Driven by questions related to the fluidity of his own identity, as well as the unusual stretch of time the past years have provided to investigate oneself, ‘The Sun Is Parallel’ is informed by musical movements from Sun Ra to hauntology. The record’s cosmic, intuitive mood is evident immediately from opening salvo ‘Fountain’, leading into ‘Domo’, a tapestry of knotty drums against a backdrop of guitar licks reminiscent of a Morricone score.

The fervent acid funk of ‘Rowndbass Acid’ releases the endorphins associated with Aslan’s many hours stood in the DJ booth, but ‘If I Can Belong Anywhere’ pulls the rug back into more searching territory, a beautiful but melancholy drone displaced with thundering drums. “What you’ve got to remember”, intones the voice of James Baldwin, “is that everyone you’re looking at is also you.”

Aslan underscores his belief in human, creative connection with two collaborative pieces central to the vision of ‘The Sun Is Parallel’. Alongside the Spanish-born singer Niño de Elche, ‘Tangerine’ delves into flamenco inspiration for a searing mini-epic that unfurls like the peel of its namesake, before bottling the groove and virtuoso guitar for a near- instrumental accompaniment, ‘Tangerine Sun’, the most subtle of acid lines nudging back toward the dancefloor.

‘Garden’ features the contribution of Valentina Magaletti, one of the finest drummers playing in the world today. Known for her work alongside Nicolas Jaar, Thurston Moore and as part of the band Vanishing Twin, Magaletti’s sensitive, hyper-detailed percussion blends with Aslan’s elegaic synthesized atmosphere to paint a sonic picture of a mysterious oasis.

At the LP’s conclusion, Aslan loops both musically and thematically back to the philosophical crux of ‘The Sun Is Parallel’, ending with the humane glitch of ‘Everyone Is Also You’. It’s a hopeful note, recalling another of the thoughtful vocal samples buried within Aslan’s evocative and hopeful instrumental passages.

“In a way, the world is a huge musical composition, going on all the time, without a beginning, and presumably, without an ending”, considers Canadian composer & environmentalist R. Murray Schaefer on ‘Private Soundscape’. “We can improve it or we can destroy it… That’s all up to us.”