Style recipe for Suno v5

Ethereal Wave

Ethereal wave from the 1990s: reverb guitar, string pads, harp glissando, dreamy and shimmering in feel. A name-free Suno recipe that reproduces the signature sound without tripping the artist-name filter.

History

Ethereal wave took shape in early-1980s Britain as an outgrowth of gothic rock, and the term long meant, above all, the roster of one label, 4AD. The sound rests on effects-laden guitar, minor keys, post-punk bass lines, slow to mid tempos, drum machines and high female vocals whose words are often hard to make out. Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure prepared the ground; the Banshees' 1982 hit “Melt” runs in 3/4 under heavy delay and reverb. The blueprint came from Cocteau Twins: after their 4AD debut Garlands in 1982, Robin Guthrie developed a lush cascading guitar technique on Head over Heels and Treasure, and critics found it impossible to describe the band without the word ethereal. This Mortal Coil and early Dead Can Dance completed the core. The name itself is European: American magazines wrote ethereal goth, while mostly German zines filed the style as ethereal wave, next to new wave and cold wave. Later in the 1980s it took root in the US on labels like Projekt, home of Lycia and Love Spirals Downwards, and it became a key inspiration for British shoegaze: Slowdive cited Cocteau Twins, The Cure and Siouxsie as heavy influences.

The recipe

Ethereal wave, 1990s, dreamy, shimmering…

37 tags, 644 characters, 70–110 BPM — that's the full anatomy of this recipe, born out of the 1990s.

Artists in this style

• Cocteau Twins
• Delerium

Similar styles

• Dream Pop1990s · 90–120 BPM
• Shoegaze1990s · 100–140 BPM
• Ethereal Wave Pop1990s · 80–108 BPM
• No Wave1980s · 110–160 BPM
• Darkwave1990s · 90–130 BPM
• Wave2010s · 130–150 BPM
• Noisegaze2010s · 110–150 BPM
• Nu-Gaze2010s · 100–145 BPM