- A more ambient side to the producer who was once half of The Knife.
- Olof Dreijer's recent musical return has reinvigorated interest in the artist who once made dance floor anthems as Oni Ayhun, and before that, as part of The Knife. Which really means Olof Dreijer is up to his old tricks. Between last year's phenomenally freaky Rosa Rugosa EP, the collaborative Souvenir with Mt. Sims, and producing many tracks off The Knife partner Fever Ray's Radical Romantics, the singular producer has been back in full creative force. This is no more evident than on his latest EP via AD93, Coral, a three-track expedition into ambient-leaning tropical landscapes that evoke a mystic sense of wonder.
Coral offers a more introspective sound palette than what some might expect from Dreijer's other solo work. In the greater context of his discography, it reads as a more spiritually connected cousin to Rosa Rugosa. Both are similar in technique and sound design, but differ greatly in what they hope to achieve thematically. Coral builds off the steel drum arrangements of Souvenir and features his usual sonic signatures, including pitch-bent synths and eerie, artificial birdsong. The title track is the only real dance track, snaking, shrieking and skittering over a thumping bassline—it could have been a holdover from Rosa Rugosa, though its quieter moments gel with the rest of the EP's lusher, softer sounds.
On "Flora," Dreijer reaffirms his deep curiosity for the natural world: stimulating repetitive chords dance around warm and playful found sounds that bounce off each other and engage in a playful oscillation with one another like encountering life for the first time. "Hazel," on the other hand, is even more relaxed—over the course of ten minutes, the track expands on the kaleidoscopic atmosphere built by "Coral" and "Flora" to build a tropical-hued landscape. As "Hazel" slips further into its gentle bath of chords and aquatic drones, it's like sinking into a profound sleep and encountering a world that isn't meant to exist yet. Coral's allure lies in these dreamy, extraterrestrial atmospheres.
Tracklist01. Coral
02. Flora
03. Hazel