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PREMIERE – Private Agenda – Dawn (Ian Blevins Remix) (NuNorthern Soul)

Since making their debut on Mark Barrott’s acclaimed International Feel label back in 2015, Private Agenda has delivered a handful of releases suitable for sunset and sunrise. Now, the Berlin-based duo has gone one further with a conceptual single for NuNorthern Soul .

Work on Dusk & Dawn began when the sun began to slip below the horizon, with the duo sat at a Grand Piano. By the time the first rays of morning sunshine began to filter through their studio windows, Private Agenda had written and recorded two nocturnes inspired via this particular magic and mystique of the night. In the process, the pair had produced arguably their most atmospheric songs to date.

As they flung their studio windows wide open and watch the sun slowly rise above the horizon on “Dawn”. With dreamy, Tangerine Dream style synthesizer arpeggios and yawning piano flourishes matching the gentle dancing of light on their studio windows, the pair unfurls a beautiful song that sits somewhere between loved-up ambient and the more Balearic works of ‘80s pop outfits Simple Minds and Talk Talk.

Such an inspired track deserves similarly stunning remixes. Thankfully, all three chosen remixers Faze Action, Ron Basejam and Ian Blevins deliver in spades. .

The latter rounds off the EP, Ian Blevins the ESP Institute and Not An Animal regular weighs in with a typically sumptuous and evocative take on the duo’s sunrise tribute. Making full use of Private Agenda’s soothing chords, pianos and vintage synth riffs, he conjures up a hazy and hypnotic rework rich in head-nodding, toe-tapping drum machine beats, mazy electronics and effects-laden vocal snippets.