Trentemøller "Memoria" (2022)

Memoria

release date: Feb. 11, 2022

format: digital (14 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,82]

producer: Anders Trentemøller

label: In My Room - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Veil of White" - 2. "No More Kissing in the Rain" - 4. "Glow" - 5. "In the Gloaming" - 7. "When the Sun Explodes" - 8. "Dead or Alive" - 9. "All Too Soon" - 10. "A Summer’s Empty Room" - 12. "Drifting Star" - 13. "Like a Daydream"

6th studio album from Anders Trentemøller follows 2½ years after the fine Obverse (Sep. 2019) and the album has been launched by a series of official videoes - firstly by "In the Gloaming" and later by "All Too Soon", "Dead or Alive", "No More Kissing in the Rain", and "Like a Daydream".

The album is highlighted via its melodic universe, although, the album is quite untraditional from the hands of Trentemøller as a predominantly vocal-founded album. Stylewise, it's more predictable situated in the outskirts of the 80s and 90s nostalgia linked with his very own electronic homeland. Memoria is the sound of shoegaze / dreampop à la Slowdive and Mazzy Star with drops of Robert Smith (The Cure) guitarwork as heard on the Disintegration-era mixed with Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) reverb, and in this manner he sort of continues where Obverse ended, and simultaneously he applies something new. The big difference is that the 2019-release appeared more introspective and closed on progressive instrumental variations, whereas Memoria lurks on the verge of darkness - at times jumpping straight out into the daylight floating away on light tones of Robin Guthrie-inspired loops. And just that may be the newest 'trend' from Mr. Trentemøller - that instead of finding inspiration from the murky corners of the post-punk-era, he now adds a synthpop-soundscape from other areas and by doing so, he also creates a distinct cocktail of his own. On this, Trentemøller has made use of the two Danish guitarists Silas Tinglef and Lisbet Fritze, with the latter also featuring on vocal. The end product is a more coherent collection of compositions compared to what Trentemøller normally ends up with. It's a new touch with which he combines a pervasive flair for micro house and synthwave that ultimately displays his so far best studio album to date.

Highly recommended.

[ bandcamp ]

[ Gaffa.dk, musicOMH, PopMatters 4 / 5 stars ]

Trentemøller "Obverse" (2019)

Obverse

release date: Sep. 27, 2019

format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]

producer: Anders Trentemøller

label: In My Room - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 2. "Church of Trees" - 3. "In the Garden" (feat. Lina Tullgren) - 4. "Foggy Figures" - 5. "Blue September" (feat. Lisbet Fritze) - 7. "One Last Kiss to Remember" (feat. Lisbet Fritze) - 9. "Try a Little" (feat. JennyLee)

5th studio album by Trentemøller as follow-up to Fixion (Sep. 2016) follows the near usual three years interval in between releases, and Obverse both stays somewhat on the same track and yet is its very own displaying a newfound inspiration in shoegaze and indietronica with pure instrumental compositions pointing back to ambient and minimal house and with vocal-based songs with lyrics by the featuring guest artists, and which embrace a more danceable touch in a courtship with alt. rock and darkwave without the lighter pop tones and the darker rock-influences become opposites.

The album appears as a more coherent whole than its predecessor, which seemed more divided into pure instrumental parts and, on the other hand, compositions with supporting vocals, as two opposing expressions with progressively minimal house and parts of pumping indietronica. In a way, Obverse stands as a fine extension to his second album from 2010: Into the Great Wide Yonder. Unlike Lost (Sep. 2013) and Fixion, this new outing as a whole, is a more of a muted kind with all songs in better harmony without sounding as counterpoints to other motions on the same album. The vocal-based tracks are not pure indietronica where song and melody dominate, but these are more of an unfolding-in-graceful union of instrumental ideas mixed with something reminiscent of Mazzy Star (Hope Sandoval) inspiration, e.g. on the two Lisbet Fritze tracks: "Blue September" and "One Last Kiss to Remember" - which is the album's darkwave uptempo track (I'm instantly thinking Pornography by The Cure ) - and perhaps the most obvious dream pop / shoegaze feature is "In the Garden" with Lina Tullgren. The album doesn't contain obvious hits like "River in Me" or "Complicated" - here it's the mood of the album itself that steers the direction, and in that way Obverse ultimately stands as one of Trentemøller's better ones.

[ bandcamp ]

[ 👍allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Gaffa.dk 5 / 6 stars ]

Trentemøller "Fixion" (2016)

Fixion

release date: September 16, 2016

format: digital (13 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]

producer: Anders Trentemøller

label: In My Room - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "One Eye Open" (feat. Marie Fisker) - 2. "Never Fade" - 4. "River in Me" (feat. Jehnny Beth) - 6. "Redefine" - 7. "My Conviction" (feat. Marie Fisker) - 11. "Complicated" (feat. Jehnny Beth) - *13. "Redefine (Trentemøller Rework)"

*Bonus track on digital album

4th studio album by Trentemøller following three years after Lost showcases the combo of Trentemøller's own stereotypical IDM microhouse progressive compositions in between more uptempo and bolder standard melody-structured and chorus-based songs with vocal arrangements made in collaboration with the two songwriters Marie Fisker and Jehnny Beth - much in the same manner as he presented with his 2013 album, only here, he has cut down on the number of featuring artists. With Beth he stood behind two single hits from this album, the almost electroclash-shaped song "River in Me" and the bolder post-punk / gothic rocker - the Siouxsie and the Banshess-like: "Complicated".

