Tune In, Drop Out With the Debut Psych Rock Opus From Traum

A cool benefit of writing for Everything Is Noise is hearing a release from a band that you’ve never come across before and which you could have potentially missed otherwise. Bonus points when the release is intent on taking you on a galactic journey and is a psychedelic cinematic experience that you can throw on and chill out with. I mean, who doesn’t like a bit of down time at the end of the day?

Italy’s Traum is one such band that I’m very happy to have come across, and if you are reading this article then you should take your left hand, reach it over your right shoulder and give yourself a big pat on the back. You’ve just discovered Traum too! Congratulations! What have you won? Well, a lovely trip through time and space courtesy of Traum’s psych’d-out, krautrock infused debut album, which we are premiering right below:

Traum is a wonderfully layered and masterful self-titled debut from members of a number of notable Italian bands, including Fuzz Orchestra, Zu, and Lento. Considering the band’s name stands for ‘dream’ in German you can expect mesmerizing synths surrounded by trippy guitar lines and hypnotic drumming. This is deeply cinematic and warming instrumental music with some nice changes in tone on tracks like “Erwachen”, which includes a sax solo that is almost mimicked by the guitars, and the fantastic “Infraterrestrial Dub” which begs the question – why do we not have more Dub mixed in with psychedelic rock?!

Apparently the group spent the better part of a month living together in a farmhouse creating Traum in an attempt to share the ‘same horizon of interpretation of existence and music’, which, if you ask me, is a weird way of saying ‘we smoked some weed and jammed a lot’ but hey-ho, if the result is an exceptional debut record then more power to them. Jokes aside, the time together likely did help in locking them into a groove that developed such a seamless and consistent psych-rock theme that is simultaneously soothing and mind bending.

Traum is out on March 1, 2024 via Subsound Records and you can pre-order it here. You should also keep track of what they are up to through Facebook and Instagram, especially if you are based in Italy as they seem to have some shows in support of the release.