Belgian DJ/producer Alexander Stordiau has been composing experimental, trippy, electronic music for over 20 years.

We first crossed paths with his contributions to the 2017 Bearsuit compilation ‘The Invisible & Divided Sea‘. Since then Stordiau has continued working with Bearsuit artists including Harold Nono as The Original Magnetic Light Parade and released his own work via international labels in Japan, Italy and Hungary. His latest release continues the trippy gurgling electronic soundscapes he has perfected over the past two decades. The hyperkinetic ‘Fear Merges Easily’ is appropriately eerie, yet somehow soothingly melodic. The 11-minute centrepiece ‘Hearing The House Breathing’ is even more ominous. Self-described as a sort of ghost story of experiencing the sounds of your empty house as your deceased mother continues to perform her daily chores, the hypnotic, repetitive beats allow a restful calm to flow over you. Before long, you’re transported to a dance floor covered in colourful flashing strobe lights while your body gyrates into snakecharmer convulsions, the momentary fears and confusion evaporating into the enveloping fog machine. There’s an abrupt about-face midway through the track, as blips and percussive bleeps wrestle you back to terra firma, those foreign noises in that empty house long forgotten.

The flip side begins with the title track, another inquisitive ambient soundscape of electronic trances and trippy voyages as we climb out of the primordial salty seas, explore our new horizons and determine for ourselves if we might have been better off back where we started in our salty skins. Closer ‘The Sting Of The Lie’ is another thought-provoking journey through electronic soundscape, memories of Peter Schilling’s ‘Major Tom’ bouncing around the dance floor in our brains. It’s the most accessible of the four uptempo tracks, one sure to get you on your feet to groove to the heavy EDM beats, whether you’re at Tomorrowland, Burning Man, Goa, or your own living room disco!

Jeff Penczak

The Stordiau Revolution – ‘Skin Of Salt’ (2024)