Led By Ancient Light

No other album has the sprawling, fervent, profoundly visceral worldbuilding that Led by Ancient Light smolders with.

Perhaps surprisingly, it is the veteran electronic duo KOAN Sound at the wheel. Though they’ve embarked on their fair share of conceptual exploits in the past, these have largely been constrained to EPs, with their only previous full-length record Polychrome insisting upon a more well-rounded and technical tracklist that lacked narrative choice (though it made up for it by sheer groove). Though not entirely true to their catalogue, it would not be wrong insofar as to say that Led by Ancient Light is a change of direction for them.

KOAN Sound take it in their stride. Over a decade of experience has proved that they wield some of the most widely respected production in the electronic scene. They’ve cultivated a potent cocktail of immaculate mixdowns, clinical sound design and an extraordinarily precise attention to detail, and with this pivot that has not changed one bit. Led by Ancient Light still maintains that gold standard of production - the core engines that drive the duo’s sound also remain as an emblem of identity. Those crisp, thrumming basses, or the intricate and snappy percussion, or the wondrous placing of everything perfectly in the mix; the dominance of these elements prove that Led by Ancient Light is distinguishably KOAN Sound, and - to extrapolate - KOAN Sound in full flow.

The pivot acts in two dimensions. First is the most obvious - the introduction of worldbuilding. KOAN Sound’s control of their story is astonishing, told with such grandeur and emotion with a complete absence of any vocal elements. Instead they read the flow of the tracklist adeptly, moulding an odyssey out of raw sound without the need of any superficial elements or clear narrative pointers. This is not a story that is told to you - rather, it is a story you must read (or, more appropriately, listen to) and immerse yourself in.

It is, though, incredibly easy to immerse yourself in, purely for its flow. The songwriting is prodigious, with skittering and expressive tracks building to formidable, often jaw-dropping climaxes, that then relieve themselves entirely of tension in beautiful moments of catharsis - take, for instance, the rhythmic shuffling of “Anchorite” and “Ascension” that strike hard and fast and with great character, before “Voices of Dissent” completely and utterly devastates the soundscape, a deconstruction of absurd proportions, leaving “Fragments” and the following tracks to pick up the pieces and continue the rhythm.

The emotion intertwined with these movements is the second dimension of the pivot, and a pillar upon which the album rests.

And, all of a sudden, KOAN Sound are merciless when it comes to emotion. Without the constraint of a vocalist, and without the limitations that come with linear songwriting, they are entirely free to flex their sonic muscles to their fullest extent. This particular concoction of emotion is unusual for them - over the years their sound has been exploratory, but rarely sentimental, preferring the stolid nature of technical production. But Led by Ancient Light weaponizes emotional quality to its fullest extent. KOAN Sound are able to translate the grandeur of their cinematics into powerful, primal cathartic outbursts, whether that be the ethereal peace of “Fragments”, or the gut-wrenching leads of “Embrace”, or the magnificent finale “Solace of the Red Giant” (whose title seems a brilliant reflection of the track’s cosmic beauty derived from its progression). When Led by Ancient Light is at its heaviest, it’s crushingly so, like a hydraulic press grinding you to atoms; when the album is at its most beautiful, it’s filled with a resonant transcendental nature, an out-of-body experience.

To solder these two dimensions together is a mammoth task in itself, and to give it parity with KOAN Sound’s production standards only makes it more difficult. And even still Led by Ancient Light is far, far more than the sum of its parts could ever hope to be. As the soundscape swells and the production quivers restlessly and the narrative swirls overhead, it is very difficult to not feel so small, and so breathless, in the same instant.