With Sojourns, Unius (Jamie McMenamy) offers a rich and expansive album. Smooth, reverbed electric guitar lays a soft and airy foundation upon which to transcend. Atop that, Unius streaks mellow synthesizers and magnetic orchestral tones. The tender rippling tones are encompassing and seemingly never-ending, inspiring the album to seem tailor-made to play on repeat.

On tracks like “Current,” pulsating synths spill from all sides, bubbling up around warm layered vocals that brighten the music like a light tumbling through the fog. These soothing murmurs emanate from a place of tranquility and unity. With silky, undulating tracks like “Changing Tides,” Sojourns decelerates and encourages floating for a few moments in a calm oasis, a gently moving sea of electric guitar. Playful strings flutter in and out to decorate the waves. The album drifts in a lush ambiance for its entire duration, a masterwork of delicate atmosphere in the vein of Julianna Barwick, Stars of the Lid, or Pink Floyd at its most spaced out.

Unius breathed life into the various sonic paths of the album during the early summer of 2020 as the world retreated and recalibrated to the new reality of a global pandemic. There is no clear boundary of beginning or end through all of Sojourns, simply an unspoken invitation to thrive in the present. The album stands as a reminder to seek joy in the journey and the experience of now.

Sojourns by Unius is presented by Labile Records, a bastion for meaningful ambient music.

All songs were written and recorded by Jamie McMenamy.

Unius is the brainchild of Jamie McMenamy, who explores music with a focus on improvisation and expression.