Si Matthews's Carpe Sonum debut, Tales of Ten Worlds, glorified the Namlook template to usher in new vistas of expansive headtones; to mix Fax-ian metaphors, something like an ‘environmental space music’ that trafficked in Germanic kosmische traditions while not becoming wholly subservient to them. On Across the Ether, Matthews’ manages to find a way deeper into the cosmos with a purity of essence and engulfing outreach, using a broad range of merry modules to free your mind for your soul to follow. Beginning with the prickly drone clusters, shimmering galactic bubblewrap, and moog-esque whoosh of opener “The Search”, snatches of abandoned astronauts dialog frozen in a distant quasar’s bandwidth eerily paint a picture of beings trapped in all-encompassing voids, the light of farflung orbs their only accompanying illumination.