The Sun Lounge

I first came to the music of PARC via Wave Iridescence, a tape released back in 2022 on 100% Silk. Produced by Vancouver resident Jeremy Rawkins, it is an album I return to often for its wondrous textures of fantasy futurism and new age suffused rhythmic formations that hover at the periphery of dance music. There are angelic ambient atmospherics, lovingly lofi melodies of piano and digital synth, and stuttering and minimal broken beats buried beneath fourth world mallet mysteries and field recordings of colorful fauna. Elsewhere, virtual vocal forms and aqueous ocean textures surround boom bappin’ breaks and new age pan pipes, hallucinatory club grooves anchor glowing streaks of seascape serenity, and world music woodwind tones swirl in pools of static while basslines carry paradise pianos and sickly streaks of shimmery ether. Given how wondrous all the settings and sonics are across Wave Iridescence, I have been eager for a follow up from PARC, and at last, the artist has delivered this with Clear Light, a new tape that came out earlier this year.

Self-released by Rawking himself, this most recent outing explores seemingly similar zones of ambient techno bliss as Wave Iridescence…at least on the surface…but a closer listen reveals an altogether deeper, dreamier, and more contemplative collection of tracks, one that is even more closely oriented towards the horizontal headspaces of 90s chillout rooms, and which shares a sonic kinship with past artists like Global Communication, Deep Space Network, Spacetime Continuum, and the more ambient sides of the Rising High catalog, especially MLO, Neutron 9000, and the rest of the artists appearing on the Chill Out or Die! compilations. Clear Light also has a more pronounced presence of naturalistic field recordings… which takes my mind to the em:t label compilations…and overall, the beats and rhythmic structures are largely minimized as compared to Wave Iridescence, with hushed and subtle IDM drum formations relegated to just shadows, whispers, and wisps of technoid groove. This leaves more of a focus on astral expanses of spiritual soundscaping, floating textures of fourth world exoticism, and mesmeric mental flights of new age kosmische, with an aural experience that is also perhaps slightly more hi-fi than its predecessor.

PARC - Clear Light (Self-Released, 2026) In opening track “Rain,” a soft rhythmic pulse sits under pads like ethereal water, with bulbous bass throbs ushering in double time hi-hat cascades and broken beat IDM rhythmics. Flashes of echo-enhanced piano flash across the spectrum, while the broken up beats refuse to fully lock in, which creates a sort of anticipatory, anxious, yet dreamy dance of rhythmic ritualization. A feminine voice speaks in the distance and adds a further touch of hallucinatory magic while nature samples surround growing braindance cymbal progressions, and as tribalistic patterns of rimshot and wood dance through the spectrum, angelic waves of space synth and mermaid voice pan and pulse continuously. “Skaha” comes next with synthesized strands of new age chime and bird song suffusing polypad pan flutes. Warming waves of morphing subsonics evoke globular pools of liquid mercury, and there is a periodicity to the motion…like the breath of Mother Nature…formed from big swells of ambient aether that circulate continuously over a serene setting of natural soundscape wonderment. And as the track progresses, these repeating swells seem to grow in intensity and imaginative complexity, with multiplying and ever-transforming layers of starlight synthesis, fairy flute, and hushed whispers of rattling percussive exotica weaving in and around each other. “III” closes the A-side with its subliminal shadows of dub techno percussion. Cymbals sparkle like starlight over a barely there snare riddim and cosmic electronics blend seamlessly with field recordings of a midnight moonlit soundbath. Silver-toned streaks of metallic arpeggiation sparkling in the lunar glow…their sounds bouncing and bending with an air of tropical fantasy…while sub-earthen bass tones mimic deep tectonic frequencies beneath melting smears of starlight.

