Bleep

Domenique Dumont’s debut LP for the Leaf Label is a collection of gorgeous, plaintive synthesiser music. People On Sunday was originally conceived as a soundtrack to a 1930 silent movie that stands as a crucial piece of German interwar cinema, and the sense of artistic invention which characterised the period is alive and well in Dumont’s compositions. Track titles such as ‘Falling Asleep Under Pine Trees’ and ‘Watching Boats Pass By’ intimate that People On Sunday will be a contemplative affair, and Dumont makes good on these promises with a set of woozy and lush pieces that are equal-parts ambient soundscape, Mort Garson-style synthetic composition and Erik Satie.

A mood of pleasant reverie settles over People On Sunday from its very first number, the delightfully harmonious ‘Arrival’. ‘Arrival’ is a cut where deft synthesiser runs are augmented by some shimmering delay effects, and Dumont rarely breaks the mood created by the track on any of the album’s subsequent numbers. Additional instrumentation is occasionally added into the mix - a little electric guitar, a droning organ on ‘Rituals’ - but these new sounds only ever add to People On Sunday’s wistful air.

A soundtrack to an interwar German silent movie of the same name, People On Sunday finds Domenique Dumont creating dreamy synthesiser music of great beauty.