For over a decade, Danny L Harle has lent his vision to some of pop’s most inventive artists – from producing Caroline Polachek’s Pang to working on tracks with Charli xcx, Clairo, Lil Uzi Vert and many more. While he has found it fulfilling to work with so many of his favourite artists, he realised over time there was something missing. “I felt like there was a statement of my own I wasn't making, and realised the clear answer was just to make that statement. All I want to do is make music I want to hear,” he says.

It’s with this attitude that he welcomes Cerulean into his discography, a trance-inflected, electronic-orchestral debut that feels like coming into consciousness on the shore of a desert island, only to then find yourself sweaty and euphoric on a sticky, blue-lit European dancefloor. “I’m really interested in that moment of transcendence when listening to music – when you briefly leave reality,” he explains. “Cerulean is like a threshold between reality and a dream.”

While previous projects like Harlecore leaned heavily into the club space, Cerulean marries Harle’s classical music training with the love for euro-trance and club tracks that underpinned his early career as a pioneer of PC Music and hyperpop. On the project, Harle is joined by some of the most exciting voices in pop today, including PinkPantheress on “Starlight”, Clairo on “Facing Away” and Oklou and MNEK on “Crystallise My Tears”. These collaborations are backed by a trust he has been building for years. “I remember when we finished recording the song with PinkPantheress, I was like ‘OK, I’ll send you the production for approval,' and she was just like, ‘You’ve got this on lock.' When someone trusts your instincts like that, it pushes you to take the track somewhere unexpected.”

Before launching into the world of Cerulean, we meet in a coffee shop–turned–co-working space in south London’s Peckham. Below, he talks to us about the project, his 64-hour-long playlist, and his unwavering love of Skrillex.

Thanks for meeting today! Do you come to South London much?

Danny L Harle: I went to university at Goldsmiths and spent a good amount of time in New Cross. I went back recently to do some teaching as part of an outreach project. It was absolutely crazy walking around Goldsmiths again and seeing venues where I used to DJ. 

I was playing really similar music to what I play now, and back then, it was clearing dance floors in a way that made me feel really disconnected from the world. Now there are whole club nights built around this scene I was part of. It’s bizarre that it’s the same music, but now it’s understood. I think if you want to introduce something new into the world, you just have to be patient with the time it takes for people to understand where it sits in culture.

You’ve talked before about how important club nights are. Why do you think that still matters?

Danny L Harle: You really can’t underestimate the power of having your own club night. It’s such a direct way to make a cultural statement. It’s easy, you load music onto a USB, get your friends together who think similarly about music, and suddenly you’ve created something. It can be fun, but it can also be profound. Sometimes you realise you and your friends actually have something to say musically. That’s really important, really necessary.

You played a club night with Skrillex in London recently.

Danny L Harle: Skrillex has an animal relationship with sound; it’s almost spiritual. His music feels physically closer to you. There’s an emotional delicacy in what I do that I think he’s drawn to. We don’t always intersect successfully, but when we do, it’s special. The remix on this album is the best meeting point we’ve found so far.

Why the name Cerulean?

Danny L Harle: I didn’t want the album to convey a story or a hype concept. It’s about feeling. Cerulean felt abstract enough, but also figurative. To me, it’s a colour of melancholic euphoria. 

I love when music gives you just enough, a word, a symbol, and then lets your mind do the rest. Giving someone half of what’s required can be more powerful than giving a complete story.

This album has been described as the Danny L Harle statement. What made this album different?

Danny L Harle: I’ve made a lot of music in my life and collaborated with a lot of people. I’ve worked with pretty much all of my favourite artists at this point, and that’s been incredibly fulfilling. But over time, I realised there was a statement of mine that wasn’t being made.

I always felt it most strongly when I had to show my music to people through fragments – it was always pieces here and there. I realised the clear answer was just to make the statement. That’s what this album is. 

Collaboration is a big part of this album. Even your children appear on the tracks!

Danny L Harle: I love disembodied voices in dance music, a floating voice with no body. It’s spiritual. It’s a uniquely European melancholic tradition that I feel deeply connected to.

I wanted to use what I love most about each person’s voice. You can hear my children on some of the classical pieces. There’s something really profound about “la” as a musical gesture because it’s one of the first sounds anyone makes. Having that come from my daughter felt like the birth of music.

How did your background in classical music shape the album?

Danny L Harle: It took me a long time to make enough music like this and then whittle it down to what really mattered. I wanted concise statements. The first track is one minute long, but there’s so much packed into it. It’s almost a manifesto for the album.

When I say classical music, I mean pre-1900, Renaissance, Elizabethan music. I wanted to take what I love about that and filter it through the sounds I find most emotional. For me, that’s electronic sound. So rather than people playing classical instruments, it’s shoved into this more fantastical electronic world. 

You’re known for your huge playlist. How important is listening to music in your process?

Danny L Harle: I really like listening. I think it’s very important for artists to make playlists. If you like an artist, it’s good for their listeners to be guided toward their influences, to see what they’re listening to. Whenever I like something, I look up who produced it, what they listen to, and their influences. Nobody makes anything in a vacuum.

It’s the same with music journalists. Labels haven’t realised how important they are, and that they are what makes people understand and contextualise music, especially if music is taking a risk.

In Harlecore, you created a world of your own. How does Cerulean fit into this solar system?

Danny L Harle: Harlecore was like a dream. It was a club built inside my mind, because I never went to UK hardcore gigs. My love for that music created this imaginary space. Cerulean is more like a threshold between reality and a dream. I’m really interested in that moment of transcendence in music, when you leave reality briefly. Oceans, islands, strange landscapes feel like portals to that space.

The threshold is more interesting to me than the dream itself. Some things are only truly experienced in the moment of arrival, not in being there.

Cerulean is out February 13