Review: Dr Paradiso Meets Dr Space ‘Liquid Planetscapes’
When a member of the noted psychedelic ensemble Øresund Space Collective, Dr Space,joined forces with the alchemist behind the world’s largest module synthesizer, Dr Joe Paradiso, and they released an album titled Liquid Planetscapes,I knew I was in for a consciousness-expanding aural experience.
Composed and recorded at Paradiso‘s home in March of 2025 (who also happens to be a professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT), the record consists of the three-part Swampworld. Each part is an immersive exercise in mind-melting soundscapes, cosmic drone, and trippy, otherworldly synth, yet all connected to the overarching venture.
Part 1 pulsates into awareness with multiple, cohesive electronic noises evoking a feeling of expanding and contracting, at least for the first few minutes. From there, the listener is bathed in a series of spacey sounds and hazy energy. There are periodic shifts in mood throughout, amplified by some cool, yet mildly unsettling, trippy and layered synth weirdness that seems to teleport in and out of portals that appear, disappear, then morph into different sounds. Around the twelve-minute mark, things get a bit more intense with swirling synth and assorted, quasi-malevolent sound effects. Here is where we dwell for the duration of the track’s expansive thirty minutes, which flow seamlessly into Part 2.
The same energy is still present, as are the pulsating sounds and vibe heard at the start. In fact, the expansion/contraction aura floats in the background for the majority of Swampworld like an electronic, cosmic heartbeat. Over the course of Part 2, the ambience is still ongoing, but everything feels more fervid. The pulsation is ever-present, yet seems simultaneously louder and more cosmic. Around the seven-minute mark, we slip into another dimension wherein the atmosphere becomes watery, the intensity level goes up, and everything feels more psychedelic.
an immersive exercise in mind-melting soundscapes, cosmic drone, and trippy, otherworldly synth…
With all the spacey, swampy din oscillating at once, it felt as though sound itself was moving. As we continue our journey, periodic flashes of synth and other unheard effects penetrate the swirling haze. There is a bit of a comedown feeling as we near the end of this movement, and while not jarring, it is certainly noticeable after the assertiveness heard at the beginning of the track.
The aural equivalent of seeing a light through a thick fog is felt as we begin our descent towards the end with Part 3. There’s a sense of warmth, and a feeling that the journey, while crazy, is coming to an end. The good doctors Space and Paradiso do their collective best to guide us through this final maze of psychedelic sounds, strange bleeps and bloops, washes of synth, and well-timed effects. The proceedings get appropriately weird around the seventeen-and-a-half-minute mark. There’s a sense of thrusters going in reverse and the engines beginning to wind down, confronting the listener with the audio version of the album art.
If I’m being honest, I found this record a bit of a challenge to review. There is a lot happening sonically across the three movements. These are not songs in any conventional sense, but a completely immersive audio voyage that demands your attention.
I tried to absorb Liquid Planetscapes at work but found it best experienced late at night with headphones on. Repeated spins reward the listener as new layers continue to present themselves, and if you are looking for a cool, meditative soundscape, this album will check all the required boxes, and more.
Label: Independent
Dr Paradiso: Bandcamp
Dr Space: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
