Music

“Can I be there?” by Stephan Folkes is a letter to the power of standing alone

Surrounded by constant buzzing and distraction, Stephan Folkes dares to sit with silence and turns it into a melody you won’t forget. His most recent single, “Can I be there?” is a delicate, stripped-down anthem that arcs its way through even the quietest of the soul. “Can I be there?” comes across like an open journal entry, raw, honest, and unworried about the dark. Stephan’s voice will be both intimate and resonant, leading everyone through a landscape of emotional solitude in which strength doesn’t always roar but instead whispers, reflects, and gently asks, can I exist in this place with all of me intact?

It’s also a promising precursor to Hazard, Stephan Folkes’s debut album, which appears to be a deeply emotional and diverse body of work. If this track is any indication, Hazard is a journey through inner territory. While “Can I be there?” delves into loneliness, it also succeeds in honoring it, taking isolation, and turning it into a space that is necessary for healing, understanding, and growing. What sets this song apart is that it won’t disguise vulnerability. Instead, it goes all in. The setting is stark, nothing is overproduced, and every note sounds like it’s been meaningfully, if also sparingly, chosen. That sonic restraint affords room for Stephan’s lyrics to breathe and, most importantly, to hit. You don’t simply hear the longing in his voice, you feel it in your chest.

Artist Spotlight

Lisa Boostani creates a mesmerizing tidal realm in “Ocean”

Lisa Boostani’s “Ocean” takes you deep into a sensory world where body, spirit, and myth come together, beyond the surface of genre. Boostani makes a soundscape that is both ethereal and deeply human by combining the broad essence of psychedelic pop with the strong appeal of alternative rock.

Her voice rises as if it is coming from deep within her, shaped by emotion rather than action. She intentionally channels the intangible, turning weakness into strength rather than a source of pain, and “Ocean” tells people to get involved in this inner world, not just watch it. This release is an integral part of her first EP, “One,” which will come out in March 2026 and is based on love, sensuality, and unity.

If “Ocean” is any indication, the EP will show sensuality not as something pretty, but as a kind of spiritual intelligence, a way to know yourself by connecting with others. The song’s textures and structure have an aquatic quality, moving between clarity and delirium, rhythm and freedom. Its emotional focus is on immersion instead of resolution.

Artist Spotlight

NOAH. captures the unspoken signals in enchanting R&B track “That’s Bless”

“That’s Bless” captures the unspoken late-night message, the smile that was exchanged from afar, and the feeling you sense but are afraid to say. NOAH. offers a song with a smoky R&B feel and lyrics that capture unspoken tension, firmly in the realm of emotional ambiguity, where connection is clear but not defined.

This piece concerns the subtle discomfort of mixed signals and quiet longings, when looks say more than words ever could. NOAH. handles the theme with restraint, letting the chemistry simmer rather than explode. NOAH.’s delivery shows a confident gentleness, recognizing that some feelings don’t need strict definitions to be real.

In “That’s Bless,” he captures the essence of connection and the compelling allure that endures, even when both parties pretend it is not there. The composition is based on real-life events, and it acknowledges that specific attachments endure in the heart long after one has persuaded oneself of having progressed.

“That’s Bless” is at the crossroads of closeness and distance, clarity and confusion. The song doesn’t resolve the tension it talks about, and that’s what makes it so powerful. It sums up the connection we say we don’t want but keep coming back to in memory, rhythm, and pulse.

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