TWÏNS

Following the fragrant fusion of 2022’s The Human Jazz, Berlin’s TWÏNS returns with a new album that expands his cocoon of influences, slipping seamlessly through jazz-psych, lounge, kosmiche, folk, and pop with an omnivorous appetite. Once again, primarily the work of songwriter Miro Denck, the record also draws in a number of vocal collaborators who drape TWÏNS’ works in velveteen shades. Like it’s predecessor, the new record works as a sort of tapestry, but it’s no patchwork affair. Denck’s prowess works in laying the record out like an ornate journey — an argument in favor of the importance of sequencing in the face of an audience that leans too hard into singles. On Healing Dreams, the band slips from one song to the next; the smoke from “Love, Third Variation,” barely settling before the buffer of “I Dream of Sleep” leads into the pining second single, “Tango Mango.” The songs pour down like champagne fountains, drizzling the speakers with strings, sax, and percussive patter.

Organs creep through the songs and more often than not a light breeze of flute can be found trailing fragrance on the air. The vocal contributions from Sarah Martin and Matha Rose, not to mention Denck’s own vocal work, might tug at the the ear initially, but some of the album’s best moments lie in the winding jazz that trails from the previous album and a handful of covers that spanned the interim between LPs. Standout, “Reflections (Peace & Unity)” begins the record’s second side slide towards a wider global footprint, passing through the spiritual jazz clouds that have hovered over new outlets like Leaving Records, before winding through Tropicália, synth seance, calming waves, and the cusp of Cumbia as the record closes out. Healing Dreams works as a somnambulant radio station; a blinking beacon that leads the listener through hypnagogic hues wrapped in earthen aromas. The Human Jazz stepped off the ledge, but Healing Dreams pretty neatly catches the winds to soar.

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