Since 2013, Douglas Dare has been blending classical, chamber pop, folk and avant-garde to dazzling effect and with a remarkable voice.

His angelic third album Milkteeth from February 2020 was a deeply personal tribute to longing and acceptance. Now Dare is ready with his fourth album, Omni, out in May, which is a bold rebirth.

Dare has moved away from acoustic instruments, especially the piano he grew up with, and replaced them with synths and drum machines. If there was an innocence to Milkteeth, where Douglas revisits his childhood, Omni sounds like an unburdening.

The album's heady trance and obsidian industrial undercurrents are inspired by the thumping dancefloors he's frequented over the years, from Adonis in London to Berghain in Berlin. "Those clubs are a really important part of becoming who I am now," he says. "I've always been drawn to rave music. It's a part of me that most people don't know yet."

Omni is imbued with the kind of deft storytelling, sweeping strings, elegant contrasts and adventurous atmosphere that mark Douglas as a crucial and unique voice. It's not often you hear a strutting electro banger that could be straight out of 90s Soho, with vocal loops inspired by American experimentalist Meredith Monk.