Where last year’s Kontrapoetik was furious and direct, Epistasis is passionate and exploratory, structured like an ouroboros that in completing its form comes to both an end and a beginning. One depends on the other, the circularity of this mythical figure not so much an instance of unmoving things but of action and reaction, chains of effects whose relationships are anything but linear.

The “Interlocked Cycles” – the first and last tracks in the album – are thus the setup and the finale, a loop in which every instrument and every note aims for the subtle dissolution of the straight musical line. Like the snow in the cover, an almost White on White composition, the players lay down sheet after sheet of tones that, even when conforming clearly cut sequences, feels like staring into the sky. There’s a certain intensity to it, gazing into something too vast to apprehend, but…