Although, the songs point in many directions - with inspiration from post-punk, from electroclash and from his catalogue of microhouse and ambient material it's still held together by a striking and predominantly coldwave soundscape. I suppose many would tend to label it darkwave and thus being inspired by gothic rock of the 1980s, but I also find it one of his better and more straightforward albums. Compared to his most recent album, this may contain stronger singles, but as a full-scaled album it lacks some of the cohency he after all demonstrated better on Lost.

A fine and yet somewhat flawed album with strong individual compositions and a lack of direction.

[ bandcamp ]

[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5 stars ]

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.

[ bandcamp ]

[ allmusic.com, UnderTheRader 4 / 5, TheLineOfBestFit 8,5 / 10, Pitchfork 6.4 / 10 stars ]

Trentemøller "Into the Great Wide Yonder" (2010)

Into the Great Wide Yonder

release 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.

[ bandcamp ]

[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]

Trentemøller "Harbour Boat Trips 01 - Copenhagen by Trentemøller" (2009)

Harbour Boat Trips 01 - Copenhagen by Trentemøller

release date: May 22, 2009

format: cd (hfn01cd)

[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,68]

producer: various, Trentemøller

label: HFN Music / Rough Trade / A:larm Music - nationality: Denmark

DJ Mixes compilation album by Trentemøller feature a vast variety of artists including Soft Cell, Suicide, The Raveonettes, Beach House, I Got You On Tape and Emiliana Torrini just to mention a few on this 21 tracks album with a playing time just over 77 minutes.

Yes, the original compositions and artists all represent great diversity, and yes, Trentemøller is the unifying factor, who makes it all the same kind of minimal techno, but I do find the original songs too strong and even unchanged here to include them as brand new mixes - the alteration is simply too minimal an effort.

To me this is touching on mediocre - not really the kind of music I listen to occasionally.

Trentemøller "The Last Resort" (2006)

The Last Resort [debut]

release date: Oct. 6, 2006

format: 2 cd (LTD. - PFRCD18)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,46]

producer: Anders Trentemøller

label: Poker Flat Recordings - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Take Me Into Your Skin" - 2. "Vamp" - 3. "Evil Dub" - 4. "Always Something Better" - 5. "While the Cold Winter Waiting" - 6 - "Nightwalker" - 8. "The Very Last Resort" - 12. "Moan" - 13. "Miss You"

Bonus disc "The Singles": 1. "Always Something Better (Vocal Version)" (feat. Richard Davis) - 2. "Moan (Vocal Version)" (feat. Ane Trolle) - 3. "Physical Fraction" - 5. "Chameleon" - 7. "Always Something Better (Trentemøller Remix)" - 9. "Killer Kat" - 10. "Rykketid"

Studio album debut by Danish electronic musician Anders Trentemøller originally released on A:larm Music - here issued in a 2 disc limited edition - is instrumental ambient techno, microhouse and so-called IDM ["intelligent dance music"... whoever came up with that term!].

Basically, it's progressive ambient and electronic music, which draws on music by Aphex Twin, Orbital, LCD Soundsystem, The Future Sound of London - and to some extent builds on the legacy of Jean Michel Jarre, I think, although, you may ask what electronic artist who wasn't inspired by Jarre.

The Limited two disc edition contains the standard album as disc 1 and the bonus disc "The Singles" containing many of his former single and ep releases including the Physical Fraction ep (Jan. 2005), the Nam Nam ep (May 2006), the singles Polar Shift (Apr. 2005), Sunstroke (Aug. 2005) and Always Something Better (Sep. 2006).

His name had popped up on several occasions as "the new big thing" from Denmark, primarily, from single releases, working as a DJ and remixing (artists like Röyksopp and The Knife), and I sought Trentemøller and the album out. It appears to be more ambient and progressive as opposed to his more techno and dub techno single releases, which brought him fame. Despite general positive reviews from international magazines (allmusic.com and electronic online magazine Resident Advisor were more than happy about it), I haven't exactly been bedazzled over this. Frankly, at first I found it somewhat uninspiring at times. However, if you let it sink in, digest it as something organic that needs light and air, you may find it's truly great for background noise, for work or just as a wall of sound. Perhaps my reluctance has to do with my general dislike for ambient music in the first place. To me - without the most comprehensive knowledge on electronic music development and sources - I find similarities with earlier works by Aphex Twin, Autechre, The Orb and The Future Sound of London; however, and without knowing who to refer to, I also find spots and glimpses of sheer originality. Generally, it's and album one should pay attention - it doesn't just open up and spread its wings. It's something for a keen listener.

I'm glad to have found the 2-disc Limited Edition of the album 'cause I actually find the bonus disc the most interesting of the two, simply because it displays more varied and original music and generally also contains more uptempo club compositions. Tracks from the original album like "Always Something Better" and "Moan" are hardly recognisable but better in their vocal versions, I think, although, the minimal house of the original album has its distinct qualities, when you allow the tracks to flow. Should I rate the standard release alone, I would hand it around 3,4. But it's really nice to have this as a document of Trentemøller's talent for production and sound showing us where he started as a solo artist.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Pitchfork 7,2 / 100, Gaffa.dk 5 / 6, Resident Advisor, Sputnikmusic 5 / 5 stars ]