about the record

Two years after first appearing on Balmat with 1977, Mike Paradinas returns with 1979. The sense of continuity between the two records is clear, and not only from their titles. Both capture the Planet Mu head venturing into the wilderness, seeking something half-formed, memories and thoughts caught in midair, within some of the most abstract and searching music he has released.

Like 1977, 1979 surveys a synth-heavy array of ethereal soundscapes, ominous crevasses, and strange, psychedelic fugues. As with its predecessor, the album’s atmospheric character sets it apart from much of the work Paradinas has released as µ-Ziq on Planet Mu. It is not strictly an ambient record, but it comes close, as close as this famously mutable artist ever comes to inhabiting a particular genre.

Paradinas’ inspiration for the record began during visits to the Spanish cities of Ávila and Majadahonda, where his family hails from. That may account for the sense that spirits flit through this music, presences you can intuit if not quite grasp. Yet 1979 is also a record to meet on your own terms, one that invites listeners to find their own meanings within it.