The Drop - Sortie le 9 septembre

En concert le 7 octobre à la Maroquinerie

“They channel the hypnotic beat of early Seventies German rock into a modern setting and sound quite unlike anything else” The Times
‘The Pink Noise’ drifted over territories during its coming together in 2012, with Pinkunoizu debut album Free Time! recorded while the Danish group were effectively split in two, but with follow-up The Drop comes a new clarity and focus. The four-piece, who were once based in both Copenhagen and Berlin and respectively, put together their second LP as one, reunited in the Danish capital.
Though Pinkunoizu – consisting of Jaleh Negari (drums), Jeppe Brix (guitars) Andreas Pallisgaard (guitars, vox) and Jakob Falgren (guitars, keys, foot pedal bass) – rarely settle upon a particular template within their sound, The Drop feels like one unbroken odyssey, a journey with no clear end but the definite sense that one will come. “We didn’t have any overall concept for the record,” says Andreas. “We lean on the unconscious and on intuition, keeping things as open as possible.” Instead the group amalgamated as many ideas as possible first before whittling it down to the bewitching, soft-focus dream-pop that appears in different forms throughout the record. This method of working is perhaps indirectly indicated in track titles like ‘The Swollen Map,’ which – according to Andreas – is inspired by the Jorge Luis Borges’ idea of the map that grows larger than the actual landscape.
A more explicit theme to the album relates to its title: The Drop reflects the deviations in pitch that occur through recurring elements throughout the album, and it’s something recognised sonically from the off, as a tone generator gradually bends down in pitch during the intro of first track ‘The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.’ “It’s a drop that continues all along the record in various ways,” says Andreas. “Lyrically and sonically we somehow became drawn towards working with a bending and falling feeling. The album is darker than previous material, but in the sense of an immersive sensibility of being lowered down into a murky substance, than anything serious or solemn.” That the album takes this dipping, arched form, goes back to their writing process, of exploring every idea before cutting them back; it was only after doing this that they uncovered this aural sense of – as Andreas puts it – “this feeling that either the ground is falling underneath, or that everything is being lifted constantly upwards, that the music is elastic and bendable.”
They recorded The Drop themselves, with help from technician Mads Brinch, at Sauna in Copenhagen, as well as spending some time in the city’s unique mass commune, Freetown Christiana. The area is a multi-cultural commune situated right in the heart of the Danish capital, though one which has come under increasing scrutiny from the country’s government. Pinkunoizu don’t attach their music to any specific location, preferring instead for it to encourage environments and recollections in the listener’s own mind; but it is a place they share a kinship with. Though it has changed from the 60’s ideals that shaped it – and is now equally desirable to tourists as it is locals - Andreas comments that “it remains a beautiful dream, and still works well as an example of alternative ways of living and being. There’s loads of music and culture going on there on different venues and on the streets. The general political idea is to try and normalize it. But Christiania is too strongly consolidated to bend.”
With other song titles like ‘Necromancer’ and ‘Pyromancer,’ Pinkunoizu take clear influence from the dream world surrounding them and seek to create their own fantasy realm in music, something taken from the group’s interest in fantasy fiction. “In addition the musical term of fantasy (fantasia) played a role for us,” says Andreas, “a fantasia is a piece of (classical) music deriving from loose ideas and improvisations. Which is fitting for The Drop.” Prepare to submerge yourself into another world.
The band will tour with label mates Tunng at the below venues in October, preceded by a performance at Glastonbury on 28th June. They will also perform as main support to Deerhunter at SWN Festival in Cardiff on 18th October.