More Love Now

This is the third release from Dominique, the Berlin-Kreuzberg based group, started around 1999. From the beginning, Dominique has been structured more as a loose collective than as a band, each member already an artist, writer, filmmaker and/or musician in their own right. Building on the success of their first album Speak to Me and the more or less 'live' sequel the Same You, their third album More Love Now, is their most ambitious, elaborate and best offering to date. It was written and recorded over a period of two years by the band's current six members plus various guests; Thomas Goldhahn recorded and helped to arrange the strings, and if Dominique's collaborative ethos accounts for the music diversity of the album, it is Richard Davis' production that lends their combined efforts it's sparkle and epic grandeur. Though still recognizably a Dominique album, this time each song is given it's own distinct and complex sound, creating separate spaces for their evocative lyrics to do their work. In the mind's eye, images follow the precisely-blended lyrics and harmonies. Chimes, harmonica, chords on an acoustic guitar and a changing snare-drum sound accompany soft-spoken word and rich singing. There is even a band choir on 'Air,' as well as euphoric group singing on 'You Know Now.' Dominique's music is about contours, even when as in the mildly psychedelic 'Goldchain,' isolated background sounds flutter out of the arrangements like surprise visitors, migrating birds, or travellers. Throughout the album, the group insists on More Love Now, knowing all the while that it requires as much care as possible.