Available everywhere February 21, 2025
iota, AeTopus’s second release on Spotted Peccary Music, stylistically picks up where his previous album Cup left off, built from twirling arpeggiations, stuttering grooves and subtle traditional flourishes... This new work draws inspiration from the interconnectedness of our world, and thus invites the listener to become one with it. iota’s twelve tracks are a projector in the theater of the mind, designed to draw a dormant imagination to the surface and see what image is manifested.
- Spotted Peccary Music official website
"A deeper, richer investigation of progressive electronic music"
- Igloo
"What goes into the mix is not a song but an event more concentrated in what is ‘essential’ to it, the making of tones in an invisible world of sound, an extraordinary gift for hitting the nail on the head, a liberating signal to the artists of this era..."
- Brainvoyager
"A veritable goldmine for those who like to discover a rich sonic flora"
- Synth & Sequences
Formatted for vinyl LP, Urbus captures impressions of urban environments past, present, and future. Sparkling electronics, atmospheric synthesizers, and sparse glitch accents contribute to this fresh take on the AeTopus sound.
This moody, textured work contains several long-format pieces, and is a creative detour from the artist’s established style. The album represents a desire to experiment with the AeTopus sound, and to break new musical ground in the nebulous arena of modern electronic music.
Deep bass and throbbing percussion are woven into three tracks from the VARIANT album. This detour from the established AeTopus style is an experimental foray into a more urban sound, utilizing characteristics of wave and downtempo electronica. Headphones are recommended for an engrossing, three-dimensional aural experience that takes the listener from pastoral streams to dark ambient mindscapes.
Totem Totum takes the listener on an acoustic-electric journey through gentle pastoral scenes, primitive rituals, and moody planetscapes - A sonic exploration of humanity's inherent yearning for its own context. Goth, Berlin School, and film soundtrack roots lend color and texture to Bryan's spacious, high-fidelity style to reward both the casual listener and the headphone-wearer.
With subtle, pastoral elegance, a world is revealed that is simultaneously foreign and familiar - an aural mosaic rich with seasonal variance, spiritual contemplation, and ancient ritual.
"This is the sort of music one can really curl up with, full of beguiling melodies and delicately constructed arrangements that send the mind down many pathways, usually full of mystery and the promise of adventure. Recommended."
- Paul Hightower, Exposé Online
Angels and Machines is a 28-minute, 5-track EP that, despite its short run time, earned a nomination in the 2013 ZMR Music Awards "Best Electronic" album category. Some of the tracks were originally composed for the 2012 Between Empires CD, but were deemed too dark and somber for inclusion. This seemed the perfect opportunity for the production of a specialty disc.
Between Empires won the award of Best Electronic Album in the 9th Annual ZMR Awards. Its thoughtful blend of Electronic, Gothic, and Ambient flavors provides an atmosphere that balances the contemplative, the fantastic, and the pseudo-historical. Mixed with Bill Simpkins of Alpenglow Sound Studios and mastered by Alex DeGrace of Suite Sound Labs, Between Empires is also a technical masterpiece worthy of intimate audiophile scrutiny.
Tempula was nominated for the award of Best Electronic Album in the 2006 New Age Reporter Lifestyle Music Awards. Reviewer Bill Binkelman refers to this 62-minute CD as "...a cohesive vision which carries with it strains of tribal spirituality, awe, power, passion, and a more than a whiff of the sensation of ancient ceremonies...", and goes on to classify it as an "ethno-tribal/EM/new age hybrid". Copies of the physical CD are now extremely limited.
"This CD has elements of the Berlin school, pastoral new age, dark ambience and droning minimalism. At the same time, it is none of those styles. This unique hybrid has something for everybody."
- Jim Brenholts, Ambient Visions
"What makes the work of AeTopus/Hughes so remarkable is how fresh all this sounds. There is no trace of faux sentimentality and no attempt to play it safe on this CD. While it's nothing if not accessible, it's also an exciting and different take on keyboard music that I never grew tired of, even when I played it back-to-back. I can't offer a stronger endorsement than that."
-Bill Binkelman, Wind and Wire