De portables called their new album de portables. When a band
releases a "self-titled album," it's usually not out of lack of
inspiration, but to say, "This is who we are." Usually it’s a debut.
Starting with a bang. Not so with de portables. The band has
waited twenty-five years and ten albums to drop that album title.
But their statement is indeed: this is what de portables stand for.
After the critically acclaimed double album The Killing Horizon
from 2016, it was time to explore new roads. No fixed destination.
But there was a new “travel attitude”. And with electronica
wizzard Kasper Jordaens also a brand new travel companion. How
to describe that travel attitude? As an aspiration to capture the
Moment. The moment when everyone is in the same sweet spot.
When all brains synchronize, and all hearts beat to the same
rhythm. When the magic happens. Fairly ambitious. And maybe
this album was only possible after twenty-five years of playing and
listening together. In 2022, de portables have reached a point
where they know each other so well that they can let go of
everything and disembark in blind faith for the most adventurous
trips.
And that is exactly what de portables – the album – has become:
four LP-side long explorations. Four recordings – or snapshots if
you like – of groove-driven adventures. Hypnotic excursions in
which the five portables take turns in taking the lead, but in the
first place grant each other oceans of time and space. And so this
album, and the quest for it, became not only an exercise in letting
go, but also in omitting. In consciously seeking out the emptiness
and tranquility.
Those same keywords “traveling”, “omitting”, “snapshot”… also
inspired the artwork. The minimal, silver-coloured exterior is a
reflective nod to the twenty-fifth anniversary of de portables. But
also to “that other self-titled double album with a monochrome
cover”. The gatefold in turn opens up like a holiday snapshot,
taken during one of the musical treks.
What de portables eventually let go as well for the first
time after twenty-five years: the mixing of their album.
Although they didn't hand it over to just someone, but to
the Baron of Techno himself: British DJ Dave Clarke. Even
for those who follow the portables closely, this
collaboration may come as a big surprise. But Clarke has
been charmed by the band for many years. The result of
this collaboration in one word? Sparks.
