S.E.T.I. - The Sphere Of Density [Zoharum 201]

Put out on the circuit via the Polish label Zoharum in early June, 2k20 but still one to look at is "The Sphere Of Density" - a double album effort thought up and executed by UK-based producer Andrew Lagowski under his artistic moniker that is S.E.T.I., the one the long standing artist usually employs for all things Ambient and Deep Listening Music related. Split in two parts, the limited to 500 copies album editions opens with a set of five studio compositions rolled out over the course of 74 minutes with whom Mr. Lagowski proves once again why he's considered one of the masters of slow, spatial sonic development and spaced out, sci-fi Ambient beauty with extended cuts like the most comforting "Maze" which simply hovers like a solitary sonic entity beyond space and time, oozing a field of plasmatic melancholia and beauteous harmonies over the course of its total playtime whereas pieces like "Only Dust" sonically depict the vastness of the universe, pairing atmospheric movements with eerie, transdimensional outbursts and significant tectonic shifts stretched over cosmic timescales whilst "11th Dimension", which can be considered to be the albums main piece in terms of its total playtime, brings forth raw and reprocessed fragments of radio communication in combination with icy, surely spine-tingling and somewhat bleak x hostile ColdAmbient structures, evoking illusions of deadly fumes pouring into the thin atmosphere of some distant exomoon located on the outer rim of the galaxy before providing some kind of angelic, ethereal relief. Furthermore the second CD provides us with a S.E.T.I. "Live Performance At XVIII Wroclaw Industrial Festival" which was captured in its entirety of 41 minutes. Starting off on a slightly harsher, more brooding and - suitably to its performative context - more Industrial-leaning tip we're drawn into a galaxy of ever morphing sonic shifts from the very beginning, slowly evolving into what might be well described - to German ravers of the 90s at least... - as Space Night Ambient before harsh, fragmented rhythm signatures take over for a second, providing the most danceable and dancefloor-friendly S.E.T.I. sequences we've heard in quite a while - if you're considering acts like Autechre, Funkstörung and the likes of to be dancefloor music, that is. Good stuff. Go get.

Album artwork on Instagram!