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Nov 09, 2018 By Christopher Roberts Jacco Gardner

Dutch multi-instrumentalist Jacco Gardner is releasing a new instrumental album, Somnium, on November 23 via Polyvinyl. Previously he shared its first single, “Volva.” Now he has shared another song from the album, “Levania.” Listen to it below.

The album is the follow-up to 2015’s Hypnophobia. It was influenced by Gardner moving to a new country and city. “I think moving to Lisbon played a huge part of the album, as the city has a very mystical quality to it,” he said in a previous press release. “Especially in the older parts of the city, but also because of the hills it’s built on, wandering through the streets can feel almost like wandering through nature.”

Somnium is named after the 1608 novel by Johannes Kepler, which is considered the first ever science fiction novel. “This book fascinates me because it was basically Kepler traveling in his mind to a non-existent world while describing it, and his journey, with amazing detail,” Gardner explained. “Many of his imagined sensations are actually really what happens when one travels into space, which happened almost four hundred years later. You could call it a vision of the future through his dreams, and I find this aspect very mysterious and powerful.”

The press release cited Bo Hansson, Vangelis, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno, and Mike Oldfield as influences/reference points for the album. Unlike Hypnophobia, Somnium doesn’t feature any vocals. “I deliberately removed my voice from the experience, as it made it more difficult for me to achieve the intended state of mind,” Gardner said in the previous press release. “I think it makes the journey more interesting, more deep, and more intimate. I didn’t feel the need to show my face while one drifts away into thought. Somnium is a visionary experience. The album is more than just a trip, it is about contact with a deeper - hidden - reality.”

Gardner summed up the album this way: “Somnium could be seen as a tribute to the album, a dying format in today’s fast-paced society. It can often be difficult to enjoy a meaningful uninterrupted moment. This album is where true mystery and wonder is waiting to be discovered.”

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