After a brief and chaotically glitchy tuning, Zen Paradox (aka Steve Law) settles into a bed of synth pads, and otherworldy synth leads accompanied by glittering keys entitled "Re-entry". The melodies unfold slowly, repetitiously and above all, with a deep, spacey ambience.

1. Re-Entry
2. Zen Shadow
3. Circuit Sculpture
4. Singing Statue 2
5. Symbiotic Transfer
6. Robofunk
7. Rhizobium
8. Aedeagus
9. DeadZone
10. Hematite
11. Mycalesis Perseus
12. The Opaque Stillness

Moving on to the next track we are greeted by more ambient atmospheres accented by glitchy flecks that are soon joined by a persistent, uptempo 4/4 bass kick and snare, generating the kind of old-school trance flavor I once adored hearing from labels like Nova Zembla. For anyone familiar with Zen Paradox this comes as no surprise of course, as Zen were among the many artists who made up Nova Zembla's roster some ten years ago.

The formula on this album, which is said to be Steve Law's most cohesive work to-date, involves glitchy percussive patterns processing their way across ambient soundboards and the kind of dark, polyrhythmic, minimal trance beats and synths that made the early 90s such a great time for this kind of electronic music. It's a sound that's not about consistent house beats or catchy synth hooks. It's dark, but not depressingly brooding, thanks in part to its robotic playfulness.

Some of this work on "Numinosum" was written over the nearly nine years it's been since the last Zen Paradox album, "Catharsis". At times you'll hear severely abstracted jazz influences, and at others you may recall the lush, rhythmic assaults of the mid-to-late 90s that brought Germany's Ant-Zen label into famed status. Other times still, you may equate the sound of Zen Paradox to the sparse, spatial style of Kompakt.

This is dance music more likely to move your head than your heart rate, and with titles like "Circuit Sculpture", "Symbiotic Transfer", "Robofunk" and "The Opaque Stillness" there's no hidden agenda to the sound you'll hear: glitchy, ambient, minimal trance.

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