There is a growing number of us who are sick of pursuing algorithm-driven trends. The music world is filling with innovators refusing to kowtow.
By Graeme Smith
Step forward Kris Dane, a veteran of the industry whose new self-titled album won’t blow up on TikTok. With it, Dane has focussed on craft, building songs that slowly and beautifully unravel over time rather than hitting you with a catchy punch.
I love it. Across eight tracks Kris Dane runs the spectrum of intimate acoustic to throbbing electronica. That might sound like it would be incongruent, but Dane makes it somehow natural and the contrasts are exciting. As each track unfolds, you don’t know what you’ll get next. Classicality rubs elbows with modernity in a way I’ve seldom heard.
Dane is a seasoned performer. This album might be self-titled but it’s no debut. In fact, it’s his ninth record and you can tell he’s an artist who has found his sound and is willing to push it into new spaces while keeping it undeniably his.
The music itself is worth the admission, but there’s also a wonderfully romantic story behind it. After a trip to visit to his friend Jamie Evans in the UK, The Belgian artist decided to capture the magic of his self-titled album about 90 minutes drive away from here near Sherwood Forest. The album was recorded in near isolation with Evans as producer.
“He recorded one track on an old cassette machine during that first visit,” explains Dane. “It had such a vibe that it was obvious he should produce the album.”
It wasn’t Dane’s usual approach to recording, away from the musicians he’d usually work with. “It felt like living inside a film for two months,” he reminisces. “I’m a romantic by nature, so even running errands at the village post office took on this poetic glow.”
The intimate recording, the powerful sense of voice, and the dedication to craft over popularity is what makes Kris Dane stand out from the crowd. For him, it’s less an act of resistance and more a sense of following his own nature.
“I’ve never adjusted to the zeitgeist,” he says. “I wouldn’t know how. But I do sense a counter-movement — more openness, fewer boxes. Look at The War On Drugs. They showed that long tracks can still hit. My songs tell me what shape they want. I follow intuition.”
That intuition has led to a must-listen record that shows Kris Dane at his best. We’re a little late to discover him here at York Calling, but better late than never.
Kris Dane is out now on [PIAS] Recordings, and you can listen to it below.
