Review: Since impressing with their 2016 debut At Sacred Walls, Szun Waves - a trio comprising acclaimed electronic experimentalist Luke Abbot, drummer/percussionist Laurence Pike and saxophone player Jack Wylie - has operated at the intersection of ambient and jazz, delivering periodic sets that combine spiritual sounds and atmospheric solos with waves of electronic textures. It's an alluring, otherworldly sound all told, and one that's at the heart of their latest album, Earth Patterns. Musically, the album - which features additional production from, amongst other people, Abbot's old pal James Holden - is blissed out and otherworldly, combining sonic motifs more often associated with Alice Coltrane (hypnotic and Eastern-influenced), Sun Ra (interplanetary improvisations), Tangerine Dream (epic synth-scapes) and abstract electronica (inspired, densely detailed sound design). It all adds up to an astonishingly good album.
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