Across his 25-year journey as Aarktica, Jon DeRosa has always been an explorer of sound and feeling — chasing the delicate intersection between melancholy and transcendence. With his 10th studio album, Ecstatic Lightsongs, he’s built something both intimate and expansive: a glowing constellation of post-rock, art-rock, and ambient textures.

If DeRosa’s earlier works were all about stillness — long drones, slow-moving melancholy, ghostly ambience — Ecstatic Lightsongs is where that stillness starts to move. There’s pulse here, heartbeat, groove — not in a club sense, but in the organic, Talk Talk sense: drums that breathe instead of drive, rhythm that makes space for light to filter through.

Opening track “Trick of the Light” is pure Aarktica alchemy — chiming tape-echo guitars ripple across a hypnotic rhythm while synths stretch toward the horizon. DeRosa’s baritone voice, soft but steady, pulls the listener inward. From there, the album flows like a slow-motion dawn. “To Love Is to Believe” finds beauty in restraint, while “Why Say Anything?” blends ambient haze with delicate guitar, its mood hovering somewhere between meditation and heartbreak.

There’s a cinematic tenderness to the whole record, one that feels handcrafted for long train rides or 2AM reveries. “Destination Paradise”, sung by Britt Warner, floats like a mirage — her ethereal vocals dancing over a downtempo groove, with Beach Boys-like harmonies shimmering in the periphery. It’s deceptively spiritual, exploring the strange modern hunger for transcendence through the metaphor of cargo cults. “Cloud Formations” is another gem, a sonic dialogue between Warner and DeRosa that feels both fragile and eternal — like overhearing two kindred souls trading dreams in another room.

For those drawn to Aarktica’s ambient roots, “Ecstatic Light Transmission” and “The Bird That Hides Itself” are meditative standouts. The former unfurls in slow, glowing waves of granular synth and dying cassette decay, while the latter pairs DeRosa’s mournful guitar with Henrik Meierkord’s cello in a duet that feels like a prayer whispered into fog.

Throughout, you can hear DeRosa’s lifelong influences — The Durutti Column’s shimmering guitars, Talk Talk’s minimalist patience, Echo & The Bunnymen’s romantic shadowplay — but distilled through his own distinct emotional lens. Ecstatic Lightsongs feels like an artist looking back on decades of creation, memory, and loss, and somehow finding a deeper peace in the reflection.

The digital version’s closing track — a lush, cinematic cover of The Chameleons’ “Second Skin” — ties it all together beautifully. It’s both a nod to his influences and a reclamation of them.

Produced primarily by Lewis Pesacov (with Charles Newman handling two tracks), and featuring contributions from Mike Pride on drums, Warner, and Meierkord, the record feels collaborative yet cohesive — every player orbiting DeRosa’s luminous center.

Like a mixtape made for a friend you haven’t seen in years, Ecstatic Lightsongs feels deeply personal yet instantly familiar. It’s nostalgic but never sentimental, melancholic yet quietly euphoric. A love letter to memory, music, and the small, fleeting moments that somehow stay with us forever.

“Ecstatic Lightsongs” is available now on all major streaming platforms

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