When Solar Year first released Waverly last June, they played hosts to a special pool party where underwater speakers released waves of their fluid, ambient 80s/electro sound collages to those brave enough to swim in a potentially dirty, communal tub. The immersive aquatic experience quickly informed us that the Montreal duo of Ben Borden and David Ertel seem to have a knack for creating atmospheric music that liberates the unconscious and celebrates terrestrial non-sequiturs.

For the album’s re-release, Borden and Ertel have revamped and re-mastered their original output with some new tracks, including Arbutus Records label mate Grimes lending her vocals on ‘Brotherhood’. The result is a spell-binding exploration into the throbbing melodic changes of Western religious and Gregorian choral music, 80s new wave and 4AD gloom pop with sharply pointed production – ‘psalmgaze’ if you want a label. Their label, not ours.

Solar Year have crafted a mysterious analogue persona for their band. Waverly distinctly celebrates ecclesiastical musical theory, the natural elements, and sacred spaces, set to a soundtrack of dreamy, electro-tinged pop. The band’s razor-sharp vision produces an intensity that’s difficult to extract yourself from, especially after the opener ‘Currents’. With Ertel’s fluid, heavily treated vocals and spacious production leading the way, Waverly is innovative, uplifting album, full of tension, subtle melodies and academic introspections into disparate genres of music. Traditional sounds are refracted and produced by experimental collaging that imbues tracks with way too many layers to count. While ‘Lines’ works with staccato, fractured bass synth rhythms, ‘Seeing The Same Thing’ pushes break-beats even farther to create a wide, spacious noise that fills the room. The entire LP is embedded with an architectural expansiveness, which is probably due to the fact that Solar Year recorded the album in a Buckminster Fuller-esque church.

Pitch-shifted vocals give all tracks a new mystic spiritualism, especially on ‘Abby & Amber’ where tinges of contemporary female vocalists, such as Julianna Barwick and Chelsea Wolfe, are referenced. Grimes inflects some vocals on ‘Brotherhood’ which, when paired with Ertel’s voice, creates a sombre, prophetic chorale experience. You and I never sang this kind of music at church – nor did any choir, for that matter.

When asked in a recent interview what image best represents the bands dynamic, Solar Year produced an anthropological diagram of opposing forces. Waverly is just that: a study of tension, mysticism and some natural elements thrown in for good measure. It will be interesting to see how the duo composes the live iteration of the album, and we expect some pretty arresting visuals to take centre stage. If you didn’t catch Solar Year poolside last year, put this record on at bath time and allow yourself to become fully submersed in their nebulous aural galaxy.