After announcing himself on 2021’s immersive harlecore project, British producer Danny L Harle is back with his most definitive artistic statement to date. Having made a name for himself collaborating with the likes of Charli XCX, Carly Rae Jepsen, Oklou, FKA twigs, Florence and the Machine, Shygirl, Dua Lipa, and co-executive producing Caroline Polachek’s acclaimed Pang album, his debut record, Cerulean, is the culmination of years of refining his craft.
Seeking, as he puts it, “the best melodies sung by the best voices”, Harle has enlisted an exceptional cast of collaborators, including Caroline Polachek, Clairo, Julia Michaels, PinkPantheress, Oklou and MNEK. With such a pedigree and boasting a raft of some of the most gifted female performers of this generation, it’s an album that really needs to deliver on its promises. On the whole, it largely succeeds.
Instrumental opener “Noctilucence” opens Cerulean with hypnotic electronics and hydropacoustics, and any lingering sense of peace is quickly shattered by sudden synth stabs. “Starlight” continues in the same manner before steadily building to a frisky, Euro club banger. Roping in the first big name from his contacts list, PinkPantheress brings the sass as Harle mixes equal parts 1990s Europop and 2000s trance. However, scrape the hyper-colourful surface, and you’ll soon find a darker layer as he showcases his ability to make euphoric rave-ups with a melancholic edge.
The trance ballad “Azimuth” sees him reunited with longtime collaborator Caroline Polachek. Her soaring vocals find hope in despair, every line imbued with a sense of longing, frustration and resilience. The production is exquisite, as he refrains from piling tracks on top of each other, instead amplifying the spaces between them. With such a heady intro, it seems inevitable that it would all come crashing back to earth at some point, and it does on “Facing Away”. Here, American singer-songwriter Clairo weaves in soft vocals over gently wavering electronics as she details something or someone being tantalisingly just out of reach.
The track pulls you off the dancefloor for a breath of fresh air before “Raft in the Sea” soon hauls you back through the fire exit. Here, Danny L Harle builds a trance-infused pop gem over thumping beats and tricksy electronic flourishes. Musically, there are more than a few nods to the dream house sounds of Robert Miles. However, it is Julia Michaels who proves the undoubted star, unearthing mesmerising vocal hooks from some of the most pained and desolate lyrics on the record.
Cerulean falters slightly on “Island (da da da)”, where the breathless Auto-Tune and accordion see it veer a bit too close to summer holiday novelty hit territory. “Te Re Re” quickly gets things back on track with Kacha adding choral vocals to a track that blends 1990s progressive house with incidental video game sounds. “Laa” continues in the same vein but with a glitchy edge. What starts as a soaring dancefloor filler soon twists into weirder, more indistinct shapes.
However, Cerulean quickly returns to focus with the undoubted highlight, “Two Hearts”. Featuring stunning vocals from Dua Lipa, “Two Hearts” is a blissed-out floor-filler. With euphoric synth lines and massaged pads pushing away any dark clouds, it’s a gleaming album highlight that will warmly wash through dance floors throughout the summer.
Fresh from her stunning album Choke Enough, Oklou lends her vocals and ear for a futuristic pop melody to the dreamy “Crystalise My Tears”. Also featuring UK house producer MNEK, it’s fittingly as close to an all-out house tune as the album gets, but with an otherworldly twist. Polachek returns for the penultimate “On and On”. What starts as a hushed, beatless ballad morphs into a more frenetic beast entirely, propelled by propulsive beats and soaring synths to its conclusion. It’s the point where the themes of drifting through water reach their conclusion, and the album floats to a hopeful, resolute ending on the instrumental closer, “Teardrop in the Ocean”.
Resuscitating the sound and feel of 2000s trance and viewing them through a fresh, contemporary lens, Danny L Harle finds new ways to express his ideas through bright, euphoric Europop synths and thumping beats. All done with a sense of melancholy that courses through the album as a raft of collaborators give it its heart and soul. Cerulean is an uplifting and adventurous record from an artist who understands pop music.