Hot on the heels of his latest Amari EP for A Tribe Called Kotori, Niko Schwind turns up on the Stil vor Talent mother ship with his next effort, Inner Sky – a shape-shifting three-track venture into the deeper end of our bespoke club music niche, featuring an array of studio collaborators, including Beacon Bloom, Deer Jade and Xique-Xique. Known for his silken production touch and impeccable tune-making savoir-faire, Schwind breathes his intuitive beat science and build-up wizardry into a triangle of cuts to dance, live and make love to.

Giving its name to the EP, Inner Sky featuring Beacon Bloom is a sense-awakening voyage, but also a quest for serenity and soul-searching depth of meaning. Triggering off a lasting sense of heightened plenitude through a minutely woven sound design and ASMR-friendly use of the vocals, Schwinds micro-odyssey encapsulates all the flavours and complexity of a true electro-pop epic, built to withstands a million listens and still bring its lot to the table.

A joint effort with SVT and Gardens of Babylon staple Deer Jade, Imhotep entangles pure euphoric prog folds alongside whorls of space-discoid escapism and 90s-infused, post-trancey chromatic distortions. Co-composed with Brazils Xique Xique, Stellar trades the all-out positivity of the previous for a more nuanced, darkness-dwelling approach. As a processed voice entices us in a dim-lit corridor where odd silhouettes and smoke-clad faces emerge from stroboscopic beams, Schwind grants us a one-way trip into the zone. Its time to cast off.

Artwork by Lisa Wassmann

Catalogue number: SVT309