Olof Dreijer - Loud Bloom
Pitchfork: Album Review (7.1)
Olof Dreijer: Loud Bloom review – the Knife star’s debut solo album is a garden of earthly delights – The Guardian (5/5)
The Knife’s Olof Dreijer reveals debut solo album Loud Bloom and signs on DH2 (Dirty Hit). The LP is a burst of colour and rhythm that cuts a distinctive path through modern club music. Shares the lead single ‘Echoed Dafnino (feat. MaMan)’
Since returning with a rush of output in 2023, Dreijer has been sprinkling dancefloors with a string of releases that perfect the fine balance of angular originality and universal appeal. The sound is bright and immediate, wild around the edges but overflowing with heart and soul. Updating a sound he first teased in the late 00s as Oni Ayhun through drag performance and a handful of enduring, celestial dance tracks like the universally adored ‘OAR003-B’, this purposefully joyful wave of recent output came after years spent working on projects for others. He was one half of legendary synth pop provocateurs The Knife with his sibling Karin Dreijer, also producing for their solo project Fever Ray as well as Houeida Hedfi, Zhala and Planningtorock more recently. He also established a music school for refugees in Berlin before continuing to teach creative music production to immigrant youth in Sweden. The striking arrival of Rosa Rugosa on Hessle Audio in 2023 heralded the dawn of a new era in his music-making, followed up by successive flourishes for Dekmantel and AD93 as well as remixes for Björk & Rosalía, Röyskopp & Robyn and more, paving the way towards Loud Bloom coming via DH2, Dirty Hit’s electronic sister label. Dreijer says: “After taking a break I’m very happy to have arrived at allowing myself to just have fun with my own music again.”
Ideas and motivations guide Dreijer’s hand at all times in the music he makes. The desire to challenge the persistently white, male, Western dominated homogeny of the music scene led him to consciously look elsewhere for vocalists to work with. The album’s lead single “Echoed Dafnino” features a sweetly pop-tinted Arabic vocal from MaMan, a Sudanese singer based in Cairo. Dreijer explains the track’s origins: “I was so moved the first time I heard the original version of Dafnino. Maman’s voice is so beautiful. I wanted to make it work in my DJ sets, so I made my own version that I felt became more than just a remix so I thought it could be nice to include it on the album. The additional vocals he recorded made it feel very special too.”
As well, bumping misfit house joint ‘Makwande‘ features celebrated South African MC Toya Delazy, whose deft bars rain down in Zulu and English. And incendiary stomper ‘Acuyuye’ was made with Diva Cruz, a Colombian MC and percussionist. “I’m very grateful to be able to work with music and through music connect with these different collaborators from different parts of the world,” he notes.
Across the album, Dreijer toys with the tension between pure pleasure music and his tireless thirst for the new. You might hear the structure of a Chicago house beat or a classic drum machine hit, but at every turn these tropes are remoulded into dazzling new forms. Taking inspiration from Nigerian author Akwaeke Emezi and their ability to deliver bold, progressive themes and visionary sci-fi through the accessible lens of romantic fiction, Dreijer makes vividly unconventional dance music utterly instinctive and easy to love.
In Loud Bloom, Dreijer touches on a vast range of musical approaches, exploring much more than a linear ‘bangers-only’ streak, including the reflective, beatless synth patterns of ‘Laurel‘ and ‘Verbena‘. While ‘Lantana‘ explores tonally-rich electro-acoustic ambient charged with microtonality.
That extends to his visual practice — luminescent acrylic abstracts that have reaffirmed his identity across every well-established platform he has worked with to date. Alongside further colourful, exuberant visual direction from his partner, Brazilian creative director and costume designer Suelem De Oliveira Da Silva, Dreijer gently affirms his queer stance in opposition to the macho forces in dance music and the wider world. It’s a natural extension of a life spent actively engaged in causes from anti-racism to rights for asylum seekers. Even if Loud Bloom is primarily a manifestation of joy, Dreijer’s personal politics guide his creative decisions every step of the way. Originally commissioned for Brazilian choreographer Renan Martins‘ dance piece Guerrilla, ‘Shisandra‘ and ‘Blood Lily’ are Dreijer’s idea of a soundtrack to a protest.