SASSY 009 : Dreamer+

"Sassy 009 was once a trio of classmates from Oslo: three cool, elusive voices swirling and stuttering against a gentle barrage of programmed ploinks, like club music by the jaded girls sitting at the back of the room. Then ringleader Sunniva Lindgård, who took the alias from an old SoundCloud handle, shed her counterparts (and some of the frosty detachment) and went solo."

"The often cryptic narrative seems to chart the highs and lows of a doomed relationship, one where the protagonist needs their partner to leave in order to evolve as a person. The fictional narrator, played by Lindgård, is "free fall aiming for your arms tonight" and finding adoration in her lover Jakov's eyes. But she feels an overwhelming sense of despair and eventually "kills Jakov with nothing more than a thought," as she states at the record's end, before abrasive noise consumes her voice."

Sassy 009 began as a trio of Oslo classmates delivering cool, elusive vocals over programmed beats. Sunniva Lindgård later went solo, expanding from frosty detachment to brighter, dance-pop shocks on 2021's Heart Ego. Dreamer+ returns after four years with darker, sometimes nightmarish moods, blending trendy club pop and trip-hop tropes into brash, flashy thrills tempered by dissonance. The album's cryptic narrative traces a doomed relationship in which the protagonist must push a partner away to grow, culminating in a surreal, violent final moment. Vocals often shimmer like vapor, with Auto-Tune and formant effects energizing tracks such as "Butterflies."

Read at Pitchfork