The Preservation label presents the second album from New York's Nickolas Mohanna. Also working as a visual artist, Nickolas draws unique forms from the wealth of sounds found in New York's complex sprawl and imbues them with feeling and subtlety. The sounds on Reflectors buzz with rich detail and rhythmic interplay for a work alive with beauty and mystery in its atmospheric reach. Previously living in San Francisco for a number of years, Nickolas studied with noted electronic composer Bob Ostertag, whose use of sampling and tape manipulation informs his own work considerably. Thinking of Reflectors' pieces as "tone poems," Nickolas juxtaposes field recordings with guitar and synthesizer treatments to refract the natural world through sci-fi vision. Finding the ground between the concrète and cosmic in summoning a curious, compelling aura throughout, Reflectors is a fascinating step in exploratory music's ongoing dialogue between now and then. Reflectors is the fifth and penultimate work in the limited edition CD series from Preservation called Circa for 2011. Only 300 copies of each release in the series will be available, featuring a design by Mark Gowing. Each design for 2011 will be realized using a specially-created abstract alphabet of shapes, determined by artist, title and catalog number for something both fixed and random. Circa will return in 2012 with a new design model. Mastered by James Plotkin.