Loop are proud to present Traces, a collaborative album from New Zealand musicians, composers and producers Rhian Sheehan & Arli Liberman. The album is an instrumental journey, blending together electronic, ambient and post-rock soundscapes to create a world with a sound unlike anything else - “an ethereal journey through dark and moody worlds”, Sam Kelly, filmmaker.
Traces immerses listeners in a dreamscape that feels both futuristic and nostalgic, distant and familiar - like a forgotten past or an undiscovered future - offering an immersive, yet intimate cinematic experience that unfolds like the soundtrack to an unmade film, all while staying true to their distinct styles and crafting a vivid and emotive journey.
Created by two widely respected and prolific New Zealand composers, Traces serves as a creative outlet for artists whose work spans an eclectic range of mediums - from feature films and documentaries to planetarium shows and multimedia experiences. The album is accompanied by a fully realised suite of artwork and video content, handcrafted by Dunedin-based multimedia artist Sam Caldwell, whose “liquid light” visuals seamlessly complement the distinctive sonic world Rhian Sheehan and Arli Liberman have created.
The Traces album journey began in 2021 when musicians Arli Liberman and Rhian Sheehan came together at a music festival, reimagining music from their existing repertoires. Although a planned tour was cancelled due to the pandemic, they channeled their energy into creating new material from their respective studios in Wellington and Auckland. Combining Liberman’s atmospheric, Middle Eastern-influenced guitar with Sheehan’s spectral modular soundscapes, Traces features evocative electric guitar, Moog & modular synthesizers, and occasional spoken word. The result is an emotionally resonant, atmospheric, and otherworldly instrumental eight-track album showcasing their unique collaboration.
Traces is a labour of love - not only from Rhian and Arli, but also from the wider community of creatives and musicians involved. Sam Caldwell’s artwork was initially developed for the planned tour, before expanding into a vast collection of analogue visualisations and psychedelic projections - known as “liquid light”- which helped shape the world each song on Traces inhabits.
Written and recorded in Rhian and Arli’s home studios, the album also features sessions at Surgery Studios in Wellington with engineer Lee Prebble. Additional instrumentation was contributed by Riki Gooch (Cave Circles, Orchestra of Spheres, TrinityRoots) and Ed Zuccollo (Zuke, TrinityRoots, The Black Seeds, Troy Kingi). The album was mixed by Simon Gooding (Teeks, Reb Fountain), then mastered in New York by Rafael Anton Irisarri (Ryuichi Sakamoto, MONO), with additional mastering by Tiki Taane.
Embracing the cinematic sound to the album, the album was also mixed in Dolby Atmos at Roundhead Studios in Auckland, one of the few spaces in New Zealand with the technological capabilities to handle an Atmos mix. The immersive, object-based 3D sound created by an Atmos mix is only available on selected music platforms, however it is an experience which enhances the deeply-layered sounds in Traces.
Traces features eight tracks, each taking the listener on a unique journey. The album weaves through electronic, ambient, and post-rock textures, with delicately layered soundscapes throughout. Speaking about the opening track ‘Myths’, Rhian described it as “plunging into the heart of the sun - an immersive descent into its searing intensity and boundless energy.”
Each track on the album was created entirely using outboard and analogue gear, with the aim of achieving a sound that feels tactile, organic, and alive. This approach is evident in ‘Specular’, the most electronic-sounding piece on the album. ‘Sahar’ highlights Arli’s Eastern-influenced guitar work, featuring fretless guitar played with an eBow and processed through modular reverbs and delays. Both tracks evoke a sonic world that feels both futuristic and ancient, drawing inspiration from Blade Runner and Peter Gabriel’s Passion score.
The tracks ‘Sentio’ and ‘Immaru’ perfectly showcase the album’s contrasting sonic worlds. ‘Sentio’ offers a gently evolving tapestry of textures and soft tonal layers, while ‘Immaru’ draws the listener into a meditative soundscape before erupting into an all-encompassing explosion of sound. Rhian and Arli’s talents as composers and musical storytellers shine throughout Traces, with each track unfolding its own distinct narrative.
The second half of the album features 'Drift', a track that highlights Arli’s atmospheric guitar textures interwoven with Rhian’s synth-driven peaks and swells. 'Powercut' opens with a gentle piano motif before building into a wall of shimmering synths, while the delicate 'Plateau' closes the album with otherworldly textures - like a lost transmission from a distant, dystopian world.
Traces is a truly unique album that bears the unmistakable hallmarks of both Rhian Sheehan and Arli Liberman, yet sounds like nothing else. Its electronic and ambient worlds are accompanied by stunning, handcrafted visuals created by artist Sam Caldwell. While drawing inspiration from figures like Brian Eno and Boards of Canada, the album occupies its own distinct space as a wholly original body of work.