The project was originally started anonymously by the late Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson together with Coil affiliate and seasoned remixer Danny Hyde, who continued the project together with John Deek, who passed away in 2013. "Contemplating Nothingness" is the third release by Electric Sewer Age and the second one that Hyde finished alone. With his work as Electric Sewer Age, he explores the vast open space between the dark psychedelic aesthetics that he has helped establishing together with John Balance and his longtime collaborate Christopherson with a postmodernist approach that is deeply rooted in studio practice and sampling. On "Contemplating Nothingness," disembodied voices mingle with subdued rhythms, muffled harmonies or menacing string themes. Over just a little bit more than half an hour, Hyde conjures up traditional and contemporary production techniques and genres like plunderphonics, Leyland Kirby's V/VM project or early vaporwave, all while retaining his singular voice. Throbbing industrial gives way to jazz-inflected quasi-rap, autotune balladry and ethno ambient, before closing on eerily alienated synth pop sounds and a stunning exercise in psychedelic minimalism. "Contemplating Nothingness" is an album as surreal and beautiful as a half-remembered dream, constantly navigating through the liminal zone of the familiar and the great unknown
