In celebration of the witching season, Sound Dissection is honing its lens on artists that embrace darker sonic and ornamental palettes.

The undertaking was initiated last week with a deep dive into Hexpartner’s Requiem, a blend of neoclassical choral composition embedded within artist Sydney Grace Pham’s proclivity for experimentation and love of gothic darkwave, folk and devotional music.

This week, the focus shifts from Texas to Southern California, home to Mimi Pretend and their latest single, “Cowboy Ed,” released at the beginning of the month.

The project from the Los Angeles-based artist Miriam “Mimi” Nissan has thoroughly embraced a tenebrous “countrygaze” aesthetic in the wake of a 2023 debut, the pop-focused Sick Eros – EP.

Now, on the heels of the Colorado 1996 – EP, released in 2024 by Lolipop Records, Nissan has unveiled a series of singles this year that further expand upon the project’s western-focused atmosphere, blending shoegaze and country into an alternative-pop parcel.

The latest release Inspired by a dairy uncovered from the dusty selves of a thrift store, “Cowboy Ed,” is carried by Nissan’s keen ability to build a strong narrative that further builds upon their music’s sonic color palette. The song stands, particularly, as one of the artist’s most cinematic works to date, serving as a strong indicator of further mastery of the craft.

It continues the project’s recent work, conjuring images of the vast, rugged terrain of the American West. Keenly aware of the romance the landscape inspires, Nissan chooses instead to focus on the cruelty and brutality of the place itself and the environment’s harsh reflection within those who live there.

Although wrapped in a theatrical veil, the piece delves into much deeper waters to meditate on the human experience. It is an intensely tragic tale of tradition, generational expectations, obligations and domestic abuse.

A key highlight of the composition is a twangy guitar melody that evokes Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack work and serves as an interlude between verses, carrying through as a motif throughout the entirety of the piece.

Nissan’s own gentle but subtly hoarse vocal performance further sustains the aesthetic, serving as both narration and characterization of the described world.

A minimalist and direct structure ensures little is lost between the performance and its audience.

The piece’s slow, plodding tempo and a resonant shoegaze-inspired chorus further illustrate the oppressive heat, overwhelming expansiveness and devastating helplessness of the conditions presented by the song.

The result is a staggeringly powerful depiction of a hauntingly dire set of circumstances set within a desolate place.

Nissan’s upcoming untitled album is being brought forth with her writing partner, producer and engineer Jake Supple, whose résumé includes projects with Blondshell, Dark Tea and DeCaprisun.

This recent work between the two, particularly the previous single “Baby Blue,” suggests that this project, whenever it may be released, should not be overlooked.

The track proves Nissan and Supple have further honed the project, introducing a refined sonic palette that combines the established aesthetic with powerful and memorable songwriting.

This is especially evident in a chorus that lingers long after the song is done.

“Good Company” chronicles the end of a relationship as one person departs, traveling through a vast, open landscape toward a metropolitan center and leaving the other behind.

The piece, like its peers, is steeped in a melancholy of nostalgia, embracing the recounted mournfulness with a profound desire to return to the scene presented.

A road song through and through, this sense of movement is captured by an ever-forward-pushing bass line, crafted from a warm, well-balanced tone that serves as the core barometer of the piece.

These three new compositions will combine to form a complete narrative, inspired by the contents of a personal diary Nissan says she found in a thrift store.

This found object of acute personal reflection serves as the creative core of the upcoming album.

“I haven’t released music in almost three years because I couldn’t stop thinking about this diary I found at a thrift store,” Nissan shared, announcing the album. “Her name was Mercy Nadell. At first it’s just small town things. But then everything changes when she does decide to leave and the writing gets harder to read. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. So I wrote an album for her story. I won’t ask to decode a single meaning. This album invites interpretation, and I encourage you to recognize your own versions, your own moments of devotion turned destructive, and your own reasons for staying or leaving.”

Already having shared tales of romance, the weight of expectation and the pain of parting love, it is without doubt that what comes next will be a conscientious investigation of the human condition, inspired by the wide-open country that has proven to foster a wellspring of artistic expression time and time again.