"Matt LaJoie’s organ and synth project, Thick Air, is such a great change of pace from what I normally expect from his work. Transorbital Cantrips kicks things off by going full boar channeling the rippling arpeggios and glowing patterns of Terry Riley into a spiraling astral projection on “Sky-Clad Robes.” LaJoie is incandescent, traveling into the deep cosmos, surfing the sound waves like a gilded celestial being. “Sky-Clad Robes” is sprawling, a universe unto itself that never stops expanding and finding new passages to outer dimensions.

Much of Thick Air is immersive; a full-body aural massage enveloping listeners inside deep, meditative drones. LaJoie is a guide, using the rolling shimmer of “Orbital Loop” to open a prism where thoughts and dreams blossom into vivid, dancing shapes across the sky. Spiral galaxies explode into existence on “Radial Trance Mission” at the blink of an eye, LaJoie conjuring effervescent synth tones and molding them into ambient crystals. Everything moves skyward, outbound only.

Thick Air’s music is healing and as it permeates the skin, weightlessness takes hold. Floating forward, time and space fade away, leaving only a cloud of impermanence. In the closing shimmer of “Constellation Glow,” the heavens open and the purest light wraps us in the softest embrace. Matt LaJoie is a conduit." - Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis (foxydigitalis.zone/2021/07/02/thick-air-transorbital-cantrips/)

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Mystically blurring the lines between galactic exploration, experimental quantum physics, and a spiritual faith in the existence of other-dimensional consciousness, Matt LaJoie's once-obscured Thick Air alias has been his outlet for longform synthesizer-based improvisations cast in a neon hue far removed from his more well-known work as a guitarist. Unique even to this side-trail, Transorbital Cantrips--the first new Thick Air release since last summer's 50-minute, single track odyssey "Ultraterrestrial Atmosphere"--derives its outer-space and otherworldly sound-palette entirely from a late-60's Rheem Mark VII combo organ.

Run through a looping pedal, wah-wah, and rotary phaser, the instrument's limitations (in contrast to the 99-voice-bank synth used on all previous Thick Air releases) blossom into assets. Drones and loops are reversed, sped up, and slowed, notes cast out and pulled into orbit, while fleet arpeggios and third-eye leads maintain a forward momentum. The churchly reminiscence of organ tones lends a timeless devotional heft--particularly on opener "Sky-Clad Robes"--to an otherwise playful, even trickster-magical collection of improvisations, with wah and phaser effects freely offering their technicolor sci-fi shimmer. The result is a Thick Air release unlike any other to-date, one that incorporates devotional drone and new age ambience with Berlin school kosmische to soundtrack the ecstatic dance of the cosmos and all the mysteries held therein.