Into the Great Wide Yonderrelease date: May 31, 2010
format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,54]
producer: Anders Trentemøller
label: In My Room - nationality: Denmark
Track highlights: 1. "The Mash and the Fury" - 2. "Sycamore Feeling" (feat. Marie Fisker) - 3. "Past the Beginning of the End" - 4. "Shades of Marble" - 6. "Häxan" - 8. "Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go!!!" - 10. "Tide" (feat. Solveig Sandnes)
2nd full-length studio album by Trentemøller follows some 3½ years after The Last Resort (Oct. 2006) is his first album to be released on his new-founded label, In My Room. More recently he released the DJ mixes Harbour Boat Trips 01 in 2009 as well as a long list of remixes - for which he is renowned.
Into the Great Wide Yonder marks a change of style - although his trademark has continuously been not to conform and musically always be on the move, in search of new sounds and styles to incorporate. This time he has embraced and paired two opposites: on one side and half of the tracks, more traditional song structures with vocals, verse and chorus, and on the other side experimental and instrumental downtempo techno.
It's not as much the introduction of vocal arrangements that makes this a step forward, and in my ears: an improvement. It's more so his ability to make it one whole, where both musical ends are held together in a tight and original mix. The progressive parts and the rhythm patterns glues it all together. Also, he collaborate with singer / songwriters like Marie Fisker, Solveig Sandnes, Nana Øland Fabricious (aka Oh Land), and Mikael Simpson, Josephine Philip and Fyfe Dangerfield (of Guillemots) who add lyrics (and vocals) and compositions to his arrangements.
It's not an immediate favourite of mine, but I think this is his so far most coherent album.
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[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]
