Portair’s “Gloaming Hour” Is an Ethereal, Bittersweet Recollection (premiere)

One day in early February, Portair returned to their studio and played the first thing that came to mind. Finding beauty in its sparse, nostalgic composition, a short, improvised snippet that had been shared on TikTok quickly went viral. It’s a persistent narrative in today’s indie-pop scene, and Portair released a full version of the song before long after. Enter “Gloaming Hour”, the complete rendition of this tune. Portair delivers that instantly memorable, viral melody within a gorgeously realized indie-pop production, punctuated by subtle, graceful piano and synth.

On “Gloaming Hour”, Portair tells PopMatters, ‘It was only a few days into recording my album in a remote location on the outskirts of the Mojave Desert where this whole song was created. I had a concept for a song I wanted to write, but I hadn’t sat down to write it yet. One afternoon I came into the studio room and saw the sun was setting through the window, and I wanted to capture it on video, so I hit record and played the first thing that came to mind, which is now the main piano line of the song.”

“I posted a snippet of this on TikTok, and it went super-viral overnight. All of a sudden, I had millions of views and people wanting more. This inspired me to finish the song and art the very next day. There’s something about the pressure of demand that pushes me into a creative headspace. I record the piano live, and you can hear all the pedal and background noises, it’s also slightly out of tune, but there’s something that felt right about it. The song is about realizing your younger years are now a distant memory and the tough acceptance that you’ll never get them back. It’s nostalgic, sad, and hopeful, and I think the instrumentation compliments that, particularly with the strings.”