GENRE; Electronic
LABEL; All Possible Worlds
RATING; 3/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Lost in Dreams” feels like a secret letter folded into a dancefloor record — part marathon DJ-mix, part stitched-together album — and it’s one of those rare releases that asks to be felt rather than merely consumed. The record, issued on All Possible Worlds and available as a sprawling Bandcamp release, lands as a generous, sometimes unwieldy document of the producer now operating as irini. The release date and full track breakdown are on Bandcamp.
Sonically, the album moves between dub-toned techno, trance euphoria, hazy ambient interludes and breakbeat flirtations. That breadth is thrilling: you’ll get cavernous kicks and ropy synths one moment and breathy, filmic samples the next. The record’s lineage — along the same continuum as Traumprinz/DJ Metatron-era work — is obvious in its palette and emotional reach. Reviewers have picked up on the mix’s genre-hopping generosity, and the record still reads like a long, unfolding mix even when split into tracks.
There are real peaks. Tracks like the plaintive, Reese-bass-charged “Sweet Charlotte” and the goosebump-inducing “Dreamuniverse” (and its reprise) crystallize irini’s knack for combining melancholy and uplift; these moments justify the record’s length and mystique. Elsewhere, ambient interludes work as meditative air-pockets, though a handful of faux-nostalgic pastiches don’t quite land.
As a physical object the release is ambitious — cataloged across multi-disc and file releases — and that cared-for packaging matches the music’s myth-making. If you approach “Lost in Dreams” like a playlist for twilight rather than a greatest-hits compilation, you’ll find its pleasures: immersive passages, sudden jolts of dancefloor clarity, and an uncanny ability to feel intimate even at three hours long. It’s imperfect but emotionally honest — an album that rewards patience and repeated visits.