Astronautica

Aythar's stellar 2016 debut on Carpe Sonum represents one of the more obvious distillations of the late Pete Namlook's ambient space music mantras. With it's expansive, rising synths and vast waves of interstellar sequences yawning out into the void, Astronautica recalls nothing less than many numerous classic 70s sides of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Neuronium, et al., yet the preening atmospheres, fraught with both palpable tension and a sense of wonder, sound fresh and consistently inviting. Such pedigree means that contemporary space music artists have quite a large stylistic well to draw from, simultaneously aware of the rich heritage of sounds behind them while being mindful to avoid the kind of hackneyed clichs that tend to run rampant in the field. Aythar has no such problem. Though the pads and multitudinous sequencer tools have familiar rings to them, the artist's obvious love for, and fascination with, his machine-made fantasias demonstrate a passion for the kinds of twinkling deep-space noises that synth aficionados have embraced for decades.