In 6 panel Digisleeve! Active since 1992, with 3 albums released by legendary Hyperium Records, since 2007, the German band Chandeen have enjoyed renewed international acclaim for their more recent albums ‘Teenage Poetry’ and ‘Blood Red Skies’. With their luscious blend of ambient pop, Chandeen’s sound is remarkable with a unique sense of tonal aesthetics, visual soundscapes and unequalled soundtrack-like density.
The band has taken their time to work on the new album ‘Forever and Ever’ and the result has definitely been worth the wait: The first new album in 4 years is an epic dream pop masterpiece delivering its sound with buzzy electronics, much cathedral reverb, coloured filters, gorgeously warm vocoder effects, orchestrated strings and massive choir parts. Without any doubt, this is the most ambitious and emotional work that the band has ever done. The album starts with the stunning synth-prog song “Popcorn on blue Eyes”, inspired by the chill-inducing spirit of the underworld, followed by “Cloudy Canyon”, an electro-rock-score song with the fantastic vocals of Julia Beyer that evokes the high velocity feeling of a skydiving trip. “Wake up, Starbuck” is an incredible and emotional high fidelity piece featuring the fantastic soprano vocals of Harald Löwy’s daughter Marlene. The lead single (see free link below!) "The Wild Unknown" has a light-hearted playfulness, a sweep of the 80s, and is catchier than anything else Chandeen have done to date.
The mellow and breathtaking piano part shows the bands wispy emotional core as well as the range of Harald Löwy’s great vocal work in the refrain and the peaceful epilogue. In the album’s second half, Chandeen once more show their extraordinary talent for little symphonies (“What lies beneath the Sky”) that embody incredible melodies (“Invaded by Love”, “Mountains”) and an impossibly rich and detailed world of sound. In an astonishing stretch, the band collaborated with the fantastic Ghost Children Choir to produce a mood that embodies vital and intimate pleasures. In sharp contrast, “Paralysed” is a magnificent and melancholy song with warm and wide Daft Punk vocoder effects that illuminate its vocal tunes with a dark neon light. The Hollywood score sound of “Hermine’s Dream” and “Splendid Echo” shows Chandeen’s love for crisp, butterfly-like moments that are simultaneously deep, organic and full of warm ambient tunes. ‘Forever and Ever’ is clearly an uplifting and triumphant collection of splendid dream pop with epic widescreen synthesizer sounds that captures the band in an extended series of its most glorifying moments.