“Perentropic” starts the B-side with more waves crashing and faux orchestrations fluttering through the clouds. Fourth world idiophonics are smothered in reverb as they fall across the mix as and eventually, an fx caressed breakbeat filters back and forth, given further motion by melodic metal counterstrokes and balmy bass pulses. The whole thing hits like some chillout jammer reduced to a vaporous and crystalline dreamglide, wherein mystical breaths of gemstone mist flow across the mind as the foghorn songs of gigantic seafloor mammals billow ever outwards. It all feels so heady, hypnotic, and propulsive, with a vibe helped along by these almost out of tune square-wave synth tracers…with everything coming together in way that sort of reminds me of moments from Giraffi Dog’s L’existence du rêve. The title track “Clear Light” captures the sounds of hissing steam vents and echoing rattle rasps, as soulbalm synth swirls gently background dramatic dream drones of softly distorted bass layering. Everything is hovered over by humid fogs and haunted hazes, with mellow marimba-like bell tones delaying in the distance. Granular filters flow towards an infinite horizon and drowsily dissonant streaks of diffuse golden light work into the rotational drift—only barely making their presence felt—but adding a welcoming and off-kilter warmth in the process. For final track “Clear,” warbling washes of static merge with synthesized currents of choral mesmerism that move together in a drunken cycle, while soft noise cascades of several colors and characters thread into a singular strand. Vibraphonic tones ring out in the background, and there is a continual interplay between a surface level atonality, and a sense of wistful and romantic melody that always seems to be pushing through to the surface.

One of the records I have spent the most time with recently is Lady Bug, a warming and wonder-filled 12” from the Oakland based artist Sulah Jordan. Jordan is a musician and gardener who works in and around the San Francisco Bay Area, and she originally self-released Lady Bug as a very limited vinyl pressing via Bandcamp in 2025, copies of which sold out quickly and now are quite hard to come by. The music here finds Jordan joined by several Oakland area musicians who expand and actualize her musical ideals with hippie percussion, lysergic and lulling acoustic guitar layers, ambient keyboard flights, soft shrouded vocals, and interwoven threads of natural mystery…the sounds of waves, campfires, bugs, birds, and croaking frogs. Fortunately, the crew at Test Pressing came across this collection of cozy cottage psych, rustic coastal jazz folk, naturalistic balearica, and field recording collage, and decided to give the music a wider release via their Test Pressing Arts sublabel…a newly formed venture intended for “more esoteric music—downtempo and mellow vibes.”

Sulah Jordan - Lady Bug (Test Pressing Arts, 2026) In A-side opener “Jasmine,” expressive hand drums set a mindful groove amidst forest sounds and birdsong, while summertime folk guitars and rustic basslines sit beneath swooning flute flights and gentle fx. Plucked melodies and progressive poetics support breathy spells of vocal magic that sparsely accent the lilting dreampsych sway…the singing carrying a touch of smoked out blues that reminds me of several things…Dukes of Hazel, Open Water, the more fairy folk moments of Bardo Pond, and also airs of Nick & Samantha at their most gentle and enchanted. There is also something that leans towards Flamenco and Iberian exotica in the acoustic guitar progressions, which are occasionally tracked in tandem by the floating flute. And elsewhere, the various elements journey together in moments of freeform island groove fantasy. “Large Leaves From Old Trees” comes next with watery and washed out electric guitar chords backgrounding cinematic and spellbound acoustic guitar explorations. Rustling, rattling textures sound like seashells rolling over themselves, and the whole track has a similarity to the work of Pablo Color, with a vibe that is altogether moody, mystical, and evocative of an escapist paradise shaded in melancholy. A masculine voice repeats mantric phrases over the flow as ethereal smears of chiming vibraphone add a silvery sonic glow, and it all eventually devolves into snake tail rattles and crashing waves before a dramatic cut to silence.

On the B-side, “Musée Mélancolique” features lofi beats and gemstone liquids panning across the spectrum, while downlow folk guitars are accented by minimal keyboard melodies. Hushed and humid vocals bring to mind things like early Vanishing Twin, Death and Vanilla, and The Soundcarriers…and the whole thing is taken to another level by haunted saxophone lines calling out into the void…the wailing tones soaked in reverb and bringing touches of midnight noir. Everything eventually heads into a sensual sundowner lounge zone—the feel vaguely Lynchian—as the e-piano alights on colorful adventures of blues-soaked fantasy up and down the keyboard, anchored by guitar and drums that lock to a muted pulse of pastoral jazz. The flow from here is more or less seamless into closing track “Goodnight Buggy,” with a scene set by crashing ocean samples, whooshing wavefronts, and the crackle of a beachside fire. Radio ghosts are shrouded in static far away in the distance, and a sonic panorama forms from cricket chirps, bug wing rustles, and myriad insectoid mating calls. This all overwhelms these barely there tones of astral keyboard ambience, and strange buzzing and humming tones that remind me of the atmospheric textures found on the second Wilson Tanner album. And near the end, there is a moment where the stereo field seems to further immerse itself in the sounds of water…as if a rainstorm washes through, carrying with it frog songs and these whispering whisps of world music melody that evoke some Far East temple ritual. 

