- Dream house miniatures from the Swedish artist.
- Dream house. New Age house. Whatever you call it, pad-heavy '90s ambient dance music has been a consistent obsession for record heads and DJs over the past few years. You've got the the Italian variety released on labels like UMM and Vibraphone, as well as the wave of post-Larry Heard artists from the US. But there are plenty of modern acolytes of the dream house sound. Moonilena, AKA Stockholm artist Marlena Lampinen, might be one of the best of the bunch.
In the press text for Tiny Portal, Huntleys + Palmers head Andrew Thomson describes being introduced to Lampinen in Stockholm, told that "she plays weird music" and that they'd get along. After being introduced, Lampinen pulled together a cherished mixtape for the label's Rinse FM show. The tape included several unreleased tracks that ended up on this release.
The material here goes along with these casual beginnings. From the bouncy acidic bassline on "Pen Pal," to the twinkly psychedelia of "Rose Quartz," the tracks are at once melodically impressive and unfussy, a layer of tape hiss enveloping the listener like a blanket. Some of the tracks, like "Arytmi," with its blurry arpeggios and gentle rhythms, fall on the ambient side of dream house, along the lines of Lampinen's more skeletal Mar-llena project. All in all, the brief EP begs for repeat listens, feeling like a throwback to a previous iteration of dreamy, lo-fi house epitomized by classic tracks like Legowelt's "Sark Island Acid."
Tracklist01. Arytmi
02. Pen Pal
03. Particle Fountain
04. Rose Quartz
05. Mykorrhiza
06. Cloud Key
07. Arasole Rain