Review: Trentemøller at Magnet House
Trentemøller at Magnet House
w/ Gloam
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Danish electronic music innovators Trentemøller gave Perth fans a mid-week tasty treat last Wednesday, playing Magnet House as part of a world tour showcasing their latest album, Dreamweaver.
They were supported by Boorloo four-piece Gloam, an alt-shoegaze band making serious headway at the moment, having released a five-track EP, Well Dwelling, in late 2024, as well as scoring a guernsey for RTRFM’s In The Pines on the Sunday after this gig. With energetic guitar riffs, heavy waves of drums, and moody, introspective, and therapeutic lyrics, Gloam were a good fit to warm the crowd up for Trentemøller.
Anders Trentemøller is a Danish musical powerhouse who has constantly evolved his music over the past twenty-plus years. From playing blues in a band while in high school to creating a slew of 12” club mixes to his seminal album The Last Resort (2006) and throughout the rest of his prolific career since (which spans 17 albums, 45 singles, and countless remixes, and he ain’t done yet!). He seems driven to push his creativity in ever-changing ways to express himself musically, emotionally, and always meticulously.
A multi-instrumentalist who records most of the stems himself in the studio, he then tours with musicians who can help him realise, in a live setting, his particular soundscapes. While Icelandic singer DíSA provided the vocals on Dreamweaver, the band is touring with Danish singer Emma Acs. Looking like a gorgeous young, goth Madonna, Emma gave just the right breathless yet strong vocal sound Trentemøller often features in his music—although he, himself, rarely sings.
The band—Anders (keys, effects, percussion), Jacob Haubjerg (bass/vocals), Brian Batz (guitar), Silas Tinglef (drums), and Emma Acs on vocals—has already toured North America in February, and Perth was the last stop of the April Australian tour before they head briefly to China and then on to Europe in May.
The band looked very “together,” relaxed, and like they were enjoying themselves. All featuring great bone structure and dressed uniformly in black (okay, there was some very dark grey), with the audience’s attire largely reflecting that black back at them, the five-piece played a beguiling mix of songs from Dreamweaver interspersed with older tracks from four different albums, offering a wider and brighter spectrum of sounds than their all-dark clothing belied.
They opened with I Give My Tears, an atmospheric, slower ballad, followed immediately by the more uptempo Behind My Eyes, the very next track on Dreamweaver. One of Trentemøller’s musical transformations over the years has been from wall-of-sound, intricate tracks on albums like The Last Resort to more discrete, standalone, conventionally structured songs, like those on Dreamweaver. The first songs played on Wednesday both had very ‘standard’ structures infused with Anders’ ‘standard’ trademarks: emotional depth and interesting instrumentation and arrangements.
Still On Fire, next, a song from the 2013 album, Lost, was a quirky offering to the audience to lose themselves in a dancier track before playing Dreamweavers, the third track from the eponymous album. Emma Acs came back on vocals for this one, her beautiful voice both driving the drums and being driven in turn.
The next three tracks came from three different albums: Deceive, from Lost; River In Me, from Fixion; and Dead or Alive, from Memoria. Deceive, with dark, sexy vocals performed by the bass player, who, after handing over his bass to the guitarist, really worked the crowd, stepping off the stage, grabbing hands, and generally rocking out. After this slower song, the tempo stepped up for River In Me before The Cure-like bass kicked in for Dead or Alive.
While there is a great deal of influence in the current album from some of the synth-pop bands of the 80s and 90s, like The Cure, Joy Division, and New Order, the band had a lot of fun dropping in actual riffs from some songs (Lullaby, Blue Monday) into the arrangements, which disappeared before you were really sure they were there. This is not to say Trentemøller is derivative. He has many influences, but he makes his sound all his own, and all his music is distinctively him despite the enormous range of styles he can employ.
One last song from Dreamweaver, Nightfall, led into One Eye Open from Fixion, both slower ballads with wistful lyrics.
The rest of the set mostly featured songs from The Last Resort, with crowd favourites Vamp, Moan, and Take Me Into Your Skin superbly recreated live, which is no mean feat given their many-layered intricacies.
After the obligatory break, the band came back to do two encore songs: Miss You, again from The Last Resort, featuring Anders on a cute little glockenspiel to carry the top line, and Silver Surfer Ghost Rider Go!!, from Into The Great Wide Yonder, sounding like it should already be in a Tarantino film.
Speaking of film, the visuals were stylish, in the same B&W/featuring lots of nature vein as much of Trentemøller’s album artwork. Together with copious stage fog, they managed to add to the atmosphere without distracting from the band, which is a tricky line to tread.
If you’re not familiar with Trentemøller and his music, you’re missing out. Please go wrap your ears around any of these songs and see what you think. They deserved a bigger audience on the night but were gracious and engaged with those who were there. It was a beautiful, intimate gig with great enjoyment shown by both the crowd and the band.
It will be so interesting to see what Anders does next. His creativity and musical ability know no bounds. Bravo!
EMMA SIMPER
Photos by Muhammad Imran
