Resavoir - Themes for Dreams Vinyl LP

If there’s one constant with Resavoir, the sprawling and adventurous project from Chicago-based producer, trumpeter, and composer Will Miller, it’s perpetual evolution. In the years since Miller started releasing music under the moniker, he’s released two acclaimed self-titled LPs that masterfully merged knotty electronics with pastoral natural textures, a serene and verdant 2025 LP called Horizon co-billed with guitarist Matt Gold, and collaborated with acts as disparate as Justin Bieber, SZA, and Whitney. Live, it can morph from a 17-piece orchestra to a solo performance, all while maintaining Miller’s keen sense for experimentation and crafting transcendent arrangements.

Themes For Dreams, the latest full-length from Resavoir, is another left turn that finds Miller at his most meditative, patient, and intentional. Across 13 gorgeous and strikingly cohesive tracks, it eschews drums for immersive melodies that float, dissipate, and linger. It’s an album meant for rest, with arrangements so welcomely enveloping they feel like a warm blanket. While it’s Miller’s sparsest record yet, it still keeps his wildly collaborative ethos, enlisting guests like Marta Sofia Honer, Jeremiah Chiu, Macie Stewart, Matt Gold, William Corduroy, Molly Rife, and others. Here, he draws inspiration from ‘80s ambient masterworks like Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Green and Surround, along with Hans-Joachim Roedelius' Wenn Der Südwind Weht. The classical music he loved in his youth also contributed a spark: CDs he owned by Glenn Gould and Yo-Yo Ma. By drawing from this and distilling his compositions to their simplest and sturdiest parts, Miller crafted his most diaristic and personal effort to date.

Where much of Resavoir’s earlier releases were marked by interlocking grooves and tangible propulsion, Miller’s also thrived in slow, calming, and atmospheric musical tapestries. “The more meditative sounds have always been a mood that I like to explore,” says Miller. “All my records have a few tracks that are ballads or downtempo. I decided to lean into that world for this album.” While slowly tinkering with these songs, Miller imposed creative parameters for himself. He imagined someone who prefers solitude, a nice cup of tea, and a restful night’s sleep, and set out to make an album tailor-made for that character. “Boundaries are really helpful for creative flow,” says Miller. “Having that persona to sink into gave me really clear guidelines for what works and what doesn't work.” Embodying a fictional alter-ego gave Miller the freedom to take risks and get out of his own head.

Though some of the songs on the record date back years in sketch form, they all came together early last year after Miller started playing a Hohner Pianet, an electric keyboard from the ‘70s. “I started putting it on the old recordings I had, and it worked so well that it felt like it was the missing piece of the puzzle,” says Miller. Within just two weeks with the instrument, he wrote four brand new songs and reworked several more older demos to bring them into the same sonic universe. “Dream Theme” captures the warm and playful tones of the pianet, where twinkling arpeggios intersect with viola from Marta Sofia Honer and cello from Molly Rife. The track also boasts Miller playing an EVI, an electronic valve instrument that’s a breath-controlled synthesizer. The result drifts off into something gentle, blissful, and celestial.
“Lilacs” might be the potent example of Miller’s knack for mesmerizing sonic world-building. Looping trumpet leads tangle with pulsating wails from the EVI, while plaintive pianos are coalesced by the pianet. Resavoir is at its best when organic textures clash with the synthesized and programmed sounds. This juxtaposition is remarkably seamless throughout Themes For Dreams. Elsewhere, on “Life Goes On,” Miller interpolates the prelude of Bach’s Cello Suites. “When I was a kid, I played Yo-Yo Ma's The Cello Suites: Inspired By Bach every Sunday morning growing up,” says Miller. “When I was working on this song, I realized the bass line fit perfectly.” On the finished track, the familiar and circuitous motif lines up with swirls of trumpet, violin, and pedal steel. Mining nostalgia’s deep wells allowed Miller to create something totally new and his own.

As Miller puts it, “Themes For Dreams is a sleepytime record.” It’s an album-length relaxant that surprises as much as it soothes. Beyond being an aid for slumber, it’s concerned with entering new phases and shedding past versions of yourself. It’s the first self-released LP of Miller’s oeuvre and one that captures an artist finding tranquility in undiluted songwriting.