The Third Eye

First Phase, the debut record from Circling Dunes—Rob Shiels’s latest project (a.k.a. Trigona)—is not your usual lysergic spacecraft. This is the hush after the space storm turbulence. Released by the brand-spanking-new U.S. label Psychic Yard, First Phase arrives digitally and as a limited-edition deluxe CD box set.

(Note: The Psychic Yard label was founded by none-other than fellow space-traveler, IO Audio Recordings, whom The Third Eye has covered before).

Where Trigona is a rocket-propelled trip through asteroid fields, Circling Dunes drifts instead on reverb currents and soft solar winds. It’s psychedelic music for introverts, built from ambient bones: mellotrons, loops, pads, glistening synths.

The opener “Rest at Sea” sets the pace: gentle 12-string guitar flutters over a bed of slow-motion drones, like a thought dissolving in warm water. 

“Solar Drone” rides pulsing bass arpeggios and vintage synth while a mellotron piano creaks like floorboards. “Radome” adds reverse-delay guitar and panoramic chords.

Tracks like “Zirkel 1 & 2” whisper from the edge with purring tremolos, wah-wah flickers, and shadowy tape-loop textures that flirt with hauntology. 

“Inversion” gets downright tactile with its tape-hiss ritualism, yet simplicity reigns elsewhere. “Axial’s” minimal guitar swoons, and “Distant Road” glides elegantly.

The album’s most “song-like” offerings are “Between Lines,” with its panning guitar riff, and “Hydrospheric,” with its mellow bass-and-choir propulsion.

They ground the album’s drift in something almost graspable. The final track, “Iyo,” folds everything back into itself: drones, backward guitar, and gauzy synths melt into a soft farewell.

First Phase isn’t necessarily ambient, but it meditates like it is. It’s psychedelia for people who want to go far by standing still.

Rob Shiels has built a beautiful, introspective sound-labyrinth, and The Third Eye is looking forward to more releases like this from the new Psychic Yard label.

Stay tuned to Psychic Yard’s Bandcamp page for the pre-order link.

Psychic Yard: Bandcamp