One of the more exciting groups operating in the modern milieu of new age, world music, and spiritual jazz is The Cosmic Tones Research Trio, who further temper their restorative soundworld with pan-African, minimalist, and Indian classical textures. Their second and self-titled album is a diverse and devotional set of soul-healing vibrations, and follows on from their amazing All is Sound LP released in 2024. Like that album, this newest journey of vibrational healing comes courtesy of Mississippi sub-label Pyramid Records, and forms another exploratory collection of transcendent tonalities constructed from a palette of cello, sax, flute, piano, and world percussion.

The Cosmic Tones Research Trio - The Cosmic Tones Research Trio (Pyramid Records, 2025) In “Awakenings,” ivory keys and plucked strings ambulate off-kilter beneath purring saxophone warmth…with soft layers in conversation. Then in “Sankofa,” a night-shrouded desert caravan groove anchors jaw-dropping cello melodics from trio member Harlan Silverman…these arresting phrases of folk arcana that intertwine with flowing piano runs. The string drones and bowed reveries of “The Sacred Garden” sit in the American primitive and dream music tradition,  evoking Pelt or Sprial Joy Band at their most bucolic. There are touches of Hindustani classical music as well, as rustic motions of raga Americana entrance and dance across a sun-baked backdrop. And ending the A-side is “Spirit of Truth”, wherein an alto sax spirals into a cinematic duet, with ivory chords caressing the mix.

On side B opener “Ba Hi Yah,” trippy voices lock into a ceremonial repetition as a spooky and sensual ritual of moonlit jazz evolves…with sax and rhythm section set adrift in a way that brings a touch of spy movie noir.  Several saxophones emerge in a soft and subtle layering, casting melodic counterpoints as the vocal entrancements grow progressively more soulful in their abstraction. In “Photosynthesis,” airy synth sequences swim against idiophonic tones, while saxophones stretch and modulate into aether. And echoes like a paradise wind carry snippets of sound far into the distance. True to its name, “Invocation” features bowed and blown wavefronts of celestial ambiance backgrounding shamanistic singing. It’s a vocal sound that seems to emanate from deep from within the solar plexus, supported by trilling flutes and zither-like runs that add further touches of aural ecstasy. “Eternal Love” closes the tape with its fantasy flowing of fluttering sax melodics, melting cellos, and piano romantics. It all evolves into a wistful thematic display...one where piano and sax exchange gorgeous melancholic refrains while somber strings sigh in the distance. 

Iñigo Medina is an architect and sound artist from Spain, and he thus far has released a handful of deep techno works as M4, with tracks appearing on compilations from Redsonja Records and Slope Point. His newest and most expansive release came out at the end of 2025 on Avantroot Records and is titled Reset Series (Music for Stress Reduction and Creative Meditation). This work takes the form of an extended hour-long set split across two sides of tape and here, the producer takes a different and more meditational direction, exploring music intended for vibrational healing, brainwave re-alignment, trance state ascension, inner space travel, and attuning to deeper states of mental and spiritual awareness. As well, Medina explains in the liner notes that the music has a functional aspect, and has been used for sessions of harmonic yoga.

Though the intentions behind the project sound very new age, the soundworld on Reset Series is more modernistic than is typical for music in this ideological mold. Using analog synthesizers and a general focus on hardware, Medina employs technoid textures, drifting downtempo rhythms, energies of cosmic chillout, and atmospheres of ambient dub, which combine with emotionally effecting synthesizer symphonics and kinetic cascades of 70s-style kosmische sequencing. It’s a futuristic vision of the new age of new age, one that sees multiple intertwining moods and movements woven together into a kaleidoscopic collage—the various parts transitioning together—sometimes suddenly shifting, other times deftly threaded together via natural field recordings, or overlapping melodic themes. The result is music of continuous transformation, which creates the same sensation for the listener as it does for Medina...which is a feeling of "floating and drifting on a moving sea."

