Trentemøller Releases Stormy New Single + Video “Dead Or Alive”

By Steve Janes

On November 29, 2021

In News

Trentemøller Shares Heady

New Single + Video “Dead Or Alive”

New Album Memoria

Out February 11 via In My Room

“His music often feels like a film or an opera,

unfolding slowly yet majestically scene by scene.” – Billboard

“Trentemøller’s instrumental arrangements are expressive enough in their own right.” – AllMusic

“[‘In The Gloaming’ is] a dusky synth-streaked dream-pop track” – Stereogum

“[‘In The Garden’ builds]…a diaphanous soundscape.” – KCRW

“[The ‘Obverse’ LP]…dark… obscure…richly layered in detail.” – HYPEBEAST

“[The ‘Obverse’ LP] feels like a dark journey through a winter forest as snow slowly falls from the sky and the little remaining sunlight flees into darkness” – Magnetic Magazine

“Dead Or Alive” Single Art by Dóra Dúna

Danish composer, musician, and producer Trentemøller has unveiled his newest single + video, “Dead Or Alive,” the latest off his upcoming album Memoria, out February 11 via his own label, In My Room. No stranger to noise rock or dark psych, “Dead Or Alive” fuses both to create a powerful track, coming out of the gate at full throttle and storming the senses. A hooky bass line opens the track, ultimately taunting whip-crack drums into entering an unabating duel. Oscillating echoes materialize, like murmurs from the netherworld, eventually culminating into actual voices. Does the song’s mantra, “You’re not dead or alive” refer to liminality, as we hurl towards whatever is next, or call into question our somatic state entirely?

Whereas the previous release, “All Too Soon,” delicately explores our chapter of morality, “Dead Or Alive” comes from a more primal place. Disorienting strobe light guitar collides with a jet flanging psychic assault, ratcheting everything up one more notch before it all collapses upon itself.

“Dead Or Alive”: Watch / Listen

With Memoria, Trentemøller continues to work with familiar themes of light and dark, turbulence and serenity, piercing chill and comforting warmth; clearly inspired by the inherent antipodal elements of the Nordic environment he calls home. He pushes deeper into this familiar territory, while simultaneously broadening his scope. His longest album yet, clocking in at 14 songs, it features somber, introspective pieces, motorik, shoegaze, noise rock, and electronic pop, featured in its first single, “In The Gloaming.” As with 2019’s Obverse–which featured vocals from Warpaint’s Jenny Lee Lindberg, Lina Tullgren, and Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell–Memoria includes both instrumental and vocal songs, and for the first time, Trentemøller also composed all the vocal melodies and lyrics on the album, which are solely performed by Lisbet Fritze.

Copenhagen’s Anders Trentemøller has long been respected as a creator of extraordinarily memorable melodies and lush soundscapes, but for the last decade he’s been getting long overdue praise for being a producer with few rivals, as well. While many artists follow a pattern of invention and reinvention, Anders’ arc has been a series of points along the same curve, playing the long game, with each release representing the next chapter in a constantly evolving series. Contrasts and paradoxes are often explored, ultimately acknowledged in the title of his last album, Obverse. Other themes may revolve around reminiscence and remembrance, while eschewing nostalgia. Memoria digs in deeper, and honors the five canons of storytelling, including inventio, dispositio, elocutio and pronuntiatio.

Memoria Track List:

1. Veil Of White

2. No More Kissing In The Rain

3. Darklands

4. Glow

5. In The Gloaming

6. The Rise

7. When The Sun Explodes

8. Dead Or Alive

9. All Too Soon

10. A Summer’s Empty Room

11. Swaying Pine Trees