Delerium open “Into The Light” with distortion already hanging over the track. It is dark, tense, and almost cinematic, with Diamanda Galás entering in a way that makes the first stretch feel genuinely unsettling. There is something almost warlike in the atmosphere, as if the song is building toward something terrible before anything has actually happened.
Then Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber begin opening everything up. Synths come in behind Galás, the pulse smooths out, and the song starts moving somewhere stranger. What first sounded threatening begins to feel surreal instead. Her voice is still severe, but now it sits inside this colder, more dreamlike electronic space, and the track slowly slips toward trance.
Small string figures appear around that point, almost lightly enough to miss. They are tiny against everything else happening, but they change the feeling immediately. There is suddenly something delicate sitting over all of that darkness, and instead of clashing with it, it feels completely right. The song gets lighter without suddenly becoming bright or reassuring.
That shift becomes even more interesting because Galás is not simply appearing here as a guest vocalist. “Into The Light” incorporates portions of “Deliver Me From Mine Enemies: IV. Ε Ξελόυ Mε [Deliver Me]” from her 1986 album The Divine Punishment. Delerium are using part of an older performance already carrying its own pain and extremity and placing it inside a completely different electronic setting.
Her voice changes with that setting. Early on, it cuts through the track almost violently. As more space opens around it, the same voice starts feeling further away, less frightening in a direct sense and much more surreal. Echo and distance turn it into something closer to a presence moving through the track than a vocal sitting on top of it.
Delerium give that voice a huge amount of room. The synths keep widening, the rhythm becomes more hypnotic, and the whole thing starts to feel almost suspended. By the middle of the song, the opening distortion feels far away, even though traces of it are still there. That opening feeling never fully disappears. It just becomes harder to recognize once the song settles into the trance.
The track stops feeling like it is leading toward some big release and instead becomes something you settle into. Galás starts floating more than cutting through, the strings keep slipping in around the edges, and the synths carry everything forward without forcing it anywhere.
Delerium have built much of their history around distinctive vocal collaborators, including Sarah McLachlan, Lisa Gerrard, Leigh Nash, Kirsty Hawkshaw, and Emily Haines. Galás is an especially striking fit because her voice brings a severity and strangeness that immediately changes the scale of the track. Delerium meet that intensity by giving it more space rather than trying to soften it.
Produced by Leeb and Fulber and recorded, mixed and mastered by Greg Reely, “Into The Light” is the first glimpse of Delerium’s sixteenth album, Exaudire. The album will also feature Mimi Page, Magic Wands, Inna Walters, Phildel, and Jaël. Choosing Galás for its first introduction says a lot about how wide Delerium are still willing to let their music become after four decades.
What stays with me most is how naturally the track moves through all of this. It starts distorted and frightening, then becomes stranger, softer, and eventually almost beautiful in a completely different way. By the end, the little strings, the widening synths, and Galás’ voice have pulled it into something close to a trance, while something darker is still moving quietly underneath.
“Into The Light” is out now via Metropolis Records. Exaudire arrives January 22, 2027, digitally, on CD, and as a double album on Oxblood vinyl.
Into The Light
Bandcamp
YouTube
Spotify
Apple Music
Pre-order Exaudire
Metropolis Records
Delerium online:
Facebook
Bandcamp
Instagram
Spotify
Apple Music
Diamanda Galás online:
Website
Bandcamp
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
