"If nature is unjust, change nature!" declares the Xenofeminist manifesto, a fitting motto for Simon Öggl’s debut, "Xenotopia", where soundscapes challenge the natural order and remold it into something intriguingly unfamiliar. Here, Öggl - the South Tyrolean sonic alchemist known for his work with Drahthaus and commissions for Klangforum Wien - stakes a claim in the borderlands of music, where analogue whispers dissolve into digital murmurs, and where tradition meets innovation in an alien embrace.

The album unfolds like a sonic novella, each track a chapter in a strange, evocative narrative. It opens with "Arche", a slow awakening, where acoustic tones glimmer under electronic shadows. The listener is drawn into a world where boundaries blur, and sound ceases to be merely sound - it becomes a question. What is this? A memory? A glitch? A ghost?

"Departure" strides boldly into this shifting terrain, its rhythms pulsing like the engine of a starship setting sail into the unknown. From there, "Welcome to the Jungle" offers a brief, jagged detour - a sharp, glitchy tease that feels like stepping on dry leaves in a forest of wires. The humor is sly but deliberate, a playful reminder that even in alien worlds, there’s room for wit.

Tracks like "Turing's Nightmare" and "Kessler Syndrome" plunge us deeper into Öggl's labyrinth, blending synthetic anxiety with organic textures. "To the Moon" might nod at 20th-century aspirations, but its futuristic melancholy feels far from nostalgic - it's an ode to the strange, alienated beauty of progress. Meanwhile, "Life is Good" is a fleeting, ironic wink, a short intermission in the otherwise dense and brooding landscape.

The climax arrives with "Apell du vide", a sprawling meditation where acoustic and electronic elements intertwine like strands of DNA forming a new organism. It’s lush, unsettling, and cathartic all at once, as if Öggl is imploring us to gaze into the abyss - not in despair, but in wonder. The final track, "Palingenesis", ties it all together, evoking rebirth amidst ruins, a sonic phoenix rising from the ashes of convention.

Öggl’s approach to "Xenotopia" feels as much philosophical as musical. His recontextualization of sound - melding the warmth of analogue with the crystalline precision of digital - obliterates binaries and invites us to reconsider what music can be. The result is deeply cerebral yet viscerally engaging, a soundworld that oscillates between alienation and belonging, echoing the very concept of “Xenotopia” - a strange place that somehow feels like home.

This isn’t an album that merely asks to be listened to; it demands to be explored. With "Xenotopia", Simon Öggl emerges as a bold new voice in experimental music, a cartographer of uncharted sonic territories. Prepare to leave your preconceptions behind and step into a world where the analogue fades into the digital, and where nature - unjust or not - is reshaped, reimagined, and redefined.