Chicago based electronic composer Brett Naucke has announced the release of a new album, following last year’s EMS Hallucinations. Entitled Mirror Ensemble, the album is a collaboration with longtime friends Natalie Chami (TALsounds, Good Willsmith, Damiana) and Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Damiana) and arrives on October 1st through American Dreams.
Naucke ventures quite far from his previous works fully based in various synthesizer types, with the upcoming Mirror Ensemble “often boasting melodic vocalization, strings, and lush layered synthesis.” The press release describes the album as “a synthesizer record, an orchestral record, and in some ways even a soundtrack”. Mirror Ensemble saw Naucke using scenes from Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterpiece 1975 film The Mirror, which served as a key element for mood and atmosphere.

Speaking about this collaboration, Chami explains:

“He invited Whitney and I over for wine and cheese, and was like, ‘I have an idea for a record. He showed us clips from The Mirror with the vibe he wanted, and also shared recordings and other ideas. It was straight up like a fucking PowerPoint almost – like an audio-visual presentation for us.”

The striking and ethereal lead single ‘The Glass Shifting’ and the contemplative and gentle ‘Rose Water’ open a window onto what he has in store for us. Listen to both below.