Sassy 009 is the shape-shifting project from Oslo-based producer, songwriter and vocalist Sunniva Lindgård. After finding early acclaim as a trio with 2017’s Do You Mind EP, Sassy 009 rebooted as a solo vehicle in 2019, later evolving into 2021’s sultry, bass-driven Heart Ego mixtape.
But for Lindgård, the forthcoming Dreamer+ is her true debut: a concept-driven album pieced together from nearly four years of studio effort, and an ambitious attempt to take complete control of her artistry. Steered by freshly distorted vocals and elements of grunge, shoegaze, ‘90s beatronica and gauzy hyperpop, the album is a record of self-discovery and self-effacement at once, studded with guest contributions from Blood Orange, BEA1991 and Yunè Pinku.Dreamer+ is work of fiction at its core, a grim fairytale in which dreams and emotions are processed through a landscape of shapeshifting characters, dark forces and moral responsibilities. Sent on a mission to an abandoned town, Lindgård is her own main character, hurled into a “magical but distorted dream-like world” after a fatal encounter: “Her love for Jakov is absurdly intertwined with his dying; no path could lead her away from it.” The album opens with ‘Butterflies’, a premonition of the rocky road that Dreamer+ is heading down: scorched breakbeats ripped apart by the revving of a motorbike and notes of Air, Yves Tumor and yeule. The pop-forward shoegazing of ‘Edges’ gives way to slinky broken beats on ‘RIP Time and Thoughts’, lambent post-Tirzah R&B on ‘Dreamer’ and ‘90s alt-rock memories on ‘My Candle’. Dev Hynes wraps his instantly identifiable vocals around ‘Tell Me’, a grungy torch song led by Lindgård’s Blood Orange-inspired guitar. Singer-songwriter BEA1991 adds a silky touch to ‘Sleepwalker’s Pendulum’, spookily providing the same harmonies that Lindgård had originally imagined for the song. Irish dance diva Yunè Pinku drops daisy-fresh vocals into ‘Mirrors’, as Lindgård confronts a recurring dream where “you can’t tell where the way out is – you just see different angles of yourself.”‘Ruins of a Lost Memory’ completes the journey by sampling a melancholy melody written by Lindgård’s parents – both classically trained musicians – for a Eurovision Song Contest entry in the ‘90s. Coming at the end of an album about love, loss and mourning, it’s the final piece of the puzzle – “like the credits after the film ends,” she says.With her fantasy story as scaffolding, Lindgård sets herself free as a songwriter, taking inspiration from the organic electronica of Gorillaz, the hazy moods of Boards of Canada, Nirvana’s grunge pop logic and even Lil Wayne’s deftly distorted vocals. Tackling recording from the ground up, she felt herself finally “stepping into that producer role,” imagining herself writing for a live band instead of “being lost in the chaos of 200 layers,” she laughs.
Dreamer+ is an album Lindgård has imagined for years. It has taken on many forms, shapes and sizes. Like those morphing silhouettes you see at nighttime, this distinctive body of work has been an ever-evolving assimilation of disciplines. Its final form is a crystalising constellation of connected works—a bricolage of thought, feeling, and creative desire. Each element offers a familiar entry point into the same underlying themes: identity, memory, and the shifting boundaries of self—where the dreamer is the only witness / only one who remembers.
