Danish experimental artist GB creates an intriguing portrait in his latest dreamy guitar-pop track “Fiction Memory”

The exploratory “Fiction Memory” sputters to life through flashes of textured samples, giving way to a soft interplay of pensive guitar and drums backdropped by far-off echoes of percussion. GB’s melancholy vocal tone comes in to meet this lush instrumental dance, his lyrics both contemplative and dreamy. The layers build, and an intricate web of vocal harmonies and simplistic guitar patterns come together to form a surprisingly intricate portrait. Sandwiched between are bold guitar solos, forming an effortless conversation of deep vibrato tones and GB’s own ruminative vocals.

The track has a refreshingly spontaneous nature to it, adding a playful edge to that foundational haze of melancholy. The unique creation process of the song is to blame. “‘Fiction Memory’ is built on top of a 4 bar loop cut out of a long improvisation between four musicians. You hear it in the drums, bass and guitars,” GB explained. “The songs on my last record, Gusse Music, didn’t change a whole lot. I was into repetition and how I seem to find melancholy in the infinite - stretching these moments and building songs on top of them. This time I felt like working with a sense of progression or change. I wanted to make something fun and hopeful, something ultimately uplifting.”

GB is the alias of Danish artist Gustav Berntsen – a mainstay of the local alternative scene with features in bands like Gusse B, Dirt Bike, and Pardans. Now a prominent figure in London’s underground circles, he just released his debut album Gusse Music under his new name last year.

“Fiction Memory” comes just ahead of the release of double-EP Ressed / Falter, out on May 23. The single was lifted from Ressed, and each side explores a different facet of his creative ambitions: the former of his pop interests, and Falter of his love for the ambient space.