M4 - Reset Series: Music for Stress Reduction and Creative Meditation (Avantroots Records, 2025) On “Part I” of Reset Series, which occupies the A-side, a holy hum fades in, while purling pools of muted synthesis evoke a moonlit body of peacefully swirling liquid, with everything accented by delay pedals that puff out dark currents of air. Next comes haunted and harrowing mid-bass throbs and delirium decays of metronomic echo, while cinematic sci-fi strings from the school of Brad Fiedel lead to a cold and minimalist wasteland of pads, pulses, and decaying grey fog…all until a FAX-leaning chillout beat enters, which is structured around the barest semblance of cymbal taps and rhythm box drum hits. And above all of this, stormcloud crashes of galactic chord ambiance smolder and churn in the miasmic sky. The next passage features future fantasy arps like organic crystals aglow with alien new age energy, which are backgrounded by swimming sub bass vibrations and gentle submarine pads that somehow sound like an adolescent choir of mermaids heard across some vast seafloor distance, From here, chattering broadcast voices and exploratory kosmische bass sequences set out for aquatic exploration…the sonics attempting to capture the mystical experience and meditative wonder of scuba diving the depths of some exoplanetary ocean. And through it all, the sequences morph and mutate through reverb…sometimes dry and direct…other times nearly vaporizing away…while overhead, mystical futurist frequencies of subduing static and spiritual squelch ring out towards an infinite interstellar horizon. Bouncing bulbous bass chords carry beneath the same squelching static structures from the previous section, with cymbals taps and chillout trance voices repeating around each other, taking the vibe back to a space of 90s ambient rave hypnosis and post-club comedown catharsis. And it eventually blisses further out with birdsong, forest field recordings, and deeply affected Berlin school sequencing overlaid by smooth swimming dub chords and string synths from the shores of eternity. This results in a sort of ambient dub and post-kosmische energy glide that is one of the highlights of the entire journey, wherein stellar sequences ascend up the scale while the lower repetitions create compelling counterstrokes against decaying dub chords. The birdsong returns, and cavernous smoketrails of IDM sequencing flow down into the stereo field, until everything is soon bolstered by a gentle braindance break…which moves the vibe from the world of Schulze and Froese to Aphex Twin and The Black Dog. Overhead, pads moan with a sense of desperation over the layers of percolating dream synthesis, while hissing and throbbing broken beat panoramas continue anchoring the astral groove.

On “Part II” and Side B, heavenly pads and downtempo jazz beats set the stage, while hazy melodic chords from some fantasy ocean environment waft over it all…the whole landscape bleary, blurred, and daydream-like. A tropical rainstorm carries into the scene, bringing with it melancholic melodic synths the can’t help but momentarily  remind me of Bedouin Ascent...that is, until the track develops into a more new age and space music-esque droning drift, with a dynamic dance of multi-layered sequencers from the school of Tangerine Dream adding a sense of captivating cosmic drama. Everything flows in and out of focus via reverberant manipulation, and the synthesizer motions seem to shine in colors of psychotropic neon. The rain carries through to mournful pads that filter over bass heavy progressions of echo-laced breakbeat mesmerism, though everything is spread out, gaseous, and extremely hypnagogic. It’s a subliminal Skam-style section of ambient IDM and dreamscape downtempo with a mournful and constantly mutating character, but it’s all somehow slower and even more stoned out than that description implies. A mind-melting passage comes next wherein quivering and rotating oscillations chop up the entire atmosphere…like some dynamic and rotational weather warping machine malfunctioning while industrial bass tones hum and thrum. And more of those sad and somber cinematic string synths sing out…as if a sci-fi space orchestra is scoring a celestial drama of profound loss. Squelching ambient dub textures and a subdued electronic jazz cymbals sway into the spectrum, and the string machines are still in cinematic sci-fi symphonic mode, though now singing some different theme of galactic mystery and deep space wonder. After this, insectoid textures loop over stretched mental membranes while physical and textural loops of tectonic bass anchor the progression. Smoldering telephonic tracer sequences modulate through echo, sometimes so transformed as to disappear into a fx-generated ether, before re-appearing once more, and reconfiguring from base atomic elements. There is a section of tonal dronal mesmerism, where chakra-aligning chords resonate and create interfering wavefronts of minimalist mind magic…the kind of thing that could score La Monte Young’s Dream House installation. But it’s all soon taken to a more retro-modernist era of chillout hypnotism by static shrouded future-breaks, which cut in and out between haunting LFO-colored string synths and cityscape field recordings. Nearing the end, distorted chord clusters time stretch in strange ways…being pulled out along the temporal scale slowly and rapidly in equal measure…as ecclesiastical bass drones float the soul alongside paradise poly pads. The sound of everything is cozy, caressing, and enticingly experimental in equal measure. And at the very close, further progressions of paradise polysynths bring evocations of verdant summer savanna’s and Afro-folk sun ceremonials, though the soundscape is stripped down and reduced to a pure synthesizer essence…with maybe a small and seductive air of peak-era Phil Collins leaking into the scenery. 

