Costin Miereanu’s massive six-CD anthology, "PolyArt Recordings1976–1982", is nothing short of a treasure trove of 1970s experimental synth music - rich, meditative, surprising, and ever so slightly sprinkled with whimsy. He may be a classically trained composer and philosopher, but here he steps away from grand modernist dogma to explore personal, often dreamlike sonic realms.

At its heart, this is kaleidoscopic minimalism: each hour-long piece evolves like a slow-blooming flower under resonant glow. The familiar drone of 1970s meditative synths is present, but Miereanu steers clear of cosmic clichés; instead, he layers nuanced textures - faint folk echoes, deliberate silence, modular swells - that grow more hypnotic with repeated plays.

The sound palette is sheer analog delight: Minimoog, Prophet10, PPG Wave, piano, organ - all processed so that you can sense the hand of the artist in every swaying grain. No wonder a synthetic piano improvisation like "Piano Miroir" resonates like discovering a secret garden hidden inside a keyboard.

What sets this box apart is its defiance of neat categorization. One moment, you’re floating in a BBC Radiophonic-inspired dreamscape; the next, you’re jolted into a gentle, almost playful pattern that recalls early Brian Eno or Harold Budd, yet still feels utterly Miereanu’s own. Its charm lies in that balance between formal restraint and liberated play.

Miereanu's background - studying with Stockhausen and Ligeti, a scholar of semiology and aesthetics - lends this music a subtle intellectual depth. But listening feels anything but academic. Instead, it’s reflective, cosmic, and quietly witty: the music of someone who can channel serious philosophical thought into meditative, even poetic, electronic soundscapes.

One could say this is ambient music for curious souls: those who enjoy drifting but demand depth, who want abstraction without losing humanity. "PolyArt Recordings" is not just archival; it’s a resonant portrait of a composer who dared to wander inward while keeping one foot in an expansive musical universe. And at times? Absolutely magical.