Sonarpilot is the creative brainchild of producer and former tech entrepreneur Michael Moppert—a fascinating exploration of sound to fuel further creative endeavors. In his ever-venturing sonic sculptures, you’ll discover broad influences ranging from 12th-century monastic choirs to left-field modern electronica to 1950s jazz – from Brian Eno to the Beatles and Bach again. After not touching any sound equipment for 15 years, Moppert leaped in and released the 2010 double album Mothership to critical acclaim and has since kept the momentum going through endless galactic contemplations.
Most recently, he teamed up with visual artist Roger Mader and London-based DJ and producer Jonny Miller to launch The Mirage Project: Season 1 in 2020—a mystical conjuring of sights and sounds from the other end of the multiverse. The cosmonauts recently released the audio for The Mirage Project: Season 2, with video transmissions from alternate dimensions en route.
Following the release of The Mirage Project: Season 2’s first adventure, “Pandora”, “Citadel” marks the second installment of fractal ferocity from the European trio. The track itself is contemplative yet driving. A slightly disturbed mega-trance that sets you on a moving walkway across galaxies through stellar nebula. It patiently builds through whirring feedback and punching percussive pulsations, dotted with subtle synth arpeggios, that complete the canvas and atmosphere of urgent ambient grace.
In sequences edited by the musical Mr. Moppert himself, Mader’s fractal graphics stun and stupefy. From blurred and dusty origins, we experience the delicate evolution of a monumental ancient fortress, with its long deserted labyrinth of soaring spires and enigmatic towers. As in a psychedelic fever dream, the holy structures of this near sinister “Citadel” are swallowed, reiterated, distorted, discolored, and reimagined from every possible perspective. Vigorous—then vapid. Shot-through. Lived-out. And finally, like all good plans of mice and men, the ceremonious “Citadel” fades into peace, darkness, and silence.
Michael Moppert (Sonarpilot) adds: “In this Mirage we have pushed the visual boundaries well beyond all the journeys that we have created so far. ‘Citadel’ is a place where the laws of nature cease to exist as we enter an increasingly dreamy, abstract composition of shapes and colours, a saga of transience. It’s a new chapter for us and we hope that our viewers will enjoy this exceptional voyage.”
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