The album comprises eight pieces built from synthesizers, electronics, percussion, processed voice and field recordings. Layers accumulate gradually before receding, with recurring shifts between harmonic passages, distortion and extended silence. Vocals appear only in fragments, treated as texture rather than narrative.
“Beneath Bruised Sea,” the first single, combines rolling percussion, dense low frequencies and suspended melodic figures. On “We Can See Forever,” glitched drones, unstable synthesizer tones and processed vocal fragments drift through wider harmonic movement. The closing piece, “Repose,” pares the material back to sustained synthesis and sparse melodic lines.
The recordings developed through an approach that combined improvisation with later arrangement and editing. Individual performances were continually reworked, layered and reduced until each piece reached its final form.
1: When the Reflection Passes was recorded in Chicago, Illinois and Vancouver, Washington, and mastered by James Plotkin at Plotkinworks. Artwork was created by Saprophial. The A Tomb Full of Stars logo was designed by Lucas Allen Cook, with layout and design by Sjøli Design.
1: When the Reflection Passes is released September 22, 2026. “Beneath Bruised Sea” is released July 17, 2026.
https://atfos.bandcamp.com/album/1-when-the-reflection-passes