Last month, a peculiar email landed in the SHOOK mailbox with the following teaser:

Imagine if The Cramps had been kidnapped by choral monks and taken hostage deep in the forests of the Ardeche and ordered to pray to God and a Roland 808 drum machine. It’s implausible, admittedly, but with that in mind we’d ask you to kindly close your eyes, place the headphones on your head and soak in the atmospheric world of Anders Trentemøller.

The latest edition of the long running mix series Late Night Tales has Trentemølle at the controls, weaving together selections from Velvet Underground, Mazzy Star and This Mortal Coil amidst the dark beauty of Low’s tremulous ‘Amazing Grace’, the atmospheric ‘Noise On The Line’, and a cover, in the Late Night Tales tradition, of Chris Isaacs’ ‘Blue Hotel’, sung by Marie Fisker and Steen Jørgensen.

We called up Anders to find out more.

I understand you’re in the US at the moment?
Yes we’ve finished our nine-day US tour and I’ve been taking some vacation. It has been totally fantastic – all of our gigs have sold out. The feedback has been overwhelming. We’re very happy and grateful. I leaving tomorrow to play at festival in Spain.

How long have you been working on the Late Night Tales album?
I was asked about six months to do the mix. It has been a really interesting and fun compilation to work on, because I had the possibility to pick out some of my favourite artists that have inspired me over the years. Everything I’ve picked is something that I would play on my home stereo. It became a big challenge to make those tracks fit and mix together. And there were some tracks that were not possible to clear for the mix.

There’s a down-tempo feel to the mix as a whole, I wanted it to be dark and melancholic like my own music often is. A lot of the music I listen to at home has a dark vibe to it so it turned out to be a little spooky! Some of the tracks have added echo or delay as they mix into other tracks. And some of the tracks I picked end abruptly so I took the beginning of the track and reversed it with delay and reverb to make it mix well with the next track. Those small additions added something to the mix.

Why are Mazzy Star such an influence?
Hope Sandoval has a such a unique, moving voice. She has a sexy, mystical voice and whenever I hear a track from her – even though the music came out around twelve years ago now – it still sounds fresh and touches me still. It’s hard to point out what it is specifically. But it really does something for me.

And how did you decide what cover to do?
A Chris Issac cover was something I’ve always wanted to do. ‘Blue Hotel’ and ‘Wicked Game’ are his best tracks I think. ‘Blue Hotel’ is quite a simple song with a dreamy feel to it. The original track is more uptempo and a bit more country. I wanted to take it in another direction, so I made my version downtempo and a bit more earthy. It’s really hard to compare with Issac’s beautiful version because his voice is so unique! And that is why I wanted to use two of our best Danish singers – Marie Fisker and Steen Jørgensen. It was very important to me to make a version that was quite different to the original.

What software did you use to sequence the mix?
It was all done in Ableton Live. Most of it was done while I was touring. The track list was done when I was in Australia and then later tweaked in my studio back at home in Copenhagen.

I took a break from touring in 2009 and 2010 when I was working on my new artist album. It’s important for me to have the space and quiet to compose new music and find inspiration. Being on the road I love it but it doesn’t give that much time to be inspired and sit down and make music. That is something that comes in my home studio in Copenhagen.

I’m also working on some other projects right now – I’ve just finished the production for a new Danish girl group called Darkness Falls. We’re making this fantastic lo-fi pop music. I loved their songs. I’ve also just done a remix swap with UNKLE.

Tell me about the visual element that is always an important part of your live show.
On our first tour, visuals were a big part of the show. And this time we wanted to do something physical on stage, so we built this kind of three dimensional set. It’s hard to explain but we wanted to change the space on stage in every venue we went to. We built up different layers on the stage and with our lighting effects we gave another visual experience. It’s always important to have this part incorporated in the show. That can be pure visuals or building up a stage design.

What are your plans for the rest of the summer?
We are playing fifteen festivals and then I’ll start working on my next album. Hopefully we’ll go back and tour the States in October because these gigs have gone so well.

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Late Night Tales with Trentemøller is out now.