We’ve been teasing Portraits on Invisible Places, the new album by East Germany-based duo Linebug, for some time now. A litany of singles and videos have graced these pages building up to the highlight anticipated LP.

By Graeme Smith

Linebug have a sound that I simply adore, and deploy it beautifully to tell unexpected and unconventional stories. Portraits of Invisible Places chronicles their time in East Germany, a location they migrated to from their native Denmark. Each track on the album celebrates a separate looked-over town in the region.

The duo comprise of a singer songwriter Line Bøgh and artist Christian Gundtoft who supplements each of the album’s singles with a hand-drawn animated video. Together the tracks and videos shed light of towns like Zeitz (in the dreamlike album opener Temporary Home), Deuben (in the stirring The Last Hearts Made of Coal), the levelled town of Eythra (in the nostalgic When We Find It), and more.

Elsewhere we get the bright whimsy of Rainbows in Hoywoy, the percussive storytelling of Bubble of Convenience, the hard-hitting Someone Else’s Tragedy, the delicate loud-quiet of 10,000 Sunflower-faces in Bloom, the pensive In Other People’s Eyes, the gentle, flowing The Creek, the uplifting While Dancing and atmospheric bonus track, The World Is Getting Worse, but Life is Getting Better.

Linebug’s new album is such a beautifully realised, personal effort delivered in a way that only they could. Line’s voice is enchanting throughout, and the project truly comes into its own when viewed in conjunction with the videos. It’s a contender for album of the year for me.

Portraits of Invisible Places is out now and you can give it a listen below.