Summer is just around the corner, and we can’t think of a better way to welcome it than with Kasper Bjørke’s Puzzles, a dreamy, carefree slice of sun-dappled disco-pop that’s best enjoyed with a cold beer in hand. Featuring guest spots from a cast of friends and collaborators that includes Woolfy of DFA Records and Icelandic folksters Sísí Ey, the project finds Bjørke departing from his typically DAW-focused workflow to play and record the majority of instruments on the record live, a decision reflected in the dynamism and spontaneity of its sound.
Though the glitter of the disco ball has long shined on Bjørke’s work, the shape-shifting Copenhagenite has inhabited more than a few creative guises throughout his two decades in the game, from the angular synth-pop of his 2007 debut through to the critically acclaimed Fifty Eleven Project, a sweeping, synth-laced neo-classical epic that made evident the extent of Bjørke’s talents as both musician and producer. Puzzles, though, couldn’t be more different in style from that project’s brooding ambience; loose, limber and prizing groove above all else, it sounds
