Pino Palladino & Blake Mills – That Wasn’t A Dream

1. Contour – 03:17 (Pino Palladino, Blake Mills, Chris Weisman)
2. I Laugh In The Mouth Of The Lion – 02:35 (Pino Palladino, Blake Mills)
3. Somnambulista – 03:50 (Pino Palladino, Blake Mills)
4. Taka – 04:19 (Pino Palladino, Blake Mills)
5. What Is Wrong With You? – 04:20 (Pino Palladino, Blake Mills)
6. Heat Sink – 13:45 (Pino Palladino, Blake Mills)
7. That Was A Dream – 05:29 (Pino Palladino, Blake Mills)

Bassist Pino Palladino hat als gefragter Studiomusiker mit vielen Giganten gespielt, darunter Elton John, Tears for Fears, David Gilmour, D’Angelo und Adele. Sein Jazz-Talent spielte er mit Manu Katché, Dominic Miller u.a. aus. 2021 erschien auf Impulse! Records „Notes with Attachments“, seine erste gemeinsame Produktion mit dem Gitarristen und Multiinstrumentalisten Blake Mills. Die Mischung aus Jazz, minimalistischem Funk, Indie Rock und subtilen Melodien kam bei Hörern und Kritikern an und wurde sogar mit Joni Mitchell’s “Hejira” und Miles Davis’ “Bitches Brew” verglichen. Jetzt kehren Palladino und Mills mit ihrem zweiten gemeinsamen Album zurück, das ihren ganz eigenen Sound fortführt und weiterentwickelt.

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11. 11.10.2025 LEIPZIG UTT CONNEWITZ / LEIPZIG JAZZ FESTIVAL

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That Wasn’t A Dream is a statement of intent from two singular musicians. The Grammy-winning Pino Palladino has reshaped what bass can be in popular music, performing with everyone from D’Angelo to Nine Inch Nails, from Erykah Badu to John Mayer. Meanwhile, Grammy-winner and two-time Producer of the Year-nominee Blake Mills is one of today’s most sought-after producers and multi-instrumentalists, known for his work with Alabama Shakes, Bob Dylan, Fiona Apple, and Perfume Genius as well as his own acclaimed solo albums.

Pitchfork described the duo’s 2021 debut Notes With Attachments as “the sound of consummate collaborators imagining a world where there’s no such thing as a lead performer.” On That Wasn’t A Dream, they further dissolve any sense of hierarchy, imbuing their spontaneous compositions with an organic, precisely balanced inner logic. It’s quietly audacious, a radical application of their ever-evolving musical chemistry.

To accompany the album announcement, they’ve shared the video for lead single “Taka,” a progression of instrumental athletics and generous melodic gestures that builds towards an almost kaleidoscopic funk.

That Wasn’t a Dream was recorded over a two-month period in the legendary Studio A at Sound City Studios, the room Mills has helmed since 2018. These sessions pulled in collaborators old and new, most notably Sam Gendel, who performed throughout Notes With Attachments and contributed finishing touches for nearly every track on That Wasn’t a Dream. Though ultimately, this record feels like a deepening of the core relationship between Palladino and Mills.

If Notes With Attachments was about creating cohesion out of layered spontaneity, That Wasn’t a Dream finds coherence through restraint. As Palladino explains, some of the compositions grew from harmonically dense ideas that were later reduced to the barest essentials. „It came to light, really, that if we could make something work with the least possible ingredients, space could become the centerpiece,“ says Palladino.

It was also a chance to innovate; one early Palladino sketch, „What Is Wrong With You?,“ was Mills’s first opportunity to experiment with the prototype of a new instrument, the fretless baritone sustainer guitar, which Mills helped luthier Duncan Price to develop in 2021, and has since been used on numerous productions, as well as live performances with Joni Mitchell.

„The fretless sustainer can sound almost like a cross between a woodwind, brass, and bowed string instrument,” says Mills. “It’s a tough instrument to control or define.” That undefinable sound, along with a playful approach to minimalism, set the tone for the rest of the album’s writing and recording sessions that would take place almost three years later.

As a result, the music on That Wasn’t A Dream goes from being deceptively intimate to beautifully disordered. It’s music that rewards close listening: subversive but naturalistic, harnessing chaos with intention, unveiling new forms of beauty all along the way.

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