TRÄNEN

January 2023, Leipzig. The city seems to have been plunged into shadow for months, the lack of sunshine replaced at best by the flicker of trashy neon signs and the flash of penetrating car headlights. In the frigid semi-darkness, Gwen Dolyn and Steffen Israel walk across muddy, barren open spaces, past archaic factory buildings and faded black-and-chrome graffiti. The two soak up the atmosphere - the dirty weather, the barren hustle and bustle, the dismissive looks of the Späti saleswoman, that persistent smell of dreariness - before hastily escaping back to cosy comfort. More precisely: into the studio of producer Simon Freidhöfer, which is lined with old carpets. In this setting, piece by piece, the self-awareness of a band called TRÄNEN grows and, after months of gallant secrecy, releases its first piece of music into the world on June 30, 2023 with "Stures dummes Herz".

TRÄNEN have been playing hide and seek with the German indie scene since the beginning of the year. In January, a mysterious Instagram profile made the rounds - all that could be seen at the time was animated "TRÄNEN" lettering, flickering, wavy, on a black background. Underneath, no text, just enigmatic emojis. Shortly after, a stretch of analog photos went online - instead of people, it showed synthesizers, guitar necks, and a frosty, dystopian sunset. A few weeks later, finally, albeit blurred: Faces. In a constellation that probably no one would have expected. Left: Gwen Dolyn, who has been stirring up the German-language progressive pop underground with a punk attitude since 2020 and, accompanied by her band Toyboys, has long since advanced to become the poster girl of "NNDW". On the other side: Steffen Israel, guitarist of the Chemnitz band Kraftklub.

Gwen Dolyn and Steffen Israel might have been surprised by the size of their project TRÄNEN at the beginning - at first there was only Gwen's idea to reinterpret the German punk classic "Duell der Letzten" (Duel of the Last) by Chaos Z. Steffen had the desire to take part in the project. Steffen was eager to participate, they met in the studio. Within no time, a classic punk cover version grew into a more innovative reprise: a modern "Duell der Letzten" that sounds snappy yet dreamy, pounding yet harmonious, nauseated yet wistful. Amazingly organic, improvised, almost mindless, an independent sound aesthetic had been found, carried by sinister new wave aura, sonorous pop passages, reverberating vocals, 80's-esque synth surfaces and dominant guitar runs. So why not write a second song, or even a third?

Let's make it short: at the end of a creative journey of about a year, "Haare eines Hundes" is now a complete TRÄNEN album including a sophisticated cinematic accompanying work. Sound and image reflect the wintry monotony described at the beginning, but at the same time also the determined rage against just that, the breakout momentum of collective resignation as well: "Haare eines Hundes" lives from retro aura and grayish play of colors, from the courage to be dirty, from bizarre timing and simultaneous symphonic fullness. Chorale episodes and sonorous earworm moments atomize in washed-out fractures, epochality and snottiness are only millimeters apart, knotted between tempo lightness and small moments of winking. The binding element in the fireworks: Gwen Dolyn's voice. And, of course, those unmistakable lyrics full of approachable gloom and resourceful musings, sometimes reminiscent of Wir sind Helden, sometimes of Hans-A-Plast and sometimes of Ideal - "do you love me more when riot is just a word for surrender?"

An exemplary example of Gwen's rule-less writing and Steffen's idiosyncratic understanding of melody is "Stures dummes Herz," the very first single in TRÄNEN history. What a superficial listen might lead you to believe is a euphoric love song actually turns out to be the exact opposite. Is "Stures dummes Herz" perhaps a self-analytical soliloquy? It seems to be a complex dispute in the eye of desolate emotional constructs, an ode to complicating things with a conciliatory ending: "the kick goes right to the gut, but with you I can take it". The song builds itself up again and again into a multi-tracked pulsating backdrop, before it undergoes the next change of scenery, rich in form and playful, and blossoms hymn-like in every new refrain.

DREAMS
Hair of a Dog Tour
presented by DIFFUS