Shine

"Shine" is a beautiful and intriguing release, alternating as it does between uplifting and wistful.

Superficially at least, the album might be the soundtrack to the artist's, Alexandr Lopatko, ideal summer vacation: happy times spent with friends and family at a much-loved ocean-side getaway.

Laid-back and uplifting beat-driven tracks such as the anthemic "Airplane" and "Kaleidoscope" are immediate and rooted in the now.

Ever-present, though, even in those blissed-out moments, is a feeling of longing for the happy and carefree times in childhood that inspired them.

At the intersection of these two worlds is "Sky" where we walk a tightrope between the real and the remembered. Gentle synthetic strings and squelchy electronic musings set a mournful tone and invite us to daydream, but we are soon returned to the shores of reality by a wave of deep bass and shiny metallic beats.

When we are finally permitted to drift away, in "In Psychedelic Shine" and "Summer Whitephone", Alex treats us to exquisite ambient visions of vast open seascapes bathed in the glow of the setting sun.

— Dan