Dave Gahan & Soulsavers

During Depeche Mode’s 2009 world trek, British production outfit Soulsavers—Rich Machin and Ian Glover—opened the European dates and struck up a productive rapport that came to fruition in 2012. That year Dave Gahan, Depeche Mode’s frontman, partnered with Soulsavers on the V2 Records/Mute release The Light the Dead See, an album that fused Soulsavers’ downtempo electronic mood music with Gahan’s gloomy, distressed lyrics and vocals. The record’s dramatic tone was heightened by lush production and a bluesy haze, terrain both acts knew intimately from their usual work. Only with the 2015 album Angels & Ghosts, however, did the trio achieve genuine cohesion. Far from simply matching Gahan’s words to Soulsavers’ sounds, the sophomore effort became a full collaboration in which all three received songwriting credit. Like The Light the Dead See, Angels & Ghosts was steeped in blues and gospel influences. Late that year the group toured Europe and the United States with a full band, playing a run of intimate shows. Their third joint project, Imposter, surfaced in late 2021 and centered on Gahan’s covers of material by Neil Young, Cat Power, PJ Harvey, and others.