Gloria de Oliveira & Dean Hurley - Oceans of Time (Sacred Bones)

Gloria de Oliveira and Dean Hurley’s Oceans of Time is Lana Del Rey reimagined as a Lynchian dream pop masterclass

That time when David Lynch interrupted one of his weather reports to inform us that he had been thinking about Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games” might just be the key to unlocking Oceans of Time. Dean Hurley has worked with Lynch on various sound design and production projects over a span of years and mediums, and therefore isn’t merely Lynchian but is the real damn thing. His output has been consistently strange and beautiful – granted, often more strange than beautiful. This collaboration flips that, making things wild at heart without having to keep it weird on top. German-Brazilian artist Gloria de Oliveira’s wearied, questions-in-a-world-of-noir vocals subtly recall those of Del Rey, albeit aesthetically closer to This Mortal Coil. She navigates Hurley to the edges beyond the shadows.

Slow-motion gothic pop is the order of the night on Oceans of Time. Hurley’s signature otherworldly tones and unsettling drones do emerge, but periodically, like smoke in the corners of a room. Rather than being the signs of a fire that would overwhelm de Oliveira’s voice, they add very particular atmospheres. The sound of wind – moving through the trees and swaying suspended traffic lights on a lonely highway? – is heard on “Im Nebel” as de Oliveira delivers spoken declarations in German, lending an industrial edge to proceedings, at least by association. Dramatic strings are employed with abstract restraint instead of assuming cinematic shape, hinting at a narrative path rather than following one.

“Ashore of the Cosmic Sea” is Talk Talk meets Q. Lazzarus for dedicated inner space travellers, whereas “Eyes Within” takes Chris Isaak back to the beach for a slice of stripped-down rockabilly reimagined as a Balearic beat ballad. Fuzzed up, gauzy guitars and searching vocals on “All Flowers in Time” make for a marvellous imagination generator and closer “Further than the Stars” welcomes lost souls falling through space, slowly going faster.

The dream (pop) team of de Oliveira and Hurley is probably the closest thing we’ll get to a Lynch / Del Rey collaboration, but considering how intoxicating Oceans of Time is, that’s more than enough. Any dreamier and we’d never wake up.

Dean Hurley Bandcamp

Gloria de Oliveira Bandcamp