With San Laurentinos Dreamers & Wanders EP, Lets Play House brings forth a hauntingly beautiful record ideal for the winter ahead—this is music in which to take shelter from lengthening shadows, a warm place in a cold, cold world.
Hungary's San Laurentino has only been around for a few years, but already the man has proven himself to be a well-equipped, creative, and singular producer of the highest caliber. His last extended-player, Forbidden Fruit, released early in 2012, came via the legendary Live At Robert Johnson imprint. It comes as a surprise, then, that this is only his fourth official recording. The four tracks included in this package are better perceived as four movements of one piece—each is a shimmering, emotive, and fragile aural journey that revolves around elastic, warm synth melodies that meander as they mystically progress with deliberation. Underscoring them all is a sober and forceful beat and syrupy-smooth bass line. Sprinkled throughout, like glistening stars in a cloudless night, are earthy syncopated rhythms, distorted, fuzzy effects, and chord modulations that make the listening experience all the more engaging.
At its core, Dreamers is rooted in deep house, but San Laurentino has taken the style and elevated it to something more formal and composed in structure and aesthetic; he pours the energy and vitality of the dance floor-focused genre into a more sentimental and sensitive vehicle, yielding something heart-wrenching, hopeful, and simply awe-inspiring. These are dreams transferred to a sonic sketchpad.