The genesis of any work in the White Flowers world (or “realm”, as they coin it) begins with the duo’s own creativity, before opening this up fills in the detail. Namely on Dreams For Somebody Else this came from working with Al Doyle of LCD Soundsystem on co-production – a serendipitous link-up given the profound effect a 2017 LCD set at Primavera had on the two-piece’s outlook. New single ‘Thinking Of You’ was in fact specifically inspired by the performance, and was the first track they worked on together. ‘Thinking Of You’ arrives with a visual, which is similarly shaped by their recourse to personal collage: “The visual side of White Flowers is just as important to us as the music and helps us to fully express and realise ideas. For the Thinking Of You video, we pieced together footage from our own archive, spanning nearly a decade, mixed with hand drawn animations. Delving into our own past video footage provided a catharsis that tied in with the process of assembling the record, a process that involved gradually piecing together and building on fragments of ideas we’ve amassed over a long period.” In another sliding-doors moment, as the grind of immediate post-pandemic touring was close to taking a crippling toll, the offer to join one of their favourite bands Beach House on tour came in – a sign to persevere. This perseverance has been rewarded with what feels like their most complete work yet – a holistic structure built from ephemeral foundations, couching themes of isolation, dissociation and identity in trance indebted rapture. Sad euphoria, indeed.
