If there’s a sound to yearning, "Lontano" is it. Berlin-based musician Matthias Grübel, under the Telekaster moniker, returns with a new release that drifts through the landscapes of solitude, filling the air with guitar-laden incantations that feel as though they could dissolve into mist at any moment. Known for his blend of Kosmische, ambient, and post-rock influences, Grübel’s work is steeped in a quiet intensity, as if each note were a portal to some faraway place - somewhere beautiful, just out of reach.

This EP, a follow-up to the elaborate "Tracing Back The Stream", is a deliberate study in immediacy. Each of "Lontano"'s five tracks was crafted in a series of late-night, live improvisations, capturing that elusive “in-the-moment” quality Grübel aimed for. While his previous works might have bathed in meticulous post-production, here we find Grübel unguarded, letting his guitar and synth-driven textures unravel with a kind of reverent spontaneity. The title, "Lontano", which means “distant” in Italian, hints at the album’s central theme: a longing for places far from where we are, a nostalgia that feels vast and profound.

The tracks are not simply songs but movements - “Lontano Movement I” through “V” - each variation orbiting a single hypnotic melody like planets around a distant sun. In Movement I, lush guitar tones undulate in slow waves, each swell seeming to carry the listener further from the present, tugging them towards a horizon that fades as quickly as it appears. Movement II swells with an aching resonance, a shimmer of effects like stars pricking through twilight. It’s ambient music with just a hint of heartache, a sound as tender as it is elusive.

One can sense Grübel’s background in theater and dance composition in each carefully sculpted track. These are not pieces that rush to a resolution; instead, they unfold slowly, inviting us to linger in their tonal landscapes, to feel the quiet beauty in every drawn-out note. The entire EP could be mistaken for a meditation in slow motion, suspended in some liminal space where time loses its edges and all that remains is sensation. There is a rare, comforting irony in its sparseness - for an album that speaks of distance, "Lontano" brings us closer to something vast, elemental, and ineffably human.

Grübel’s own artwork adorns the release, underscoring his aesthetic commitment to an unfiltered creative process. Released on his label Empanada Musik, "Lontano" feels almost like a sonic diary entry, a capture of raw and beautiful immediacy. There is no sense of urgency here; no resolution is promised or needed. The subtle layers and fluid improvisations invite a listening experience where beauty is not packaged but discovered.

In "Lontano", Grübel has created a work that speaks to the spaces within us that can’t quite be mapped. It’s a testament to the power of restraint and of letting music simply "be". This is not an album for a hurried world but a collection for those who find meaning in distance, who sense that the far-off hum of longing may be as close to peace as we ever get.