Megan Alice Clune - Digital Auras (2022)

Aussie composer Megan Alice Clune follows last year's impressive Room40 debut "If You Do" with twenty minutes of ghostly Grouper-esque vocals and smudgy, snatched electronics for Longform Editions.

"Digital Auras" is the perfect follow-up to "If You Do", continuing its predecessor's dream-inspired mood without breaking the atmosphere. Clune's voice still plays a central role, mirroring Grouper's earliest material (think "Way Their Crept") but these haunted coos are married with oddworld synth meandering and subtly processed field recordings. Allowed to expand her universe into a single, slowly-evolving piece, Clune is given the chance to transform Steve Roach-influenced new age electronics into blunted cosmic noise before hitting on an almost Slowdive-influenced passage of cloud-chasing embossed dream pop.

One of the most complete - and most enjoyable - discs from Longform in a few, "Digital Auras" is a pristine exercise in precise simplicity. Using relatively few elements, Clune conducts a mood that perfectly encapsulates her ethereal vision.