“A mind is often found more exposed during psychedelic experiences,” Jamie Lidell explains on the Bandcamp page of A Companion for the Spaces Between Dreams. “Specifically in a therapeutic setting, where trust is key to approach issues and work through events in the way of growth. This is music to support and guide the listening with or without psychedelic sensory heightening.”
On this new record, Lidell utilizes modular synths, Fender Rhodes, tape effects, and percussion. Meanwhile, Luke Schneider employs interplanetary swaths of pedal steel to create a listening experience that can bolster a psychedelic trip or provide a pure, adventurous, and ambient sonic ride. Either way, the record is a unique, deeply enjoyable experience.
Lidell was a member of the microhouse duo Super_Collider before releasing solo albums on Warp Records, which ran the gamut from techno to neo-soul. Schneider’s pedal steel has appeared on works by Margo Price, William Tyler, and Orville Peck, and his own solo discography also spans multiple genres. The two met while working on a promotional video for Moog, and two days of intense studio collaboration planted a seed for this new album.
Opening with the mysterious, lush, cinematic “New Land”, Lidell’s synth sequences suggest a deeply melodic affinity for Laurie Spiegel, while the pedal steel-infused waves of sound offer up a grand, orchestral sweep. The spine of “The Passing” is primarily the repetitive two-note pedal steel sequence from Schneider, which offers an updated take on the “ambient country” genre. Still, the song often stops in the middle of a great idea to advocate for another, even better one. Sometimes melodies suddenly end, and a new wave of effects takes over. Ambient soundscapes have never sounded fresher or more imaginative.
There’s a deep, ethereal beauty to tracks like “Serene Velocity”, which sounds like a film score for dreams, and “The Story of Your Life”, which masterfully blends the subtle desert vibe of pedal steel with spacey synth beds. However, the closing track, the epic “Left to Heaven”, combines all the best elements of the record. The tingling, ASMR-like percussion taps that begin the song lead to more mysterious pedal steel swells, followed by beefy, low-end synth beds, swirling melodies, and finally, a perfectly executed denouement where both the keyboards and guitar interlock to a blissful conclusion.
It’s easy to describe lush instrumental soundscapes as “dreamlike”; there’s always a sense of ethereal, semi-conscious bliss to the best of it. However, Jamie Lidell and Luke Schneider have taken that concept to a very deliberate and conscious extreme. By creating music with a specific, therapeutic purpose, their collective talents have delivered an otherworldly soundtrack to dreams—and the spaces between them.