PIECES - Now Is Forever
Some bands spend considerable effort attempting to disguise their influences. PIECES have little interest in doing so. The German quartet openly cites Slowdive, Lush and My Bloody Valentine, three names that immediately locate their music somewhere between the expansive spaces of dream pop and the enormous distorted guitars of shoegaze. What matters on Now Is Forever, however, is not where those influences come from but what the band chooses to do with them.
Released on July 22, 2026, the four-track EP represents an important new phase for a group that has been gradually developing its sound since forming in Koblenz in 2022. The current line-up brings together Milena Hoffmann, Uwe Heucher, Michael Fritsche and Sebastian Kämmer, with 2026 effectively introducing a reconstructed version of PIECES as a quartet.
An important part of that transformation has been the return of a female voice. In February, the group released a new version of “Low Voice” alongside a 2026 reworking of “Hypnotic Lights,” explicitly presenting the recordings as the beginning of a new chapter. Now Is Forever feels like the first substantial expression of that renewed identity.
PIECES had already established a small catalogue before reaching this point. Who We Are appeared in 2023, followed in May 2024 by Peaceful Hysteria Ltd. Edition, a six-track release containing “Home,” “Right Beside You,” “Who We Are,” “Far Away,” “Silence” and the expansive “Fresh Air.” At more than ten minutes, the latter also demonstrated that the group's interest in extended atmospheric compositions existed long before the new EP.
Now Is Forever is considerably more compact. Its four tracks, “Mark Time,” “Open Door,” “Skywalker” and “The Call,” occupy just over eighteen minutes, but their differing lengths allow the record to feel more varied than its relatively simple structure might suggest.
The group's own description of its music provides the essentials: pop melodies, heavily distorted guitars and ethereal vocals. That combination places PIECES firmly within shoegaze and dream pop, but it also reveals one of the EP's most important characteristics. The band does not use distortion to conceal its songs.
Instead, melody remains clearly visible through the noise.
Opening track “Mark Time” provides an effective introduction to that balance. At just under four and a half minutes, it establishes the relationship between expansive guitar textures and the more immediate melodic instincts that prevent PIECES from disappearing completely into abstraction. The scale may belong to shoegaze, but the underlying instinct is often surprisingly close to pop.
That accessibility is important because Now Is Forever rarely treats the wall of sound as an objective in itself. There is pleasure in the sheer density of the guitars, but there is equally a sense that every layer exists around a recognisable song rather than replacing one.
At 3 minutes and 23 seconds, “Open Door” is the shortest track and demonstrates that PIECES do not require extended structures to establish atmosphere. Its position also provides useful movement within an EP whose longest composition is almost twice its duration.
That piece is “Skywalker,” which stretches beyond six minutes and gives the atmospheric side of PIECES considerably more room to develop. Its scale feels naturally connected to the more contemplative tradition represented by Slowdive, allowing the music to occupy space rather than continually searching for the next chorus or immediate melodic resolution.
The contrast between Open Door and Skywalker is revealing. PIECES can work within relatively concise indie structures, but they are equally comfortable allowing a composition to expand. The band's earlier ten-minute Fresh Air had already demonstrated this instinct, and Skywalker brings that more patient approach into the new line-up.
Finally, “The Call” returns to a little over four minutes and gives the EP a satisfyingly balanced shape. Two medium-length songs effectively frame a short, more direct piece and a much more expansive centre, making Now Is Forever feel like a small journey rather than four unrelated recordings placed together.
Across those eighteen minutes, the classic shoegaze references remain easy to identify. Slowdive provides a useful comparison for space and contemplation, Lush for the relationship between dream-pop atmosphere and strong melody, and My Bloody Valentine for the sheer physical density that distorted guitars can create.
Yet PIECES do not seem particularly concerned about escaping those comparisons.
That confidence is refreshing. Shoegaze has now existed long enough for younger or contemporary bands to approach its vocabulary in much the same way musicians have always approached blues, punk or psychedelia. The important question is no longer whether somebody uses familiar guitar textures, but whether anything distinctive survives underneath them.
With PIECES, the answer increasingly lies in melody.
Even at their most saturated, these songs rarely become deliberately impenetrable. Vocals float rather than disappear, while pop structures remain perceptible beneath the effects. There are moments where the band's melodic instincts can even approach the immediacy of power pop, creating a brighter character than the darker or more oppressive end of contemporary shoegaze.
That makes Now Is Forever feel less like an attempt to recreate 1991 than an acknowledgement that the language developed during that period remains useful in 2026. PIECES take familiar ingredients and place them within a cleaner contemporary indie framework, where atmosphere and accessibility are not required to cancel each other out.
The timing of the EP is equally significant. The reappearance of PIECES as a quartet, the return of a female vocalist and the decision to revisit older material earlier in the year all suggest a band consciously establishing a new starting point.
Now Is Forever is therefore not simply another four songs added to the catalogue. It feels more like the introduction of the current version of PIECES.
For a relatively underground group, that introduction has already begun attracting attention within specialist shoegaze circles, and it is easy to understand why. PIECES are working with instantly recognisable influences but retain enough melodic clarity to prevent those influences from becoming restrictive.
Now Is Forever ultimately succeeds because the band understands that shoegaze does not have to choose between beauty and volume. Its guitars can become enormous without destroying the melodies inside them, while dream-pop softness provides contrast rather than escape from the distortion.
Slowdive, Lush and My Bloody Valentine may provide the vocabulary, but across these four tracks PIECES are beginning to discover the voice with which they want to speak it. For a band presenting a new version of itself, Now Is Forever feels less like a conclusion than a particularly promising second beginning.
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