Captured Visions explores an internalized and austere ambient headspace, with music that touches on organic soundscapes, field recordings, cosmic dream tones, arcane loops of naturalistic beauty, paradises of post-classical decay, and the more beatless, atmospheric, and esoteric textures from the worlds of dub techno and IDM. The label is headed by Barefoot and The Vision Reels, and in addition to releasing works by both of these artists, Captured Visions has also put out tapes from Inhmost, ovid, RVSHES, and Undveld. The newest release from the label however, is a slight diversion in style, and results in a revelatory surprise. On Eye of Grace, sound artist and producer Nathan Stephenson uses his moniker Arcade to drop a hypnotic, hallucinatory, and groove heavy four track set which features delirium dosed deep house, brainbombing and breakdance inducing electro, and various strains of chemically enhanced dub...whether that's imaginative and interstellar dub techno, or etheric ambient dub primed for chillout room mind-expansion. Though it is all too short, it is one of the highlights of the year so far…just as immersive, enveloping, and environmental as anything else the label has released, but aimed more directly at body burning activation and sensual soul stimulation.

Arcade - Eye of Grace (Captured Visions, 2026) In “Grace 01,” cymbal taps and sub-bass throbs introduce a midnight groove, where diva soul snippets melt into mist. Technoid cymbals flitter into the flow, and delay doused bongo beats and primitive groove box rimshots move in counterpoint, while synths emerge like a shadowy twilight balm. Laconic chords drift in the background, and the whole thing evokes for me a heady and hypnotizing Larry Heard vibe, especially his productions for Guidance Recordings’ Hi-Fidelity House comps, and his contributions to the Abstract Fusion series on Track Mode/Music Is… There are moments where the bass beats cut away, and where cooling chord strokes calm the spirit as snare smacks and tropical percussive accents dance in some exotic moonlit forest. And as the beats return, a touch of downcast and spectral jazz threads into the astral aura…with melodic textures sitting in a middle ground between vocal scats and evocative woods…while everything is somehow infused with a touch of Rhythm & Sound-style dub energy. Next comes “Grace 02,” where swirling cosmic chords, laser oscillations, and a pounding four four kick bring the mood into the dark and sweaty depths of the club space. Neon colored ghost hazes sing in the background and big bulbous basslines jack beneath a combination of liquid melodic motions and slow rave squelches, and the result is a heady merging of dub techno hypnotism and heavy deep house mesmerism. Cloudy chord patterns hover in the sky, and everything wavers through layers of fluid lysergia, yet it feels so minimalistic, and seems to proceed in a sort of delirious slow motion. Ricochet sci-fi fx counteract rigid hi-hat patterns as the mix melts through faded rainbow colorations, and seared siren songs of psychedelic sunshine wrap around everything.

