4 out of 5

Label: Fonolith

Produced by: Neil Scrivin

Neil Scrivin’s Night Monitor alias twists his synthwave bop towards the darker end of the dial, erring more toward fuzzy ambience and late-night soundtracks, or the faded background music on an old Doctor Who; it is haunted library music.

Close Encounters of the Pennine Kind is a score for a 1980s UFO sighting that occurred in Yorkshire, with specific concepts tracked back to some source material on the events. But even without that backing, there’s a clear story here, from the opening wonder and worry of Window Area and A Policeman’s Lot to the comparatively more aggressive Robots, and downtrodden conclusion. This is some of the warmest, most absorbing stuff Scrivin has composed, and the music has both a fantastic production quality to it – organic, scratchy synths – and also manages to be very immersive and epic seeming, while actually only existing in 3ish minute blurps, and rarely rising above a few slowly ebbing melodies.

That patience pays dividends when rare, sparse beats occur, though the narrative structure does render some moments toward the middle of the experience as particularly still, and maybe slightly repetitive – tracks that are truly more logical as supporting material, but can’t stand on their own.

However, even then you’re not dropped out of Close Encounters, rather just allowed to have your thoughts wander, intermingling with the mysterious, open sounds, only to be snapped back fully into the story a track or so later.