The Breakdown
New Mexican duo Tan Cologne has just finished supporting the magnificent Trentemøller on their European tour, and they have now released their third studio album ‘Unknown Beyond’ via Labrador Records.
‘Unknown Beyond’ is less a collection of songs and more of an evolving dream state that takes you up into the skies and leaves you in a fugue. There has always been an exquisite shimmer to Tan Cologne’s beautiful sounds – something that seems to encompass the vast desert skies and a hint of extraterrestrial mystery and presence (see my review of their debut album ‘Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico’).
‘Unknown Beyond’ in its very title captures the Tan Cologne enigma – something dreamy, mysterious, extraterrestrial and alien but above all breathtakingly beautiful and transfixing. The band says the album recording and lyrics reflected their environment:
We looked for signs and signals during the recording process. If we saw a shooting star, imagined a fire burning on a hill, or remembered an old satellite dish in someone’s yard, we explored that lyrically. Those visual guides became our pathways to the album. They were the signs to move forward.
This is reflection of the due’s deep seated connection to the land and the universe beyond.
Opening track track ‘Cool Star’ pictures this essence. Shimmering guitars and a dreamy drone glittering with the distant observant vocals that skim the surface.
‘You are the Dreamer’ seems to float in the ether, boneless and shimmering like a mirage on the distant horizon, a slight unnerving quiver of electronic sound threading its way through like an alien presence that buzzes through the brain. This is a hypnotic, enigmatic instrumental.
‘Cloud of Mirrors’ seems to float in the firmament like a drifting, billowing silken veil, mesmerising and immersive, ethereal and evocative. The band says the track is:
…about life happening to you and having to deal with whatever is handed to you – a chem trail above, being “over it”, knowing we are all interconnected and a part of the disaster and the beauty. The idea is that we are a mirror image of the sky – manmade or natural, or even simulated. A reflection of everything around you being internally present.
The accompanying video is a hazy, woozy performance piece that captures the enigmatic style of this duo:
‘Infinity’ has an hypnotic shuffle with the crystalline patter of percussion and a repeating, ominous cycle as the vocals hover above the fray, dreamy and ethereal. There is a darkness at the heart of the incandescent shimmer – a psychedelic frisson that is ghostly and alien and typical of the Tan Cologne sound that seems to feed off an extraterrestrial muse. The duo say of the track:
‘Infinity’ is about an endless drift into the infinite. The lyrics “All pass through known” evoking comfort of knowing we all enter and leave, though the definitive dimension is the unknown beyond. We understand the passage through physical form, and take into account the infinite depth outside of our comprehension.
The accompanying video is suitable enigmatic noir experience:
Our music video circles a day or dissolving timeline of a man on a walk and how he finds himself in a meditative drift with a horse, and then returns to the beginning and also the end. Filmed in Taos, New Mexico by Tan Cologne with friend Ricardo de Jesus Tejeda and horse, Lupita.
There is something affectingly surreal about the track and the video: transfixing, mesmerising and slightly discombobulating, a delicious immersion without the assistance of chemicals:
A dreamy world filled with billowing sonic clouds and dust storms is explored in ‘Angels’, ominous guitars hover like an approaching storm or disturbance while the layered vocals lull you into a sense of security, rendering you somnambulant and cloudy. ‘Eyelids’ wakes you from the topor with a more muscular beat and edgy guitars but the voices remain the same – like a siren call to lost sailors. drawing you on, mesmerising. Similarly, ‘Open To Communication’ is a faster paced track with its chiming guitars providing a bedded spine while the vocals sail steady over the top like an unguent calming the seas.
‘Spiral Path’ provides a sonic clearing: a sparse pattering beat provides open air and clear skies over the distant dreamy vocals while closing track ‘In Resin’ eases us out into the cosmos beyond with its anthemic melodies and soothing delivery: satisfied and replete.
‘Unknown Beyond’ is out now via Labrador records. You can download and stream here and through the link below.
You can catch Tan Cologne live in the coming months:
June 20 – Do Right Hall at Wrong, Marfa, TX, USA
June 21 – Secret show (TBA day of), Marfa, TX, USA
July 26 – Solar Center, Taos, NM, USA w/ Gold Celeste, Vinyl Williams
August 1 – Marigold Room, Santa Fe, NM, USA
September 11 – Taos Center for the Arts, Taos, NM w/ Diatom Deli, Luke Schneider
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