Si Matthews - Across the Ether

Carpe Sonum
(SEIZEXL: 708527180884/SEIZEXL-3)
Release date: 11/16/2018
Genre: Electronic

$13.80

Si Matthews's Carpe Sonum debut, Tales of Ten Worlds, glorified the Namlook template to usher in new vistas of expansive headtones; to mix Fax-ian metaphors, something like an ‘environmental space music’ that trafficked in Germanic kosmische traditions while not becoming wholly subservient to them. On Across the Ether, Matthews’ manages to find a way deeper into the cosmos with a purity of essence and engulfing outreach, using a broad range of merry modules to free your mind for your soul to follow. Beginning with the prickly drone clusters, shimmering galactic bubblewrap, and moog-esque whoosh of opener “The Search”, snatches of abandoned astronauts dialog frozen in a distant quasar’s bandwidth eerily paint a picture of beings trapped in all-encompassing voids, the light of farflung orbs their only accompanying illumination. It’s an utterly compelling beginning that finds Matthews doing what ‘classic’ synth/space music does best: erect whole new imagistic textures never before heard, considered, or contemplated. With the ‘renaissance’ of electronic and synth-generated music going on full-force for nigh on a decade now, Matthews remains one of the movement's most talented young whippersnappers, amorphous by decree, providing us with, to borrow an album title from Hawkwind, astounding sounds, amazing music.

Disc 1 (Ambient):

1. The Search

2 Light Years Away

3. Isolated

4. Derelict Places

5. Circles in the Stars Above

6. Proxima Centauri

7. In Stone

8. Lunar Serenity

9. Last Exit

Disc 2 (Beats):

10. Across the Ether Parts 1&2

11. Encountered

12. Escaping Gravity

13. Landing Probe

14. Speed of Thought

15. A New Horizon

16. Radial Velocity