Miscontinuum Album documents an impressive new work by seminal electronic musician Jan St. Werner, whose innovations with Mouse on Mars and Microstoria are well documented. This album is the third entry in Werner’s lauded Fiepblatter Catalogue series, and features contributions from Dylan Carlson (Earth), Markus Popp (Oval), Taigen Kawabe (Bo Ningen) and Kathy Alberici. Miscontinuum Album is a radical convergence of sound exploration and storytelling that has few precedents. It is a dark gothic electronic work whose dense layers reveal more with each listen.

The central concept of Miscontinuum explores misconceptions of time and memory, inspired by unique acoustic phenomena derived digital phasing and musical time stretching techniques. There is an aura of doom that pervades the work. Much of the album’s evocative nature comes from the interplay of Werner’s electronics with Alberici and Kawabe’s voices and the contrast between those organic and inorganic elements. Popp, a longtime collaborator with Werner in Microstoria, wrote the libretti, which is presented in five distinct scenes and recited redolently by Carlson. The surreal plot involves a progressive distinction of time as a force rather than a structuring system, and an individual who can shift consciously between states within that force. The high concepts and unusual creative partners combine for an album that is uncommonly emotionally resonant.