strings, wind chimes, and Breanne Düren's distantly cooing voice, and then a trudging beat enters and disappears in time for Düren to sing, lullaby-like, something vague about the world falling apart."

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2014 singles 2014 songs Porter Robinson songs Song recordings produced by Porter Robinson Songs written by Porter Robinson