186 TRENTEMØLLER Not all who wander are LOST Interview: Ange Suprowicz & Amy Heaton Photo Credit: Alastair Philip Wiper “ I wrote all the songs with certain vocalists in mind but without their knowing. So Luckily everyone said yes actually, if not these songs would not have been on the album. Each track was specifically written for the vocalist who recorded it in the end.”
187 Composing at the intersection between indie and electronica, Copenhagen-based musician Anders Trentemøller released his debut album ‘The Last Resort’ in 2006. Since then he has been exploring a penchant for emotional melodic moments and experimental production methods, touring with his live band of multi-instrumentalists and remixing every well respected artist in the electronic music scene from Moby to The Knife. After starting up his own record imprint, In My Room, Trentemøller’s second album Into The Great Wide Yonder was released four years later, it was a move into a more analogue sound influenced heavily by indie and post punk incorporating even more live instrumentation and vocals. This autumn he released his third full-length album Lost, drawing inspiration from his extensive live touring stint, is a record defined by Trentemøller’s grunting reverb, psychedelic grooves and a jumpy synth pattern that pushes us into the album’s dark, emotive context. Lost is Trentemøller’s most collaborative effort yet, pairing him with a vibrant cast of vocal features— the legendary duo Low, Jonny Pierce from The Drums, Marie Fisker, Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead, Jana Hunter of Lower Dens, Ghost Society and Sune Wagner of The Raveonettes. Live, Anders is accompanied by a band made up of three guys dressed in black and two girls on his right adorned in floaty white chiffon. Together, they create a musical journey that twists and turns; it peaks in pitches high and low, it rattles and tattles. As the drums build from a tribal romp to a panicked bubbling, the atmosphere is rife with a feverish buzz. Haunted by past endeavours and a droning EKG pulse, the entirety of Lost may exist in the bliss of the intermediate, neither here nor there; the disparate state of wandering and intentionally finding oneself lost. The members on stage take turns to stand in the foreground, as if taking turns to navigate through the unknown. Equipped with shakers, tambourines, cymbals, a xylophone and other tinkling sundries, the group noisily makes it way into the dark void ahead. On stage, three pieces of art installation appear, obstacles in their path, and there’s a gloomy moment of uncertainty. Classic horror movie sounds eke in, and it seems the end is nigh. Slowly, Anders’ gnarled, bass heavy synth style moves into the foreground and he begins clapping, exciting the audience and encouraging his band to push on. The straight instrumental sheds a light on Anders’ technical finesse and he raises his hand as if to exclaim “It’s this way, follow me!” The band follows; having found a fork in the road, they see an open stretch of opportunity. Marie Fisker’s uncanny voice is silky and sultry and oddly comforting, it grounds both audience and band, and together we find our way out of the abyss. The performance’s closing moments recapitulate the album’s theme: it progresses from a wide-eyed sensual understanding to disorientated wanderings to a profound feeling of escape. Anders has chosen and acted wisely: if you’re going to get lost, it’s best to have five virtuosos by your side. KALTBLUT: On your website it says that the album is a “fuck-you to whatever genre” your followers had boxed you into. What kind of progression brought you to this definitive point? TRENTEMØLLER: Thankfully it’s not all my ‘followers” who like to put me into a box, but yeah, it has sometimes been a bit frustrating for me that people seem to find it difficult to accept that I keep on developing my sound. I still think there’s a red line connecting the music I did in my past up to now, but my life also naturally developed. That should hopefully be something you could hear in the music too. Of course I don’t make the same music as I did eight years ago but I don’t think in genres to be honest, so it’s sometimes a bit fun to see, especially music-journalists, who try to put my music into different kinds of weird boxes. Why not just judge the music for the music itself ? I sometimes like to think... KALTBLUT: How important do you think is it for musicians to break out of their genre? TRENTEMØLLER: I don’t like to think too much in genres, I think it’s all about making personal music that reflects your moods and feelings, then if it breaks the genre or not at all, that does not matter to me as long as the music touches me. A band like Mazzy Star sounds totally the same on their new album as they did when they released their last 17 years ago…and I’m glad about that! They are amazing and Hope’s vocal is so unique, I don’t need them to break genres, I need to hear them write fantastic songs and they did not disappoint me this time either! KALTBLUT: How much of your work is done with the intention to surprise and shock? TRENTEMØLLER: Not much at all! That’s not my purpose in making music. I make music out of a personal passion. Music is for me, one of the best ways to describe my feelings and I try to only be in the now and not thinking about music in a ‘music marketing’ or business kind of way! I don’t care about target groups either. KALTBLUT: In 2008 you won an award for Best Chillout Artist and later stated you never thought your music would be categorized as “chillout”. How would you describe it then? TRENTEMØLLER: I won’t try to squeeze the music into a specific genre, but I would say it’s melodic and kind of dramatic music with a lot of contrasts and dynamic. All in all I actually just try to make good quality music! That’s the most important thing for me as an artist. KALTBLUT: What was the recording process like for you this time? Did you have continuity with your studio set up? TRENTEMØLLER: Yeah, pretty much! I have a nice studio in Copenhagen with a recording room for drums, guitars, piano, amps and other stuff and then my working/producing room next door, where most of the time is spent. This time I began the writing of the tunes often at my upright piano. I like to focus on the melodies and chord progressions first and for that the piano is the natural choice. I don’t have the music graphically in front of me on the computer monitor but I am using only my ears and I like that fact, it makes it easier for me to write music that way. Then later I turn to my studio and arrange those ideas and parts I have written for the different instruments and work on them again on the computer.
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