Junk DNA is the newly christened project from Brian Pyle, a man of many ongoing pursuits including Ensemble Economique, The Starving Weirdos, and RV Paintings. Born and raised in wilds of California, Pyle has recently been splitting his time in Vilnius, Lithuania, with his Junk DNA debut Kopk Kopa contemplating his time and place within Lithuania. It is true that much of Pyle’s works is reflective about the human condition responding to a particular environment. The slow burn of Humboldt fog, in particular, weighs heavy on much of the atmospheric compositions in his previous works, with his impassioned noir electronics deftly navigating references to giallo film scores, the classic 4AD ethos, shoegazing drift, and even overt nods to Spandau Ballet and The Sisters Of Mercy. Kopk Kopa translates from Lithuanian as a directive to “climb the dune,” and come from one who has resided on the dunes of Manilla Beach in Humboldt County, California, it is an apt metaphor as almost a Tarkovskian pursuit of a beleaguered existential goal. As Junk DNA, Pyle conjures a radiantly dark hypnosis of eerie tones that rasp, buzz, and shimmer within vertiginous orbits and arching crescendos. His tools of sustained synth pads, ghostly minor-key melodies, sparse drums, and rupturing samples dilate and stretch towards an unattainable event horizon beyond the waters, beyond the sun, beyond the stars. Klaus Schulze seems an distant reference, especially the Wagnerian overtures within Cyborg, though Pyle has always followed his own courses of action. Cinematic in scope and bleeding with a somber, yet vaguely hopeful moodiness, Kopk Kopa is another mighty and majestic album from Brian Pyle.