The more I listen to it, the more it becomes my absolute favourite Laurent Veronnez production.
It just seems so, so simple, the melodies especially. When deconstructed to its core components, it just shouldn't work! Harmonically, it consists of mostly riffs, without much progression. The arpeggiated piano you could call a melody; the plucks have too simple a progression. Contrasted with that simplicity, the beautiful, beautiful pads in the background provide the only proper melody, and add the dreaminess and warmth to the entire track...
But there's the sound design, which gives it that depth, that mood, and makes the entire thing one of the most beautiful trance tracks ever. The arrangement is just spot on. Just calms down at a perfect time, in a perfect way, builds up when it should, how it should... Lulls you to sleep, then plays with your heart strings.
FX? Doesn't need much. Those subtle mid-high-range filter sweeps add the sense of subtle, slow movement and a spacey undertone. Drums? As simple as possible, yet everything sounds very cohesive. Bassline? Just one. And it almost seems like a crossover between a bass, melodic sound and a percussion. Full of colour.
It just fits the title perfectly. Dreams and love.
And the more I think about it, Ladyblue is the direct follow-up to this one. Simple complexity, with a focus on sound design, beautiful pads in the background, and a seemingly complex arpeggiated melody. It's a bit less chaotic element-wise, and more focused, which is just a byproduct of its time. Maybe why I prefer Venus Of My Dreams is because it seems like it wasn't as planned, sort of spontaneous, but from the heart just as much, if not more. Venus Of My Dreams feels like Laurent expressed his raw emotions, whereas with Ladyblue it almost seems like he processed them before, if that makes sense (and if it's actually the case).