In a world brimming with superficiality and fleeting trends, Peter Bradley, known artistically as Brandes, delivers a debut album that feels timeless—The Distance Between Dreams. With a history steeped in politics and literature, Bradley’s transition to music is no mere novelty. This album is not simply an exploration of sound; it’s a reclaiming of personal and collective history, a search for meaning, and a reflection on the fragility of human connections. In every chord and every word, The Distance Between Dreams, is both deeply personal and universally resonant, carrying the weight of a lifetime of stories that demand to be told.
The name Brandes is not a whimsical artistic choice. It is a profound reclamation of identity. For Bradley, it’s a tribute to his Jewish heritage, a name torn away during the Holocaust and now returned through music. This historical significance runs through the album like an undercurrent, infusing every track with the solemnity of memory and the determination to remember what was lost. It is a name that carries not only the echoes of tragedy but also the promise of resilience and reclamation. Through Brandes, Bradley is not just making music; he is honouring a past that demands to be acknowledged.
The Distance Between Dreams, is an eclectic tapestry of sounds. Drawing from folk, indie rock, and world music, the album never settles into one single genre. Instead, it effortlessly weaves these influences together into a sound that feels both fresh and timeless. There is a delicacy to the instrumentation—sparse, haunting melodies—and yet, there is also a fierce intensity in the way the tracks unfold. It’s a blend of quiet introspection and bold declarations. It’s the kind of album that invites you to sit in silence with it, letting its emotional weight settle in your bones.
The opening track, “Please Don’t Call”, sets the tone for what’s to come. A song about the painful end of an affair, it cuts right to the heart of love’s disintegration. With minimal instrumentation—a delicate piano, the soft hum of strings—the track allows Brandes’s voice to be the centerpiece. There is a rawness to his delivery, an honesty that feels almost too intimate, yet it’s this emotional vulnerability that makes the song impossible to forget. The lyrical simplicity—”Please don’t call, don’t pick up the phone”—strikes at the heart of the anguish, amplified by the aching strings that pull the song along.
From “Please Don’t Call”, the album takes us deeper into Brandes’s world. “Like A Dagger” is a more autobiographical piece, a reflection on the painful dissolution of a relationship. The juxtaposition of acoustic and electric guitars mirrors the push and pull of the emotions conveyed. This is a song about the emotional dagger and the unsettling feeling of realizing that love—once all-consuming—has slipped away. Again, Brandes’s lyrics do not shy away from this discomfort. He doesn’t sugarcoat the pain. Instead, he explores it with a level of candour that’s rare in modern music.
But, The Distance Between Dreams, is not just a meditation on personal loss. It is, in many ways, a political statement. Tracks like “From The Higher Ground” veer into the realm of protest music, though not in the traditional sense. This is not a track aimed at shouting down the system; rather, it’s an introspective reflection on the world’s fractured state. With its indie-rock flair, echoing the likes of Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen, the song’s poignant refrain—“From the higher ground, we’re just looking down”—reflects the existential quandary of how we, as individuals, relate to a world in crisis. The song calls for introspection, action, and, ultimately, hope.
There is one track on, The Distance Between Dreams, that stands apart, both musically and thematically. “Song for Mordecai” is a sweeping, cinematic piece that pulls from George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda. It is a song imbued with a deep sense of cultural and historical weight, reflecting on Jewish identity and history in a way few modern artists dare to. With its fusion of Middle Eastern instruments like the oud, nafiri, and doumbek, it creates a rich, textured soundscape that feels as ancient as it does modern. It’s a song about resilience, about remembering those who came before, and about confronting the pain of the past without losing sight of the hope for the future.
The song’s narrative, drawn from Eliot’s novel, focuses on the character of Mordecai, a dying Jewish visionary, and his conversations with Daniel, a young aristocrat seeking spiritual awakening. Through this dialogue, Brandes explores themes of freedom, spiritual discovery, and the shared struggle for justice. The track’s delicate arrangement and haunting melody underscore the gravity of these themes, making it one of the most compelling moments on the album.
As Brandes, Peter Bradley has crafted an album that is more than just music—it’s a journey of reclamation, exploration, and transformation. The Distance Between Dreams, feels both intensely personal and undeniably universal. It’s an album about love and loss, about confronting the past in order to move forward. It’s a meditation on identity, both personal and collective, and it resonates on a deeply emotional level.
Brandes has never been one to shy away from difficult subjects, and on, The Distance Between Dreams, he tackles them with a rawness and honesty that is rare in modern music. This is not a record you listen to casually—it demands your full attention. It invites you to sit with it, to feel its weight, and to reflect on the stories that have shaped your own life.
With, The Distance Between Dreams, Brandes has introduced a sound that feels at once familiar and entirely new. His journey from politics and literature to music has resulted in an album that captures the essence of what it means to be human: to struggle, to love, to remember, and ultimately, to find meaning in a world that often feels fragmented.
If you’ve ever grappled with the complexities of the human experience—or simply appreciate an album that challenges you to think deeply—The Distance Between Dreams, is a must-listen. It’s an album that will stay with you long after the final track fades away, and one that proves Brandes is an artist worth watching in the years to come.
