Beyond by Egopusher

If you heard Diver, the Tobias Preisig album I reviewed, you'll already be familiar with the Swiss maker's unique take on classical music: boundary breaking by contorting violins. Egopusher is another of his projects, a team effort with rhythm controller Alessandro Giannelli, where the sound veers away from his personal focus, towards the wider electronic spectrum. Across the six tracks the exhilarating effect is emotionally draining, lifting the listener from joyous highs (check the driving rhythm of Elenor, reminiscent of Royksopp at their instrumental finest) to the spookily barren wastelands of Faint. As Giannelli says himself, the effect of the music fits a Sofia Coppola sci-fi film.

With filmic structures in mind, the sequencing of the music certainly lends itself to the dramatic undulations of a blockbuster soundtrack: visceral, visual scenes balanced with exploratory settings (that's the first three tracks), a central scene erupting with revelations (Elenor) that turn to reflection (Faint) before a final tieing together of strands (Sheen). But this isn't a film soundtrack. As a result, the (nearly) nine minutes of Faint feels too long for the total playing length of 39 minutes; it breaks the flow, even if the uproarious finale Sheen recovers some momentum.