Galimatias

Galimatias makes soft music with serious heft. His productions—particularly his collaborations with Cleveland-born singer/songwriter Alina Baraz—combine the head-nodding vibes of classic downtempo with the cutting-edge sonics of future house and the breathy urgency of R&B. The result: an inviting fusion as gentle as a spring rain. Born Matias Saabye Peschcke-Køedt in rural Fredericia, Denmark, in 1991, Galimatias got his start producing hip-hop tracks for Danish rappers, but his heart was tugged in a quieter direction. He launched his solo alias with 2012’s Luna Soul EP, layering meditative piano melodies with skeletal beats and swollen bass. Things really clicked once he hooked up with Baraz, a soulful singer with a sensually whispery tone. They gathered a string of unofficial singles on their proper debut, 2015’s Urban Flora, framing Baraz’s featherweight sigh in silky minimalism, halfway between James Blake and Sade. Electronic music had been getting slower and quieter for a few years and Galimatias did as much as anyone to refine the decade’s soft-focus aesthetic, helping pave the way for dark-pop artists like Billie Eilish as well as the burgeoning trend of drowsy instrumental hip-hop. He spent the next couple of years leaning into falsetto-kissed dimmer-switch soundtracks with singles like “Blowback” and “South,” and on 2020’s Renaissance Boy, his Drake-inspired vocal melodies swam in a starlit twinkle of easy-listening keys, classical piano and ambient soul. Lullabies don’t get much dreamier.