Croatian Amor is the project of Loke Rahbek, a Danish artist who grew up in Copenhagen, listening to his father’s record collection: Brian Eno, Massive Attack, David Bowie, and Talking Heads. For years, he made synth pop as Lust For Youth and ear-bleeding noise as part of Damien Dubrovnik with Christian Stadsgaard. It’s with Stadsgaard that Rahbek heads up Posh Isolation, an incubator-cum-label for many artists from across Scandinavian ambient, experimental, and techno music, including Varg²™, whom he has collaborated with on several albums.

As Croatian Amor, a project for his more introspective leanings, Rahbek has released all his albums there, beginning with 2013’s The World (a reissue) right through to last month’s A Part of You in Everything, which features 12 tracks of shadowy, dreamy dub and synth pop. A companion to Remember Rainbow Bridge, which he released in 2022, the album also serves as a tribute to his younger brother who died at birth before they’d had a chance to meet. “I think it’s music which is best listened to at night out under the stars,” Rahbek said of the album. For this week’s XLR8R podcast, Rahbek has recorded a mix from the road, featuring a bunch of unreleased tracks from his collection. Like all of his work, it’s both eerily beautiful and unsettling; expect a haunting mix of otherworldly ambience.

01. What have you been up to recently?
I’ve been in Sydney the last week. We did a showcase at the Opera House playing with some of my favorite Australian bands and it was really a wonderful experience. Yesterday we went to the Blue mountains.

02. Where and when did you record this mix?
I recorded it sitting on a bed in an Airbnb flat in Sydney this morning.

03. What can the listener expect?
Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.

04. What’s next on your horizon?
I go to Melbourne on Thursday.

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Untitled “Unreleased” (Posh Isolation)
02. Croatian Amor “Vigil” (Posh Isolation)
03. Untitled “Unreleased” (Posh Isolation)
04. Untitled “Unreleased” (Posh Isolation)
05. Vanessa Amara “25-04-2016” (Posh Isolation)
06. Der Mohn “Unreleased” (Posh Isolation)
07. Franciska og Emilie “Tryggest Alene” (Posh Isolation)
08. Soho Rezanejad “Northstar” (Janis) (Posh Isolation)
09. Croatian Amor & Vanessa Amara “Still Possible” (Posh Isolation)
10. Sophus Dræby “Choir” (Posh Isolation)
11. Sakamoto & Fennesz “Unreleased” (Touch)
12. Croatian Amor & Perko “Tulip Coupon” (Posh Isolation)
13. Croatian Amor & Scandinavian Star “Spring Snow” (Posh Isolation)
14. Vanessa Amara “I like it, I do” (Posh Isolation)