Dinner

Danish producer and vocalist Anders Rhedin helms the synth-pop project Dinner, whose output spans an expansive emotional range. Early efforts such as the 2015 compilation Three EPs: 2012-2014 and the 2016 debut album Psychic Lovers juxtaposed polished electronic textures against playful irreverence, whereas the 2017 album Dream Work adopted a rougher, more abrasive approach to the same aesthetic. Following a period devoted to ambient explorations and guided meditations, Rhedin infused 2021’s Dream Work with a corresponding sense of serenity.

During his twenties Rhedin participated in Copenhagen’s independent-music community and performed alongside Choir of Young Believers. Relocating to Los Angeles with the goal of writing mainstream pop material, he instead launched Dinner. Although he initially planned for other vocalists to interpret his compositions, sessions with former bandmates Jannis Noya Makrigiannis and Cæcilie Trier (also of CTM) persuaded him to take the lead himself. Captured over two days, the You Are Like L.A. EP appeared in 2012 via Looking Forward and established Dinner’s hazy, lo-fi electro-pop signature. The slightly richer Girl EP followed in 2013, which Rhedin described as inspired by “the divine feminine.” In 2014 he issued both a guided-meditation cassette and the third EP, Oui!, the latter released through Austin, Texas’s Red Eye Transit imprint. That same year Dinner joined Captured Tracks, which compiled Three EPs: 2012-2014 in 2015 while Rhedin prepared his first full-length. Cut in Copenhagen and Los Angeles, Psychic Lovers arrived in 2016 and presented a tighter, more unified iteration of Rhedin’s fusion of 1980s and 2010s electronic pop. The subsequent New Work adopted an improvisational method: producer Josh da Costa oversaw four-track recordings that featured guest appearances by Sean Nicholas Savage and Blouse’s Charlie Hilton. After the album’s release, Rhedin paused Dinner to concentrate on ambient work and meditation practices. He inaugurated the meditation-and-relaxation series in 2019 with Kyoto Window and Guided Sleep Meditation. Feeling prepared to resume the project by 2020, he delivered Dream Work in October 2021, folding elements of his hiatus explorations into Dinner’s indie-pop framework.