Damian Dalla Torre releases new album “People Pleaser”

Damian Dalla Torre releases new album People Pleaser

Out now via Squama Recordings

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Photo credit: Maximilian Schnachtner

Damian Dalla Torre today releases his new album People Pleaser via Squama Recordings.

The Leipzig-based composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist follows up I Can Feel My Dreams, which was named the #1 Contemporary Album of 2024 by The Guardian, with a record that feels both more grounded and more intimate. Built from field recordings, close collaboration and a more acoustic-led ensemble sound, People Pleaser finds Dalla Torre refining the atmospheric and deeply personal approach that has become his hallmark.

Written following an intense period of touring that took him across America, Japan and Europe, the album reflects on movement, environment and the shifting relationship between artist and audience. The title emerged during the record’s creation and became a way of exploring those tensions. “This term felt somehow relevant in connection with the phase of self-negotiation during the development process,” Dalla Torre explains. “Some aspects are related to pressure, others are positive.”

At the heart of People Pleaser is an expanded circle of collaborators, including guitarist Bertram Burkert, vocalist Laura Zöschg, harpist Babett Niclas, organist Felix Römer, tape experimentalist Markus Rom, percussionist Volker Heuken and Japanese artist Manami Kakudo. Together they create a rich but understated sound world where woodwinds, guitar, harp and subtle electronics intertwine.

As with much of Dalla Torre’s work, place plays a central role. Birds recorded in Leipzig, rain captured in Kobe and sounds gathered during a residency high in the Italian Alps all find their way into the record. “I really got into field recording,” he says. “My phone is always on record. I go through life just listening.”

The result is an album that feels deeply connected to its surroundings without being defined by them. Where previous releases often embraced contrast and movement between tracks, People Pleaser unfolds with a quieter sense of cohesion. “The last album, every song was super different. This time I wanted it to feel like it has a flow,” Dalla Torre says.

Balancing intimacy and expansiveness, People Pleaser is a record concerned less with explanation than feeling. As Dalla Torre puts it: “Maybe you can’t explain it with words, but you feel it.”

People Pleaser is out now via Squama Recordings.