Stream Gesaffelstein’s new album, ‘Hyperion’Gesaffelstein Hyperion Marble

Stream Gesaffelstein’s new album, ‘Hyperion’

Since erecting a series of cryptic billboards around the globe in October of 2018, Gesaffelstein has been gearing up for one of dance music’s most highly-anticipated releases of the decade. More than five years since the release of Aleph,  his sophomore album, Hyperion, has finally arrived.

Michel Lévy foreshadowed his forthcoming LP’s stylistic departure late in 2018, with the release of its aptly-titled lead single, “Reset.” In the months since,  he has reiterated this shift with “Lost in Fire” and “Blast Off,” his collaborations with The Weeknd and Pharrell Williams, respectively.

Bookended by two unusually melodic instrumentals (“Hyperion” and “Humanity Gone”), the album continues to explore Gesaffelstein’s new stylistic leanings. Lévy’s previously-unreleased tracks with HAIM and Electric Youth, “So Bad” and “Forever” align with the aforementioned collaborations. Both are slickly-produced pop hits likely to receive radio airtime, though the latter takes a delectably menacing turn near the end of its seven-minute run.

While the instrumental interludes “Ever Now” and “Memora” bear the most stylistic commonalities with Aleph, “Vortex” stands out as the album’s most sinister offering. Built upon harrowing synth-work and broken-beat rhythms, this selection evokes the artist’s famously menacing signature style while being utterly distinct from the rest of his catalogue.

In 2015, Gesaffelstein made history with his Aleph performance at Coachella; with his return to the festival just over a month away, Hyperion suggests he intends to leave another grandiose impact — one which will be different from anything he’s done thus far in his career.

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