There is no doubting the last few years have changed us all in some way. From understanding individual’s true colors as they inexplicably scream at each other in red hats to questioning our individual lives and paths we’re on.

During the early years of the global pandemic, like you do, JB Dunckel began to reflect on what he believed to be life’s absolutes, “the insignificance of man in the face of outer space and our eternal material connection to the cosmos.” Combining his “admiration of scientific things” and his clear artistic talent, JB Dunckel created his first record in four years, Carbon.

The nine-track journey of Carbon is familiar enough to those who have appreciated the talents of Dunckel over the years, yet refreshing enough to captivate even the ardent elitist. Aptly sang in “Space,” among the drifting warmth of the echoing beats and synth, we find a “simplicity of peace” in Carbon. The meditative ambiance well-paced across the record is a rich, bold, uninhibited venture into the mind of a true artist. Each track exists with a common tonality, lending to the greater, sure, yet they truly captivate individually. From the earworm “Zombie Park” igniting imagination, to the rattling of metaphorical synth blades achieved in “Shogun,” to the strangely satisfying acoustic dance of “Sex UFO,” Carbon somehow makes about thirty-six minutes feel simultaneously brief and plausibly endless. It is a record best experienced in headphones and on repeat.

JB Dunckel’s Carbon is a living testament to the longevity of the electronic dream prog pop and a proclamation to the fact it doesn’t exist only in memory. To the contrary, he may have just opened a new door. It is a synth-space pop brilliance in the form of nine songs. Reflecting on the concept of life’s absolutes JB Dunckel twists the perspective into our own experiences and paints a cosmos with his sound, dotted with our own imaginations. Carbon will be released June 24, 2022 on Prototyp Recording.