As someone who just this week happened to revisit early 1990s work by The Future Sound of London, William Orbit, and Enigma, I was more than primed to hear the full-length debut album from SF audiovisual project Chroma Sea in collaboration with Ryan Celsius Sounds. Portals is an aqueous ambient techno adventure, basking in the “pure energy” exchange between the physical and digital worlds. It’s soft like a pillow, and remarkably calming and optimistic even when commenting on social media and the world wide web. In this way, it’s also nostalgic, recalling early excitement about the joy and power of the Internet, which allows us to connect with each other and create whatever worlds we can imagine living in. On Spotify, the album plays with dreamy, vaporwave-tinged “Canvas” loops created by multiple visual artists.
