Swedish multimedia artist Tobias Bernstrup is back with his seventh studio album ‘Shadow Dancer’.
Issued by the German-based independent Nadanna Records, ‘Shadow Dancer’, it according to Bernstrup “explores the tension between appearance and reality—how we perform identity, desire, and memory in a world flooded with simulation”. No stranger to these themes having released ‘Technophobic’ in 2018, the follow-up to 2021’s ‘Petrichor’ is “both a personal and cultural reflection, rooted in the shadowy edges of nightlife, surveillance, and performance.”
With possible spiritual connotations, the instrumental ‘The Sign Of The Cross’ sets the scene but this segues straight into the uptempo single ‘Chiaroscuro’; named after the art technique using strong contrasts between light and dark like on Johannes Vermeer’s painting ‘Girl With A Pearl Earring’, it is classic Tobias Bernstrup, with “the voice that tells the truth you don’t wanna hear” over bright synth pulses and immersive beats.
‘Under Heavy Strobe Light’, the beats pump harder and the voice is deeper but as the title suggests, this throbbing excursion is made for “creatures of the night” who love the dancefloor. Taking a more steadfast synthwave pace, the ‘Shadow Dancer’ title song comes with an anxious resigned vocal that lets the darkness in while retaining that all important melody.
Playing on the album’s inherent nocturnal atmospheres where the body is strong, ‘Jackie 60’ offers reverberant twists to the bleeps and sweeps in this celebration of the New York night spot although it is a touch repetitive. But stuttering rhythms shape ‘Legend’ while ‘And The Smile’ adopts a much more speedy pulse in its midnight drive “playing ‘Crockett’s Theme’ on the radio”.
Taking a diversion away from the straight fours, ‘Piranesian Dream’ ushers in stark drum loops as well as guitar and piano pointing towards Bernstrup’s more gothic rock side project O+HER with Erica Li Lundqvist while still retaining an electronic base. With chunky squelches, ‘Breakout’ is given space to sparkle in its call to action as the melancholic technostalgia takes hold. The short instrumental ‘Estuarium’ acts as a fitting closer symbolising how all his disco, goth, post-punk and electronic styles meet in his music.
Reflecting on themes of identity and transformation as borne out by his striking gender fluid persona, this collection of intelligent political and historical observations will ensure Tobias Bernstrup fans will be very happy with ‘Shadow Dancer’. Retaining his established “Italo Noir” formula with a sharp edge of darkness, this is a logical and worthy follow-up to ‘Petrichor’.
‘Shadow Dancer’ is released by Nadanna Records on 1st August 2025 as a CD with 4 bonus tracks as well as a limited edition black or clear vinyl LP, available from https://nadanna.bandcamp.com/
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Text by Chi Ming Lai
31st July 2025
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