TRÄNEN - ZMF Freiburg

In January 2023, a mysterious Instagram profile made the rounds. Shortly afterwards, a series of analogue photos went online - instead of people, they showed synthesizers, guitar necks and a frosty, dystopian sunset. Finally, a few weeks later, albeit blurred: Faces. In a constellation that nobody would have expected. TRÄNEN are on the one hand: Gwen Dolyn, who has been mixing up the German-language progressive pop underground with a punk attitude since 2020 and, accompanied by her band Toyboys, has long since become the poster girl of "NNDW". On the other side: Steffen Israel, guitarist of the Chemnitz band Kraftklub.

Gwen Dolyn and Steffen Israel were probably surprised by the size of their project TRÄNEN at first. Gwen simply had the idea of reinterpreting the German punk classic "Duell der Letzten" by Chaos Z and got in touch with Steffen. Within a very short time, a classic punk cover version grew into a much more innovative reprise: a modern "Duell der Letzten" that sounds jagged and yet dreamy, pounding and yet harmonious, disgusted and yet wistful. Amazingly organic, improvised, almost headless, an independent sound aesthetic was found, carried by a sinister new wave aura, beautiful pop passages, reverberating vocals, 80's-esque synth pads and dominant guitar runs. So why not write a second song or even a third?

At the end of a creative journey lasting around a year, "Haare eines Hundes" is now a complete TRÄNEN album. The binding element in the fireworks: Gwen Dolyn's voice. And, of course, those unmistakable lyrics full of approachable gloom and resourceful mind games, 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?"

"Stures dummes Herz", the very first single in the TRÄNEN history, is an exemplary example of Gwen's irregular writing and Steffen's solitary understanding of melody. What superficially suggests a euphoric love song actually turns out to be the exact opposite. "Stures dummes Herz" is a self-analytical soliloquy, a highly complex dispute in the eye of desolate emotional constructs, an ode to complication with a conciliatory ending: "the kick goes straight 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 in a playful way and blossoms anthemically in each new chorus.

"Hair of a Dog", the debut album by TRÄNEN, was released on November 03, 2023.