Hot Salvation

Entheogen, Daniel Lea's (L A N D - Important Records, Heliochrysum - Bedroom Community and Cura Machines) latest solo album, is a mesmerising collection of tracks that takes listeners on a visual and sonically kaleidoscopic journey. It unfolds in a series of waypoints that, just when they threaten to overwhelm the senses, gracefully shift and sway, allowing the audience to surface, catch their breath, and then plunge into a new realm – perhaps even a new universe.

This hallucinatory musical odyssey reveals its subtleties, as seen in the early track "float within." Here, the transition from minor to major and back is accompanied by subtle machine-like beeps, ultimately reaching stratospheric heights. On a track-by-track basis, "Entheogen" continually shifts its harmonic gears, crafting Escheresque compositions with two or three-act structures that bubble and pulsate.

The album's name itself, "Entheogen," hints at the constant process of restructuring within. An entheogen is something employed to alter one's perception, often for sacred or ritualistic purposes. This notion is reflected in the production, as Lea's analogue synthesisers undergo extensive processing using an array of effects. Moments in time are frozen, creating a sonic language that paints a dynamic spatial mosaic. The same sound palette is revisited repeatedly, with each processing stage leading to a new destination. Lea's toolkit includes harmonizers, vintage reverbs, delay freezing, loop stations, and an assortment of analogue devices from the wonderful Soundgas team and additionally, he incorporates field recordings of space stations into his sonic palette.

"rotor" makes its entrance with an almost suffocated choral burst, akin to the "mechanical wheels" or the Hayot angels descending from the sky in Hebrew mythology. The track then slowly grinds forward in a mechanistic, propulsive ascent. There's a nod to techno here, reminiscent of the fractal-elves Terence McKenna spoke of, as evidenced in the track "entities." The pitch and synths in the latter merge beneath a spectral, processed veil, mimicking a pre-verbal conversation. This is music that transports its listeners to otherworldly realms, inhabited by angelic or elvish beings.

By the final track, "prophetic," a warm, amniotic cocoon of sound envelops the listener. Time seems to have stretched and dilated, resulting in a gentle yet abrupt return home – a conclusion that doubles as a spiritual recirculation.