Aporia

In 2008, Asthmatic Kitty records released a curiosity as part of their now defunct "Library Catalog Music Series" - a demented and wide-ranging UR jam called Music for Insomnia credited to Lowell Brams. On further examination, the liner notes revealed that this banquet of disquieting vibrations included a significant collaborator: the multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens. Since Asthmatic Kitty was Stevens' main outlet, and Lowell Brams was the label's founder (and Sufjan's stepdad), this pairing wasn't surprising. But the musical output was.

Music For Insomnia was an entire album of drones, dissonance and queasy synth squelches replete with titles that referenced various sleep aids and disturbances.

Sufjan and Lowell never stopped making music together. After over 10 years without a co-release, the music on their new, mostly instrumental album Aporia is everything that Insomnia is not. Where Insomnia alienates, Aporia charms.

The 21 songs here are tightly crafted, resonating with a gem-like intensity. In the spirit of the New Age composers who sanded off the edges of their synths' sawtooth waves, Aporia approximates a rich soundtrack from an imagined sci-fi epic brimming with moody, hooky, gauzy synthesizer soundscapes. The album may suggest the progeny of a John Carpenter, Wendy Carlos, and Mike Oldfield marriage, but it stands apart from these touchstones and generates a meditative universe all its own.