adapted from the press release by Ben Hogwood

Jamie Lidell and Luke Schneider have created a kind of sonic tool to navigate a liminal state of mind. Their new collaborative LP, A Companion For The Spaces Between Dreams, is due for release on 31 October on Brooklyn experimental imprint Northern Spy Records, designed as a reverent companion for psychedelic journeys born from Lidell’s own ketamine therapy sessions, which deepened his belief in art’s healing power.

“A mind is often found more exposed during psychedelic experiences,” Lidell explains. “Specifically in a therapeutic setting, where trust is key to approach issues and work through events in the way of growth. This is music to support and guide the listening with or without psychedelic sensory heightening.”

From the album, and released today, New Land travels the distance, shape shifting with sparkling, pulsating textures and vast drones that stretch for miles. Brent Stewart’s accompanying film for New Land combines three simple ingredients- expired Super 8mm tri X black & white film, sunlight and pure water from a hidden Tennessee creek.”

Neither Lidell nor Schneider is a stranger to brain-bending timbres. UK-born Lidell cut his teeth as a member of the microhouse duo Super_Collider and later released genre bending solo albums on Warp Records, spanning abstract techno to neo-soul. His prior 2025 album, Places of Unknowing, was Lidell’s first in nine years, exploring symphonic arrangements indebted to David Bowie and David Sylvian. As a pedal steel guitarist, Schneider has worked with artists including Margo Price, William Tyler, and Orville Peck. He has issued cosmic solo LPs on Third Man Records and Leaving Records, which meld instrumental shoegaze, outlaw country, and new age.

Their partnership emerged unexpectedly while working on a promotional video for Moog. Two days of freewheeling collaboration in the studio sparked A Companion For The Spaces Between Dreams, a collection of five long-form pieces that are almost suite-like. Lidell uses modular synths, Fender Rhodes, tape effects, and percussion to weave a fathomless tapestry from Schneider’s improvised pedal steel swells. 

Lidell later returned to the sessions in a window of heightened neuroplasticity, refining the material through layers of sonic micro‑detail. The result is tactile and transportive. Prickly textures and sinewy drones call to mind dewy flowers at dawn. Whispers of krautrock flicker, echoing Lidell’s preference for jagged sonics during treatments. A Companion For The Spaces Between Dreams evades the pitfalls of clinical sterility, inducing a vulnerable inner voyage.

Published post no.2,694 – Tuesday 21 October 2025