The Stargazer’s Assistant – Modular Fields

Elektrokuutio (cassette) / Zoharum (CD, 2LP)

The scenics here unknot beautifully, neoprene the speakers with a fluidity most would envy. Curvaceous sounds sometimes dusty with indecision, at other times found to be digging into the gravity-defying geometrics of some divine melodic. Set over four meaty tracks, the trip is a satisfying one, pulling treats from the machine’s synapse, chasing the allusive energies within.

The pleasing Epsilon In Malaysian Pale-like ambience of “Field 1” underpinned by a dancing melodic, its hiccuping hypnotics and slivering interchange shot through with darkened instabilities. A heady otherness The Stargazer’s Assistant have been worshipping from the get-go, imbued with ghostly burrs and vocalising vapour, spidering into a noisy abstractive rub.

New beginnings that strut-stutter like a computerised glitch, cut into fresh-faced harmonics. Layered atmospherics that pulsate and drone, channelled into metallic fireworks. A butterfly-stitched dissolve submerged in neuron-frayed blooms and pushed into this cymbal-shunted herald that wows, beams bright to diode-dash and sizzle. “Field 2” is my fav for sure — a taut and tasty display of wonder, whose conclusion captures what sounds like an aerosoled approximation of a Lemon Kittens song simmer-shunted to silence.

The vapourised vocordics of the third track staring at a midsummer’s night moon. A nocturnal constellation flying in soft Stockhausen murmuration. Flowing like a zen teardrop spiked in pirouetting plankton, undershot by doomic rumblings and sonic scars. Its flexing currents oasising a cracked egg of possibility sprinkled with a touch of tessellating tremolo.

A sonic adventure sloping into the final track’s shimmering symmetry. A drone-soaked kindling of Cluster-esque undulation. Flighted and fanciful harmonics that curl your ear in discreet discolouration and illuminated looseness, rebus-weaving that pleasing ambience of the opener that promotes an immediate return to the album’s starting point.

Modular Fields is an absolute triumph.

-Michael Rodham-Heaps-