Exploring new avenues
Chicago house music producer Ron Trent’s new album embraces some longtime interests — and may surprise his fans
Don’t pigeonhole Ron Trent.
The prolific and celebrated Chicago house music producer, best known for the track “Altered States,” returns with his new record, “What Do the Stars Say To You,” out June 24. The album, the culmination of more than 25 years of curiosity, deep learning, spiritual practice and musicianship, is a stark departure from the Trent many fans around the world are used to hearing on the dance floor. But Trent, who said the record embodies many of his long-held interests and loves, said the record is very much a reflection of who he is. “The bottom line, it was timing, it was energy, it’s spirit, which is at the core of everything,” he said.
Although Trent only began working on the album four years ago, the spark developed decades ago. “Believe it or not,” he added. “I had kind of started working in a capacity of wanting to create this aesthetic.” Many years later, Trent released a three-track EP that he deemed an introduction to what was to come. “You know, this more head space, jazz, Balearic slash krautrock type of album,” he said. “Something that’s more for the audiophile, for the aficionado, for the connoisseur, for the people that appreciate listening to music on a higher level and not just music playing in the background or I’m shaking my tail feather.” Those same elements can be heard on “What Do the Stars Say To You.”
Work on the record began in 2018 but ramped up during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was a time of change, both good and bad, for Trent. He described the last two years as a “transitional period” where he lost friends and acquaintances as well as wages and personal relationships. “It’s like a storm of uncertainty as well,” he added. “Being myself, I had to have a goal and look deep within for that strength to pull from.
Used to being on the road, Trent joked that this was the first time he had spent this much time at home since he was a teenager. He used his time to simply practice and perfect. He learned guitar, which he said helped him unlock new musical textures, ones he heard in his own music but was unable to access. The daytime was spent working on “whatever’s going on” and the nighttime was focused on production and learning.
“I’m very much into practice on a regular basis, a practice of spiritual engagement. And to me, being musicians and good DJs, we’re mediums, right? You’re transferring energy. You’re pulling things out of the air and you’re creating, you’re manifesting. So when that’s happening, you have to be present. You’re looking in, but you’re in it. And then you’re also receiving,” he explained. “It’s a sense of being aware of oneself, and that comes from self-study, that comes through practice and repetition.”
That guitar work comes into play on the record. He was influenced, surprisingly enough, by the music and aesthetics of his youth in the early to mid ’80s, especially from shows like “Miami Vice.” “A lot of the music that I collect or paid attention to had guitar in it,” he explained. “So when I started doing my own thing, now I’m touching it in those places. I’m like, ‘OK, I can access this.’ ”
The record is also a throwback to a less tangible quality missing in music, a sound that is complete and with something significant to say. “I also missed the days of — since I’m a record collector too — being able to get albums that you put them on and you let them play,” Trent explained. “All the tracks have their own personality and you feel you’re part of the story or the journey, having an experience delivered, not just a whole big mish-mosh of tunes thrown together.”
New singles from the record invoke such feelings. Collaborators include Ivan Conti and Azymuth, among others. On “Flos Potentia (Sugar, Cotton, Tabacco),” Trent collaborates with Khruangbin, the Texas-based trio also known for their evocative, cinematic records that transport listeners to distinct places and times, from the dirt roads of their home state to the tropics of Thailand. And while
the record may be classified as “ambient,” Trent’s roots in house music are never far. “Flos Potentia” has a smooth, effortless sort of danceable groove
that sounds familiar and emotionally transportive, as if plucked from a more enthralling period of time.
“It’s just music that’s more fulfilling on a lot of
different levels,” he said. “It’s got different layers and something that is timeless.”