The impressive Danish duo's new record was made to accompany an abstract documentary, but its honeyed tones sound more suited to a coming of age film.
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Loke Rahbek and Frederik Valentin have been releasing music together as a duo since 2017, including for Editions Mego and Posh Isolation. Their work with projects like Croatian Amor, KYO and Lust For Youth already established them as two of the most exciting musicians in Denmark when it comes to experimental electronic music, noise, synth pop, black metal, power electronics and ambient. Over time, they began incorporating more analogue instruments—guitar, viola, piano—to their (mostly) freeform productions, adding a newfound warmth and organic feeling. Bearing in mind how alienating and intense Rahbek's earliest noise music was, the emotional expression he finds in his work with Valentin feels like a radical evolution.
For the 2022 edition of Danish documentary festival CPH:DOX, Rahbek and Valentin were commissioned to create an alternative soundtrack to Sans Soleil by Chris Marker, an eerie, essay-style documentary about human memory and late 20th-century civilization. The music makes up their newest LP, Together, where they gravitate even further towards acoustic instrumentation than their earlier records. The music is also more optimistic, sometimes even exciting, whereas the duo previously stuck to a melancholy mood. The uptempo guitar and background vocals add a real sense of enthusiasm to "Summer," while the live-sounding drums and addictive melody of "Copenhagen" make it almost danceable. It's thrilling to hear Rahbek and Valentin make music you could describe as uplifting.
While Together might have been conceived as an accompaniment for a specific film, the newfound emphasis on more positive emotions could also make it fitting for a different kind of narrative, one that stands on its own. The sudden use of distorted guitar and the uptempo beat on "Beginner’s Mind" adds a layer of pathos. On the other hand, more stripped-down tracks like "You Everything" and "Together" foster a more intimate and tender vibe. This combination of euphoria and fragility in the music on Together conjures up the feelings of adolescence—you could easily imagine it as a soundtrack for a coming-of-age film as much as an abstract documentary. No matter what it was meant for, Together is strongly evocative even without words or conventional song structures.
Rahbek and Valentin's releases on Posh Isolation were starting to feel a little predictable, despite their strengths. With its combination of instrumental synth pop and more freeform ambient productions, Together strikes a balance between the emotional come-ups and deflated comedowns that make the duo's music feel fresh again. It's the best showcase of their wide musical gifts yet, daring to embrace a broader emotional palette that owes as much to pop music and minimalist art as it does to ambient and experimental music.
Tracklist01. Summer
02. You Everything
03. Happiness
04. No Plans
05. Copenhagen
06. Ordinary Miracles
07. The Only Dance There Is
08. Together
09. Beginners Mind
10. Sunless