Mission To The Sun - Sophia Oscillations (2023)

Mission to the Sun's sophomore album, Sophia Oscillations, is an immersive journey through the dark corners of post-industrial music. The Detroit based duo continues the sonic exploration started on their debut album Cleansed by Fire, while delving deeper into themes of isolation and lost communication. Christopher Samuels’ synths, samples and rhythmic programming is accented by Kirill Slavin’s haunting vocal delivery as the listener receives intersperse audio recordings from the outer reaches of inner space.

Throughout the album, Mission to the Sun masterfully weaves together disparate sounds, creating a cohesive whole that is both complex and emotionally charged. In the opening track “Drowning,” Slavin sings about being consumed by the waters of the subconscious on an alien planet as he looks for omens in the sky. Samuels drives the song with a thick bass line and a repeating ambient pad chord structure that achieves a rich, yet alienated mood. The title track “Sophia Oscillations” establishes the album’s theme of distance and isolation while pulsating through a range of emotions. Samuels meshes otherworldly sound design with brooding synth lines to create a dark and introspective atmosphere. "Unborn" continues the journey while Slavin sings about the exploration of death and surveillance, highlighting the digital footprint that never goes away. The song's rhythmic quality (despite not having a drum beat) further highlights the duo’s willingness to delve into the darker aspects of the human condition.

With "Sophia Oscillations", Mission to the Sun offers a deeply concerning and otherworldly listening experience that showcases the band's skill at crafting intricate sonic landscapes. The band masterfully blends organic vocal delivery and synthetic sounds to create songs as if they were bathed in alien noise artifacts. These compositions oscillate as transmissions from a journey towards a distant sun to be interpreted by the listener in their home world.