Forgiveness: s/t CS

Moscow duo Forgiveness fuse tower block trip-hop with stargazer downtempo into a smeared Soviet Balearic haze, equal parts dust, dreams, and delirium. Collaborators Alexander Kalinin and Ilya Kasharokov share a history of deejaying, production, and party promotion in various guises (Michura, Ellipse) and vibes (lo-fi, breaks, beyond), but their debut was born from “bedroom jams” of MPC, synth, guitar, FX, and field recordings, seeking a smokier synergy. The album’s eight tracks float between quiet and cosmic, blissed and busted, a sleepwalker’s paradise of secret streets and low-hanging clouds. Loose but never lost, the songs sway, slip, and slouch through moonlit alleys of rhythm, echo, breeze, and melody, vivid vignettes for lone souls in the outer limits of the afterhours: “Judge nothing. Forgiveness is key.”