“Invisible Places” by Martin Stürtzer

Over the years, Martin Stürtzer has become one of our most reliable purveyors of dub-inflected ambient techno, both in his YouTube home concerts and on releases like 2025’s Auralume and 2022’s Between the Worlds. For his most recent release, however, Stürtzer eschews his usual dub stylings altogether, and instead, opts for what what he calls “a more meditative and ‘earthy’ character.”

His trademark quality and attention to detail are still readily apparent throughout Invisible Places, only this time, Stürtzer weds his atmospherics to ceremonial percussion and plaintive string-like movements. And in the case of the opening title track, the result is captivating. Reminiscent of Robert Rich’s stirring arrangements on 1994’s Propagation, “Invisible Places”’s twelve minutes are a far cry from the more cosmically oriented sounds that Stürtzer typically explores. But they’re no less otherworldly, evoking sacred and exotic spaces located right here, on our own terrestrial sphere.