The Soft Pink Truth is Drew Daniel, also of Matmos with his husband M.C. Schmidt. Based in Baltimore where he is a professor in the Department of English at Johns Hopkins University, Daniel is acclaimed for his ability to merge highly conceptual material with music rich in feeling. The Soft Pink Truth albums share little stylistically except for an affinity for exquisite arrangements and lush compositions that transform searching questions into full body music. On Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?, The Soft Pink Truth grafts chamber music and electronic music into a beguiling new hybrid, drafting an international cast of collaborators from Turkey, Sweden, Italy, Spain and the United States. On the album, Daniel radically rethinks his approach to crafting music, and the results evoke mid-20th century film soundtracks, diverse traditions of minimalism, and the formal language of pop.

In answering the central question “Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?”, Daniel probes the limitations of pleasure in the midst of our dystopian contemporary landscape. What kind of solace can music offer in the face of the rising tides of fascism, authoritarianism, cruelty and genocide? No compositions could be adequate without direct anti-fascist action, but in defiance of an increasingly brutal world, this suite embraces the values of intimacy, community and unapologetic beauty as idealized counterpoints to a damaged, ugly present. Drawing upon poetry, myth, and compositional traditions while exploring throughlines between the electronic dancefloor and the classical conservatory, this album hopes to provide a makeshift queer refuge in the face of surrounding collapse. Unabashedly emotional and vulnerable despite its lavish colors, it marks a surprisingly delicate metamorphosis from a restless musical deviant.

The album’s vibrant sound is built from a plethora of acoustic and electronic instruments provided by a rogue’s gallery of collaborators. String arrangements by Istanbul-based artist and player Ulas Kurugullu reimagine Daniels’ MIDI layouts as strong melodic lines that intertwine and disintegrate into a digital haze. Harpists Neleta Ortiz and Cecilia Cuccolini range from gentle plucks to huge cascades of glissando sweeps. Piano runs from Koye Berry and M.C. Schmidt square off against the muscular strings played by Kurugullu, as well as the Ebu String Quartet from the Peabody Institute. Zach Rowden of celebrated noise duo Tongue Depressor provides grinding double bass drones and woodwinds played by Brandon Wilkins and Evelyn Frances speckle pieces like “Underneath (II)”. Esteemed guitarist Bill Orcutt offers one of his most delicate performances committed to record on the pastoral penultimate track “Orchard” as clouds of oboes, piano and strings twinkle overhead. Combining dynamic performances with agile formal construction, Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? showcases the depth of Daniel’s acumen as a composer and arranger.

Wedding emotional expression with canny references to the inherited history of recorded music, the music offers personalized memories of a collectively shared pop cultural past. Daniel’s stepfather ran the arthouse movie theater The Vogue in Louisville, KY, and Daniel saw many classic films while hanging around the family business. The chimes, organ and pizzicato strings on “Phrygian Ganymede” recall Bernard Herrmann’s scores for classic Alfred Hitchcock films, while galloping marimbas lend a sense of screwball comedy on “L’Esprit de L’Escalier.” Taken together, the songs turn upon a central concern with time as both threat and resource: immediate, unrecoverable, yet elastic. As Daniel explains: “On the surface of our own conscious experience, we live a constantly changing busy life, but underneath us there is a longer, slower process that is playing itself out, cell by cell, structure by structure: birth, growth, life, aging, death. I wanted music for that overlay.”

Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? is a singular album that speaks to the prowess of Drew Daniel as a composer and producer, deftly interlacing pop structure and classical timbre while interlacing subtle electronic sound design with gorgeous acoustics. Long ago in “Notes on Camp,” Susan Sontag said that “camp is a tender feeling.” Embracing a spirit of drama and romanticism that blurs the boundaries between unconscious desire and everyday reality, Daniel has created an untimely sound world of lavish fantasy that acts as a balm and counterpoint to the communal pains of modern life.