B-Side Guys

Some dreams linger well past waking. In “Viena,” released in February 2025, Barcelona-based Argentine artist EMILIA SALŪM transforms this morning-after persistence into a delicate folk meditation that blurs the boundaries between consciousness and reverie, presence and absence.

The track opens with immediate vulnerability—”Hoy desperté/Pensando en vos/Creo que te soñé” (Today I woke up/Thinking of you/I think I dreamed of you)—establishing a narrative voice caught between nocturnal imagination and daylight reality. This liminal space becomes the song’s emotional habitat, with SALŪM’s gentle acoustic arrangements creating a sonic environment that feels simultaneously grounded and ethereal.

What distinguishes “Viena” from countless other songs about remembered connections is its exploration of the paradox contained in the line “Ya te solté/Te quiero así/Muy cerca de mi” (I’ve already let you go/I love you like this/Very close to me). This acknowledgment of simultaneous release and retention captures the complex reality of how we process separation—not through clean breaks but through gradual, often contradictory evolutions of feeling.

SALŪM’s fifteen years developing her craft in Buenos Aires manifest in the song’s technical precision. Her finger-picked guitar work creates forward momentum that mirrors the train journey described in the lyrics, while her vocal delivery remains intimate and conversational, as if sharing a private thought rather than performing a composed piece.

The recurring image of a train “Que va hasta Viena/Y vuelve a casa” (That goes to Vienna/And returns home) serves as the song’s central motif—suggesting cyclical movement rather than linear progression. This perpetual departure and return becomes a framework for understanding how memory operates, continuously revisiting emotional destinations while always returning to present reality.

Most striking is how SALŪM’s background in filmmaking influences her songwriting approach. Rather than analyzing emotions directly, she creates evocative scenes that allow listeners to experience them—particularly powerful when she imagines someone “Subiendo a todos los vagones/De este tren” (Boarding all the carriages/Of this train), creating visual specificity that transforms abstract feeling into concrete imagery.

“Viena” ultimately succeeds by capturing that peculiar moment when dreams still color waking life—a temporary state but one that offers unique perspective on what we’ve left behind and what remains with us even after conscious release.