Obviously right after Sneak Illuminator Ep, Illumination Lp arrives. And it is an Illumination worthy of the name as the german musical blacksmith delivers here luminous musical landscapes for his first ever "gatefold 3 records lp" album. Bars that take shape and lose their shape before getting back to their initial shape, or not exactly; bars that warp and merge, bars that lighten and expand, bars that escape and return, bars that are going forward and backward then backward and forward, finding their fate like living items. It is what this album is all about: Music pushed to what has eventually nothing to do with music, known as the art of going from A to B with whatever happening in between A and B. Or does the intention of pushing music to what has nothing to do with music, always has been the target, the intention of musicians since the stoneage? Maybe. Thats why "Illumination", the title that Stephan has chosen for this new album is relevant in more than one way. First, because the perfectly balanced contrast between what we'd call "repetitive background", and what we'd rather call "modulated foreground", brings a highly visual sounding panorama, full of details, almost touchable as some moments feel both like a flash that gets out of the speaker, and something materially concrete that one could take in hands like slippery modelling clay or flowing marshmallow. And secondly because the way each track is built, with meticulous and subtle micro-progressions spontaneously bring an illumination in the truest sense of the word, might it be religious or just a matter of consciousness, no one listening this album in the right conditions, could escape that illumination. Hopefully, it should not be mistakenly understood. Neither this album or the purpose of this write up is to make "Illumination" a technical showcase - There is more than twenty years of crafting, recording and tweakling every available waveform and sound behind this album, no doubt it can be heard -, it is far beyond technically, yes. But most of all, it is electronic music at it's highest level of beauty and finesse. A very important addition in this artist's already extended disography and an important step for Goldmin too, mostly as we're celebrating our 10 years birthday this year.