Top tier synth explorations from Athens, Georgias JoJo Gladwill. Beautiful stuff with an overall haunting and introspective vibe. You may know him as the keyboard wizard and secret weapon to Athens psych bands Night Palace and of Montreal. He has a rather big impact on the live sound of those bands, and many an of Montreal set I’ve found myself chanting his name with the audience while he absolutely tears the room apart.

I’m delighted to find that I love his solo record. It’s largely ambient, very psychedelic kind of stuff he describes as “music for scary yoga or DMT at bath time.” There’s nice variety across the tracks. Some take on a dramatic, carefully composed classical aesthetics and some are intimate explorations of quiet textures. I love an ambient/experimental record where the songs are all just a few minutes long but each feels like a lengthy soundscape that will go on forever. I think that timelessness-in-conciseness is born from intense focus in your playing and strong artistic voice. It’s not just soundscapes, the song in the synthesizers comes through immediately and clearly even where a lot of improvisation is present. There’s a quiet intensity to the tracks that is very psychedelic and sure to please anyone looking for deep sounds to enjoy on a headful.

If you’re like myself and have a bottomless appetite for spacey synth music, this deserves to jump to the top of your stack.