- 2026-02-18
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MUSIC
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Danny L Harle Releases Debut Album “Cerulean”
London-based music producer Danny L Harle released his debut album “Cerulean” on February 13, 2026 via XL Recordings.
Back in 2021, he released his first album “Harlecore”, but he considers “Cerulean” as his true debut. Danny L Harle said in a press release, “This is my debut album. It really is the big one.”
The album comprises 13 tracks, featuring guest appearances from PinkPantheress, Caroline Polachek, Clairo, Julia Michaels, kacha, Oklou, MNEK, and Dua Lipa. Produced by Cameron Gower Poole and Danny L Harle.
Danny L Harle said of the album, “My life's work. And like it's, if you look at the list of collaborators, it's kind of like my musical biography. There are some people that I've worked with since the beginning of both mine and their careers, or their solo careers, and some situations. But it's to look back on this album is a very profound thing for me. Because it's encompassing all of the different styles of music that I love and filtering them through my lens. But there's also using all my favorite voices in the world to sing it. So I'm so thankful for all the features who are taking part in the album. It's just an unbelievable thing to sort of produced.”- He continued, “I was realizing sort of who I was through, like these people sort of inspiring different parts of me. It was an extraordinary experience, really. And then they all wanted to get back in the studio with me to write my music with me, which was a tremendous honor, really. Like with some of the features on this, on this album. It's like, quite an extraordinary thing.”
He added, “It was my chance to bring together all of my influences. Like I was classically trained composer. But I was also very drawn to dance music, but a specific kind of sad tradition of dance music, like the sort of 90s dance anthems I really liked, and sort of lot of Italian music as well, Italo dance music and lots of Hardcore Rave music. And took me a while to understand how to bring them all together into one project. And I'm very happy to say I've managed to do it. And I wouldn't even need to say that if you listen to it, you could just hear it.” -
“Starlight” featuring PinkPantheress
“Starlight reaches for a kind of euphoric melancholy – a guiding light in all of my music. It’s shaped by my love of the melancholic songwriting traditions of Europe from composers like Monteverdi and John Dowland, all the way to 90s Eurodance and the uplifting trance of the 2000s - artists like Gigi D’Agostino and Alice Deejay. PinkPantheress is the dream collaborator for this song, her love for ornamental melodies and hypnotic lyricism fit perfectly into my sound world.”
“Azimuth” featuring Caroline Polachek
“'Azimuth' felt like the finalisation of an approach that Caroline and I had been orbiting for some time as a way of putting her voice into my music — I sometimes call it the ‘trance siren.’ You can hear manifestations of it in tracks like ‘Insomnia’ from Pang and ‘On the Beach’ from Death Stranding 2, but this was the first time I managed to translate it into my style of dance music. Azimuth’s melody could only have been sung by Caroline, it is designed around her voice, I couldn’t imagine anyone else singing it or giving a performance like that. It also allowed us to play with scale, space and quietness in a way I’ve never done before. For me, ‘Azimuth’ is a trance ballad, despairing but hopeful, best heard in a in club in a sunken cathedral.”
“Raft In The Sea” featuring Julia Michaels
“I was incredibly honoured to work with Julia – she does not need to do anything for anyone. I initially met her during a Dua Lipa session, and my jaw literally dropped when I heard her sing this idea in the room. I heard something in her voice that I’d not heard in her own music. In a similar way to working with MNEK, I wanted to bring out the rawness and melancholy of her voice. When we were making this song, I asked her, ‘Can you just be sad?’ And she said, ‘For you Danny, I will.’ Her performance is just incredible.”
“Two Hearts” featuring Dua Lipa
“This song, the moment I found out I was going to work with Dua Lipa. I got to my computer and I wrote this instrumental because I thought this is the song I want to hear Dua sing. And then we worked on it on our first ever session. And it went fantastically well. She loved it. I worked on it with Andrew Wyatt as well. And it wasn't the sound for her album, but on the last day of writing her album. She returned to this song just to make sure it was finished, because I think she saw something in this song. And then I think maybe she even knew it might be for my album, eventually it would just go somewhere. And then when she agreed for it to be on my album, it's just very, very special moment.”
“Crystallise My Tears” featuring Oklou & MNEK
“I already knew Oklou from our frequent collaboration. I simply sent the song over to her; she nailed the vocal and sent it back. We didn’t have to share many words as we love very similar things about music. She has a particular ability to convey emotion through tone, and I really feel it in this one, there is a surreal alien beauty to her delivery. I knew Uzo (MNEK) as well; I am honoured to have the king of UK house grace the most house-adjacent track on my album with such a soaring and emotional vocal.”
Photo by Ronan Park - source : Apple Music
