When my editor suggested reviewing a new album that is billed as “dream pop,” I hesitated. Then I noticed the sly wordplay in the album’s title, Kaleidoscape, and decided it was probably worth a listen.

Emily Mikesell is the mastermind behind Smiloh. She is a fast-rising trumpeter and vocalist who is a member of Trumpet Mafia and has played with a wide range of local players since moving to town.

Though I’m not sure what dream pop really means, the record features a lot of instruments not usually found in traditional pop music. The players are also all up-and-coming names in a rapidly developing scene of local musicians that mostly ignores genre boundaries.

There are strings and horns, along with a variety of keyboards, as well as live and programmed drums with the requisite bass and guitar of standard pop. This all adds up to very original music with layers of sound that gradually reveal themselves on repeated listening.

Smiloh’s trumpet holds it all together. On the opener, “I Am Here,” her instrument reaches towards a clarion call in slow, gradual steps. It’s not really a solo in the jazz or even the rock sense, but an integral part of the whole along with a soaring choir of overdubbed voices.

“Video Store” opens with a languid bass line and what sounds like finger pops. Mikesell’s airy, reverb-laden voice sneaks in with the verses, before the earworm hook of the pure pop chorus, “When did you go back to the video store/ when did you go back there?” Her trumpet and Andriu Yanovski’s Fender Rhodes echo each other—not so much trading licks as complementing each other in a musical conversation.

“These Old Cups” is the tune that probably defines “dream pop.” With just Mikesell and Aaron Boudreaux providing all the music, the song, like much of the whole album, is an ambient reverie and an image-driven soundscape. It’s like a pleasant dream.