Sunwarper - Today’s Traces

 

Released: November 7

For his follow up to earlier this year’s Through the Quiet Dark, Sunwarper’s latest album takes us on an ambient journey that just oozes with analog charm. It’s thick and beautiful with subtle leading arpeggios and melodies that gel together wonderfully. Today’s Traces is, in a single word, lush. It opens up with the ethereal and vaguely retro-sounding “Dreamloop Transit.” This track sets the mood for the following album beautifully, letting us soak in some warbly and warmed tones that for a pillowy foundation for the softly keyed melody that wafts on top of it and guides the movement. This feature appears consistently throughout the album, making the album feel like those gentle moments of reflection you get in between hectic moments. 

This overriding concept as these small reflective moments in life is solidifying in Sunwarper’s sound selection for each track. Each one evokes a different but similar moment and brings to mind images of those early RPG save spots. A moment where the game slows to a crawl and you can take a moment to save your game, take a pause, and reflect on the story you just absorbed. The album conveys the sense that life is much like this too and sometimes we have to indulge ourselves in those in-between moments. Overall, I found it to be a fascinating exploration of the concept and it brought some refelection to my day as I listened.