Trentemøller
Trentemøller - Dreamweaver (Crystal Clear Vinyl LP)(In My Room)
Format: Crystal Clear Vinyl LP
Cat No: IMR52LP
Featuring ten tracks that traverse Trentemøller’s many musical strengths, new album ‘Dreamweaver’ also represents an obvious artistic leap, treading new ground while retaining the overall plot. Tracks featuring vocals come courtesy of Iceland’s Disa, who has been in Trentemøller’s fold since the ‘Memoria’ tour.
‘Dreamweaver’’s nylon string-led opening track, and first single from the album, ‘A Different Light’, contains many of Trentemøller’s trademarks: exploring dichotomies, musical shadowplay, Nordic frigidity, and warm waves. It opens the door for the steady, hypnotic ‘Nightfall’, with its tetherless vocal, wistful guitars, and early morning desert chill.
The third track in the opening trifecta, ‘Dreamweavers’, finds its footing with a percussive soft trot, which starts after what feels like a shortwave radio scan in search of the right chords, eventually dialling in a weightless voice. Ostensibly keeping a ruminative pace with the previous two tracks, the song and, by extension, album soon opens up as the rest of the elements drop into place with a grand, luxurious burst.
‘Dreamweaver’ is about to enter its next phase. With the hatch blown off the portal, the noisy ‘I Give My Tears’, driven by its fuzzy bassline, pours into the void. It’s followed by its sibling, the most chaotic track on ‘Dreamweaver’, ‘Behind My Eyes’. Arriving as a piece of noise rock pandemonium, ‘Behind My Eyes’ can’t be contained in its plush vault. A whip-crack snare and convulsing guitars smash against each other in the song’s verse chamber. The tension builds as the particles collide, pushing past the point of critical
mass, kicking off the chain reaction which is the chorus, at times harkening back to the proto-gaze tracks that gave birth to dreampop. There’s no time to contemplate though, as the song disintegrates in a microphonic feedback instant.
A respite follows, with the somnambulistic pair of ‘Hollow’ and ‘Empty Beaches’. Then a moment of intensity returns as the soaring textures and tribal drum bursts of ‘In A Storm’ take control, before being taken out with the ambient slow-core of ‘Winter’s Ghost’ and ‘Closure’. This diptych wraps up an album which certainly feels on-script for Trentemøller but is also much more psychedelic than previous offerings.
TRACKLISTING:
A Different Light
Nightfall
Dreamweavers
I Give My Tears
Behind My Eyes
Hollow
Empty Beaches
In A Storm
Winter’s Ghost
Closure