“Groce 03” is particularly wild, as mechanoid breakbeats skitter and squelch on some faraway solar surface. Looping liquid melodies join the cyclic dance as electro kicks bring a deep dynamic energy…like breakdance music for android aliens. Subliminal emcee chants land in the background as the hallucinatory groove keeps pulsing and pounding out into the far reaches of cosmos, with repeating sexual soul samples adding an extra dimension of hedonic enticement. Further layers of interstellar intensity join in via pinging fantasy synths and fourth world insect samples, and telephonic bubble patterns ascend on stairways of starbeams…all before the track breaks down into a melancholic melodic outro. In final cut “Grace 04,”  there are breathing percussive pulses and flamboyant palm-muted rock riffs submerged into a chillout headcloud. Trance voices loop, and is everything subsumed into a looping and pulsing cloudscape of dub dream hypnosis, where granular cymbal taps and echo-effected snares bounce off of infinite surfaces before repeating into some unfathomably deep void. Haunted melodic vapors warble and waver, heavy chugging basslines are reduced to a buried whisper, and at some point, a direct four-four kick drum pushes to the fore, adding kinetic energy to flowing ambient dub dreamworld….taking what was perviously a cloud like vapor structure into a slightly more anxious and energized evocation of Chain Reaction style textural mind-expansion. And at the end, a sudden cut away from the rhythms leads to an expanse of echoing and time-morphing voices… with a strange and experimental Orb like effect that carries to the close.

One of the newest releases on the mercurial and mystifying enmossed is a spiritually submerging study on landscape and liquid texture titled 𝑺𝒚𝒓𝒆𝒏, which comes from sound artist Gafael. Gafeal is the musical moniker of Matthew Ridgway, and as explained in the linear notes for the 𝑺𝒚𝒓𝒆𝒏 cassette, the name “Gafael” is a Welsh word that means to hold or grip, which Ridgway chose with several layers of intent: the name evokes a sense of intimacy with “the potential for danger,” it speaks to an acceptance of an important part of his upbringing and identity regarding aspects of Welsh language and culture, and also aims to reference the physical geography of Wales itself, which has always been an important influence on Gafeal’s productions (heretofore, these have included several tapes on Noir Age).

𝑺𝒚𝒓𝒆𝒏 takes a very loose inspiration from The Odyssey, specifically the concept of sirens, and then abstracts these aqueous beings into more elemental forces of mythical treachery and shadowy seduction. Along with this, there is a loose sonic narrative at play, which is partially reflected in the working title of the album—Music for Drowning. The first side of the 𝑺𝒚𝒓𝒆𝒏 cassette is subtitled ‘Submerge,’ and the liner notes mention how the music here intentionally moves from lighter atmospheres to darker dynamics…an evolution into the depths of an aural ocean dreamspace, equally fantasy-like as it is foreboding. The second side then, represents the journey back home...back from the abyssal zones of haunting hypnosis towards near new age waters of calming light and restorative bliss.

As far as the sonic language employed, 𝑺𝒚𝒓𝒆𝒏 features a post-Chain Reaction milieu of mesmerizing sonic magic, with textural and temporally shifting references to ambient and dub techno being the most prominent signposts. Water is a heavily featured element across the album, as field recordings and samples of rivers, streams, waterfalls, rainstorms, and oceans are massively processed, alternatively used to modulate chords, feed vocoders, and fill in empty spaces while flowing through thick combinations of reverb, phaser and delay. Beneath these wondrous weavings of fluid field recordings and ambient dub ether sculptures sit pillowy pulses of sub bass, which add subliminal shadows of movement and motion, while winds of white noise and haunted howls of granular hiss crash against some unseen shore.

