StʌrunneR

Clarity begins with a ticking clock that’s joined by a gentle melody and female vocalist LiZ. Midway through the track, it explodes into a house-inflected, pulsating heater that segues into the staccato, Baltimore club music-influenced “Shave It Up.” OneRepublic vocalist Ryan Tedder injects some falsetto-brushed soul into the synth-dappled “Lost at Sea,” while “Fall Into the Sky” welcomes Ellie Goulding into the fold for a hyperactive workout.

天才制作人 Zedd 对电子乐的兴趣源于法国电音乐队 Justice。他自 2010 年开始制作电音，两年后发布首张专辑《Clarity》。Zedd 将从小受到的古典乐熏陶、Justice 在混音制作上带来的启发，以及对电子混音的尝试和探索融于其中，顺势打入主流乐坛。Zedd 向来擅长为音乐增添奇异色彩，就像在歌曲《Follow You Down》中，Bright Lights 用她略带沙哑的嗓音缓缓吟唱，与合成器的欢快节拍相结合而出的迷幻效应；与英国歌手 Foxes 合作的同名单曲《Clarity》更荣获第 56 届格莱美最佳舞曲，以疑问句展现出恋人面对注定失败的关系时的义无反顾；另一首与 Matthew Koma 合作的单曲《Spectrum》不仅风靡欧美，还通过韩国 SM 娱乐旗下组合的翻唱流行亚洲。其实早在专辑发行前几年，这位年轻的制作人便已为 The Black Eyed Peas、Lady Gaga 等多位大咖的歌曲进行混音制作，出众的音乐才华让当时仅 20 岁出头的 Zedd 迅速成为电音领域的后起之秀。

• Deluxe Edition

This German EDM producer built a buzz on the strength of his DJ skills and high-energy remixes—for everyone from Lady Gaga and The Black Eyed Peas to Skrillex and Swedish House Mafia. ZEDD’s debut album, Clarity, begins with a ticking clock that’s joined by a gentle melody and female vocalist LiZ—but don’t let the tranquil opening of “Hourglass” fool you. Midway through the track, it explodes into a house-inflected, pulsating heater that segues into the staccato, Baltimore club music-influenced “Shave It Up.” OneRepublic vocalist Ryan Tedder injects some falsetto-brushed soul into the synth-dappled “Lost at Sea,” while “Fall Into the Sky” welcomes Ellie Goulding into the fold for a hyperactive workout. Just when you’ve been stirred up, ZEDD promises to “Follow You Down” with a shimmering appearance by Bright Lights. The frenetic collection comes full circle as the final, aptly titled tune “Epos” concludes with a ticking clock winding down.

每当音乐人向外界表示新专辑的制作正在进行中，其潜台词往往就是距离完成还要花上一两年的时间，但对于上一张专辑发行于 2015 年的 Zedd 来说，这间隔还要长得多。“耗时太久肯定不是什么好事。”他向 Apple Music 坦承了这张《Telos》距离前作《True Colors》已有九年之遥的事实。“这主要还是取决于你究竟想要做出什么样的作品，必须在某个时间节点决定这张专辑的主题。2020 年左右，我开始着手准备制作专辑，但那时候我其实并不知道究竟要做些什么，只是觉得：’好吧，现在疫情肆虐，我什么时候才能坐下来好好做音乐呢？’我等了很久都没等来灵光一闪的时刻，只能在没有想法和脉络的情况下，漫无目的地尝试做些什么。”

虽然那一阶段的创作最终只保留下一首歌，但也正是这首歌，帮助 Zedd 以其为基础塑造整张《Telos》的面貌（“Telos”语出古希腊哲学家亚里士多德的理论，意为“终点”或“完成目标”）。围绕着 Jeff Buckley 1994 年发行的同名单曲中的一段人声音轨，Zedd 创作出这首《Dream Brother》。“这首歌传达的情绪正是我想要的。”Zedd 表示，“Buckley 的《Dream Brother》一直是我重要的灵感来源，我认为这首歌可以在不同的语境下呈现不同的色彩，我想我可以把它转变成一首精彩的舞曲化的歌曲。”

“舞曲化”这个概念，对理解《Telos》和 Zedd 此次积淀许久的创作理念来说十分关键。“当我下定决心这张专辑只为我自己而作时，一切就都水到渠成了。”他说，“一旦我投入眼前的创作，之前那种‘我怎么才能让在舞曲里做出 7/8 拍节奏’的想法就都不重要了，因为这些歌曲不再是 100% 的舞曲音乐了。我只为了我自己做这张专辑——不是乐迷，不是厂牌，不是任何其他人。”

和节奏感突出的《True Colors》不同，《Telos》中的鼓点更多地用于营造情绪色彩，控制音色和强弱变化，节奏时而闪现时而淡出。在开场曲《Out of Time》中，合成器与钢琴的旋律连复段，Bea Miller 的人声不间断地与鼓的节奏交换着位置；变幻的鼓点则为带有南亚音乐风味的《Shanti》增添强劲的节奏元素。与爱尔兰裔美国三人乐队 the olllam 合作的 7/8 拍歌曲《Sona》，展现出了 Zedd 相比以往更大的创作野心，也让《Telos》成为一张流畅连贯的作品。

When artists say they’re taking their time to make a new album, they usually give it a year or two. For Zedd, whose last full-length was released in 2015, things took a bit longer. “It can definitely be a disadvantage to take too much time,” the producer tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe of the nine-year gap between True Colors and Telos, his third LP. “But it really depends on what you’re trying to do. At some point I had to decide what this album was about. In 2020 or so, I started working on an album, but I had no idea of what I was actually doing. It was like, ‘Well, there’s a pandemic. When am I going to get another chance to sit down and make music?’ But I didn’t have real genuine inspiration, and I was aimlessly trying to make music without any context or real reason.”

Only one track remained from those sessions, but it was enough to give shape to what would eventually become Telos (that’s Aristotelian for the end or the completion of a goal). “Dream Brother,” which centers around late singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley’s vocal stems from his 1994 track of the same name, “was the one song that to me was giving me that emotion that I wanted,” Zedd says. “[Buckley’s] ‘Dream Brother’ has always been inspirational to me. I’ve always thought that there’s a side of it that could live in a different context. I just thought I could make this into an incredible respectful dance-ish song.”

“Dance-ish” is pretty key to understanding Telos, and Zedd’s entire approach to music after nearly a decade between albums. “There was this moment where I had to decide that this is an album for me,” he says. “That put everything in place. All the songs that I had started, where I was like, ‘How am I going to make [a] 7/8 [time signature] work in dance music?’ Well, it doesn’t matter. It’s no longer dance music. I’m making this for myself—not for the fans, not for the label, not for anybody. It’s just for me.”

Unlike the beat-driven True Colors, here the drums are used for color, tone, and dynamics, flickering in for a few bars and fading out, trading places with synth, piano riffs, and Bea Miller’s vocals on the opening “Out of Time” and adding a punchy rhythmic component to the vaguely South Asian “Shanti.” Tracks such as “Sona,” his 7/8-time collaboration with Irish American trio the olllam, showcase an even greater commitment to writing songs, and make Telos a cohesive whole that asks its listeners to take their time, just like he did making it.

“I can make a good song,” Zedd admits, “but 10 of them aren’t going to make a good album. I grew up with these albums that were more than just 10 good songs. They still inspire me, and they made me the musician I am today. I wanted to create something that was meaningful. I wanted to make an album that in 30 years, I will meet a kid who’s like, ‘I heard this album and I wanted to get into music.’”