Electronic producer and composer PSTMRD returns with Lanzarote, his second full-length album, arriving February 6 via Protomaterial Records. The project’s lead single, “Fullmoon,” offers a precise introduction to an album that feels less like a collection of tracks and more like a carefully mapped environment—one shaped by memory, geography, and the physicality of sound.
“Fullmoon” operates in the negative space between eras of electronic music. Its rhythmic skeleton recalls the cerebral pulse of classic IDM, with faint echoes of early Aphex Twin, while its microscopic glitches and high-frequency precision suggest a debt to Ryoji Ikeda’s digital minimalism. Yet the track resists sterility. Beneath its controlled surface lies a warmth drawn from analog traditions—slow-moving synth lines drift and blur, evoking the kosmische textures of Tangerine Dream and other electronic pioneers of the 1980s. The result is a piece that feels simultaneously archival and contemporary, anchored in process rather than nostalgia.
That tension runs throughout Lanzarote, an album inspired by the stark volcanic terrain of the Spanish island from which it takes its name. Across seven tracks, PSTMRD treats landscape as both metaphor and compositional tool. Sounds swell, fracture, and recede like geological formations in motion. Tracks such as “Volcano” and “Peaks” lean into density and pressure, while “Dune,” featuring vocals by Francesca Bisacchi, introduces a rare human presence that feels fragile against the album’s vast synthetic backdrops. The 12-minute title track stretches time entirely, unfolding as a slow-burn immersion rather than a climax-driven finale.
The album’s meticulous construction is inseparable from its tools. Created using a hybrid setup that includes the Ableton Push 3, Soma Terra, Make Noise Strega, Sound Machine Plinky, and Waldorf Iridium, and processed through the Soma Ether2, Lanzarote reflects PSTMRD’s ongoing commitment to modular exploration. The production—mixed by Martino Marini and mastered by Joan Arnau Pàmies, who also contributes additional production—maintains clarity without sacrificing texture or emotional weight.
Rather than chasing trends within contemporary electronic music, Lanzarote moves inward, prioritizing atmosphere, patience, and detail. It’s an album that rewards close listening—one that reveals itself slowly, like the terrain that inspired it.
Featured Image: Artist Supplied
