Golden Sun/Shaded Moon, Trentemøller’s first release since 2019’s Obverse LP, finds him returning to instrumental compositions. It’s the newest entry into an ongoing journal of compiled musical case studies exploring suspense and resolution.

As “Golden Sun” rises, we can feel the dew burn off, and our bodies become bathed in warmth. New themes hatch and rise, gravitating towards the song’s leitmotif. Pitches bend, morph, and we recall treasured days, lying somnambulant on a knoll, draped in beams of sunlight, intoxicated both naturally and chemically. As the song sets our eyelids finally succumb to the weight of sleep, and we dream of a collapsing star.

“Shaded Moon” begins with a sequence of percussive bursts into the great wide yonder, while charged musical particles slowly assemble into an auricular borealis. The peak arrives as if to provide a score for the macrocosm reverting to its ostensible state of chaos, after a brief moment of order. It resolves with layers of pulsating synths, signaling the retreat of perigean tides.

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