Trace Polly

Tracee Polly is a singer, songwriter, producer, and instrumentalist whose work operates as self-technology, intricately bound to her bodily, gendered experience. Based in Cologne, Trace Polly shapes her transgressive pop universe with guitars, cutting-edge, multifaceted production, and vocals that shift fluidly between ethereal softness and confrontational rawness. Her music and art create an intimacy marked by emotional honesty, transmuting rage, grief, and love into a unique vision of dream-pop. Her 2023 debut album, FUCKING AND DREAMING, revealed Trace Polly's radical commitment to exploding preconceptions of how transness feels. With her sophomore album, T4TEARS (2025), she takes a bold leap, marking a radical shift not only in content but also in sound. While still rooted in her signature dream-pop aesthetic, this album moves into more intimate and personal territory, delving deeper into trans childhood, grief, and healing. The sound of the album is delicate, marked by sprawling instrumental arrangements and organic textures. Working with just her computer, voice, guitar, and effects, Trace Polly's process is as informed by poetry and improvisation as it is by collaboration, constantly weaving new voices and influences into her ever-evolving sound. She seeks to dissolve deliriously inside the music, liberated by the visceral scream of bodily, communal, and humanistic hope.