Damian Dalla Torre ”I Can Feel My Dreams“ (Squama Recordings) – frohfroh – electronic music from leipzig

Nils found an album in the record store that he thinks is a sure candidate for “Album of the Year.” You can read why here.

When I listen to new music, my inner ear is constantly comparing. Why I like something or not,
often depends on existing listening habits. Sometimes it is small parts or elements in
Music that allows me to connect and get involved in something new.

On the new album by Leipzig-based musician Damian Dalla Torre, a comparison
not easy. The music seems to stand on its own. And even though the cover of the LP “I Can Feel My Dreams” lists the musicians and their instruments for each individual piece, the music comes across as a whole. As a mood in which the soundtracks glide into one another. A voice could just as easily be a string instrument or a synth.
Genre labels are disappearing more and more. I think you can try to
somewhere and will fail. I got the album in the record store from the shelf
Ambient/New Age. But it could just as well be used in Jazz, New Classical or anywhere else.
stand.

“I Can Feel My Dreams” is released again on the always stylish label Squama Recordings from Munich. It is very different from its predecessor. In comparison to the first LP, for example, there is no percussion at all. What is used more often is the human voice. Sometimes pitched, sometimes with a lot of reverb, it blends in with the instruments of organelle, banjo, piano, synth, saxophone, etc.

The harp is often given a prominent part in the pieces. Damian once again brings together a lot of talented musicians from his environment and manages to present an album that immediately hits you, even without the obvious musical connections mentioned above. He manages to put a warm feeling into his music that can fill an entire room. The pieces, as the name of the album already suggests, seem “somnambulistic”. There are so many little things to discover behind the sound carpet that it is a joy to listen to the album “on repeat” again and again. Sometimes an arpeggio is in the foreground, sometimes a striking brass melody. The record also scores visually and it is a delight to hold it in your hands.

I accidentally started with the B-side and the title track and thought, wow, what a
Opener. An instrument (an organ?) sounds in the reverberating room while in the background
a steel guitar and a lot of flat sounds. A perfect example of how this record
completely ignores genre classifications.

A beautiful album from music to design and one that definitely stands out from the new releases. In my opinion, a candidate for “Album of the Year”.