Gafael - 𝑺𝒚𝒓𝒆𝒏 (enmossed, 2026) In “Submerge 1,” watery wavefronts and wind-rushing synths billow and blow, as granular ghosts scream across a cloudy grey sky. Body floating bass and echo-effected chords pan in the hissing fog, and the whole thing evolves into a battle between sheets of searing white noise and ambient atmospheres of dub techno narcosis. Further chord mutations lurk in the vaporous depths, creating kinetic counterpoints that bounce against the more pronounced melodic patterns, which themselves seem to keep multiplying…their delay trails and feedback oscillations continuously falling over themselves. The sense of motion and groove deteriorates, and the washing motions almost achieve a state of standing wave stasis—though the bass still continues its pulsating as stormcloud formations of noise mix with chaotic chord structures to push the mind into a state of disorientation. And concentrated listening reveals almost choral sounding pads—perhaps sourced from water recordings— that seem to ring out forever. In “Submerge 2,” smoldering synth trails gently filter as abstracted whispers sizzle and smoke. Insectiform chitters high in the sky bring a strangely calming effect as big bulbous bass waves further settle the soul…executing an almost jazz-wise walk of downtempo dream magic, which carries through a landscape of glowing luminescence. And all throughout, clicks, drips and liquid sibilance are woven amidst amorphous voice patterns. A thunderous rumble in “Submerge 3” reveals itself to be another field recording of some unknown water source, which is accompanied by breaths of dub mysterium that blow in on a breeze of esoteric wonderment. Everything skitters and chitters with an insect-like nature…or like alien fly wings vibrating against each other amidst massive exhalations of cosmic gas. Stretched out dub chords evoke chanted druidic melancholies…and the whole thing feels funereal in its slow moving and aching sense of deep space sadness. Near the end, the chord formations and blankets of naturalistic fx peel away, revealing the muted sounds of rivers and forests, which are deeply effected through chains of delay. Moving into “Submerge 4,” organic, respiring, and burning bodies of synthetic and smoldering squelch seem to bubble up from some seafloor vent, before reaching an ocean surface disturbed by a serene ocean storm. What follows is a dynamic environment of washing waves, tropical weather, and active volcanic motion, wherein rippling flows of sonic magma meet beautiful blue waters, creating soft sears and sizzles. Dub chords drown the whole scene…their echo and reverb subsuming…and eventually aspects of the track start fading, until all that is left are percussive chords smothered in a cloak of reverb. The “Submerge” side of the journey ends with hovering white noise and circulating sonar swells, while lapping waves of aether wash against the shores of eternity. Dissonant streaks of electronic abstraction paint the sky in unfamiliar hues, and the water sounds transform into a very physical force…creeping and crawling into empty spaces, almost oozing and slime-like in their bizarre motions. And as various tones oscillate anxiously, the background increasingly fills with submarine rumbles and the atmospheric auras of sea floor exploration.

“Emerge” occupies the B-side, and the first part sees an unnatural wind carrying hidden voices and mists of keyboard melody, alongside evocations of city atmospheres and traffics sounds…though this is all likely just manipulated water samples. Sub bass murmurs are felt more than heard, stretching static tones smear across the spectrum, and lysergic ripping fx extend to infinity, while the cavernous and caressing immersions of white noise and buried melody threaten to completely overwhelm. Eventually, it all cuts dramatically to barely-there silence, and restive rumbles of liquid. “Emerge 2” starts with rustles, washes, and whispers as melodic pulsations quiver outwards with a sense of hesitation. Electrostatic fields malfunction and CRT TV screens are set to a snowing broadcast blur, while humid and humming vapors of melody move in the background. Clicks and clacks morph into humanistic garbles and gargles, and sequential chord patterns dance on currents of air, their sounds mutated, metallic, and robbed of any melodic grace. Overlapping loops create strange resonances and interesecting oscillations, and whipcrack whispers of struck metal rise to a fever pitch as they ping-pong pan across the mix. And nearing the end tape loops sizzle, burn, and fry, while millions of microbial bodies seemingly vibrate at hyperspeed. Morphing synth notes introduce “Emerge 3,” with white noise filtering alongside. Slow pounding subsonics and hovering trails of acid dub synthesis support hollow tonal drones from the astral ambient headspace, and everything flows, glows, and grows in strength. There is a profound intensity and physicality to the revolving swells of dub techno haze…a tactile and textural aspect that reaches out of the speakers, and creates three-dimensional structures of impossible description. But it all too soon decays away on patterns of Fluxion-esque chemical chord contemplation. The final part of “Emerge” floats in on similar Vibrant Forms II-esque dub chord subversions, which are backed by spiritual soundscapes of rainfall and new age choral radiance. It’s dub techno repurposed for fourth world mediation, shamanic ritual, and crystal healing…as ethereal voices drone out in tones of transcendence, bathing the mix in a holy and healing light. And its given prismatic sense of motion by the continued dance of squelching chord formations, which float off on forever-decaying waves of rainbow energy.