17 October 2017

Trentemøller "Lost" (2013)

Lost
release date: Sep. 23, 2013
format: digital (12 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: Anders Trentemøller
label: In My Room - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "The Dream" (feat. Low) - 2. "Gravity" (feat. Jana Hunter) - 3. "Still on Fire" - 4. "Candy Tongue" (feat. Marie Fisker) - 6. "Never Stop Running" (feat. Jonny Pierce) - 7. "River of Life" (feat. Ghost Society) - 9. "Come Undone" (feat. Kazu Makino) - 10. "Deceive" (feat. Sune Rose Wagner) (official video)

3rd studio album by Trentemøller follows 3½ years after Into the Great Wide Yonder and is like that produced by Trentemøller and released through his own label In My Room.
His previous releases, including the DJ Mix album Harbour Boat Trips 01 - Copenhagen by Trentemøller from 2009 all have the traits of deep house electronic experimental style, building heavily on progressive compositions and all held in a primarily instrumental style. This marks a complete turn-around with Lost as 7 out of 12 tracks are composed using more traditional melody structure with vocal performances and making it all touch on synth pop in darkwave territory. Anders Trentemøller is not well-known for his vocal capabilities and therefore he has made use of various featuring vocalists. The American artists Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker (both from the band Low) feature on vocals together with their band on track #1; American artist Jana Hunter is featuring vocalist on track #2 together with Danish guitarist Lisbet Fritze; Danish vocalist Marie Fisker adds vocals on track #4 - she also featured on Trantemøller's 2009 and 2010 albums - American vocalist Jonathan Pierce (of The Drums) feature on track #6; the Danish band Ghost Society feature on track #7; Japanese artist Kazu Makino is featuring vocalist on track #9; and Danish artist Sune Rose Wagner (of The Raveonettes) is featuring vocalist on track #10. All featuring vocalists are also credited the songwriting on the songs, on which they feature.
Lost marks a considerable change of style in Trentemøller's discography. The album is not a strong coherent whole - some of his instrumental compositions could without difficulty have been included on his previous albums without stirring the whole picture, and here they could be mistaken for sound artefacts or just misplaced intermissions, but on the other hand they also contribute in binding together the various and differently sounding compositions with vocals - or at least: attempting to glue the strictly individual songs into one artistic package.
Altogether, Lost is no less than Trentemøller's so far most succesful album.
Recommended.
[ allmusic.com, UnderTheRader 4 / 5, TheLineOfBestFit 8,5 / 10, Pitchfork 6.4 / 10 stars ]