Since their founding, nearly a decade ago, the imprint, Hands in the Dark, has slowly sculpted a remarkable and singular context in sound - as diverse in its occupancy as it is startlingly coherent, including stunning efforts by Byron Westbrook, Brian Case, Bitchin Bajas, Mind Over Mirrors, Piotr Kurek, Josiah Steinbrick, and a great many more. Now, to round out the final weeks of 2019, they’re back with yet another mind melting LP, Matt Jencik’s sophomore effort, Dream Character - a glacially moving expanse of moody ambience, pitch perfect for our move into the wintry months ahead.

While his solo efforts have begun to appear in recent years, starting with Hands in the Dark’s release of Weird Times back in 2017, the work and career of Matt Jencik offers a crucial glimpse into the evolving ambitions of a generation of artists who emerged within the wilder realms of rock during the 90s, eventually pushing well beyond the limits of genre itself. A central figure within the thriving Pittsburgh scene during that decade, as a member of seminal projects like Hurl and Don Caballero, since relocating to Chicago, Jencik has pushed further and further into introspectively experimental realms, most notably within his band, Implodes. Now, following on the back of Weird Times, Dream Character takes this continuous movement one step further into the beyond.

Comprised of murky, maze like pathways of intricately interactive sound, Dream Character, recorded in Chicago between 2017-2019, straddles a vast expanse of emotional triggers - from escape and release, to suffocating claustrophobia; from soaring triumph and beauty, to cold, lonely despair. Textural drones shift between dissonant ambience and deep harmonic resonance, punctured by pulsing notes and long tones of electronics, organ, and heavily processed instrumentation, amounting to doomy, slow-moving rethinking of electroacoustic and industrial music, flirting with an image of countless forms of music, compressed and ethereally floating at the shore of a distant island.

Beautiful, immersive and thought provoking, Matt Jencik’s sophomore solo outing, Dream Character, is an incredible way to end the year. Once again, Hands in the Dark has set the bar.