Audiopile Review: Berlin-based, French-born producer Benoit Bovis once gain dons his Terra Utopia guise, chasing a handful of peak-time, Euro-centric 12”ers under his Blu:sh moniker for top tier labels like Kalahari Oyster Club and Roza Terenzi’s Step Ball Chain label. While there is certainly a kinetic thread that can be linked between the two projects, Terra Utopia has a distinctly cerebral bent, mining the still fecund depths of post-rave IDM and the atmospheric club aesthetic of the ‘90s. It’s the type of multi-strain dance music that’s been the stock in trade for the likes of Priori, Maara, Jonny From Space and Cousin, a blissful ode to (supposedly) simpler times, albeit affixed with richly textured templates for the now generation. Flitting from aqueous D&B, squishy steppers, junglistic downtempo, and skittery ambient-house, it’s finely tuned enough for deep home listening sessions but libidinous enough for club use. If you missed the first Terra Utopia LP issued back in 2021 on Emotional Response, which is now well OOP, then this second instalment will get you right up to speed.

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Terra Utopia returns to Emotional Response with a second long-from EP / mini-LP, 10 more tracks that span the ethereal sounds of ambient, atmospheric beats and liquid drum and bass.

Originally intended as a one-off project from French producer Benoit B, Terra Utopia 1 was recorded in 2 weeks while sojourned in an Athens’ Spring. A personal dedication to a specific sound he loved.

Since the original release, a debut LP under his own name followed, before Benoit embarked on his new club orientated project Blu:sh, releasing a series of acclaimed EPs for the likes of esteemed Kalahari Oyster Club and Roza Terenzi’s Step Ball Chain label.

However, the incredibly positive feedback of the first Terra Utopia recordings led to reappraisal and return to the name and here again, a second set of 10 tracks (8 vinyl and 2 digital bonus).

Once more recorded as short pieces – cut loud for DJ play – they interconnect to feelings of intangible expanses, that embracing summer, the warmth, a latent stillness of the azure sea and sky. This invitation, a narrative forever calling, of long days, calm nights, the infinite astral plain in minds eye.

The ambience has progressed, beats crackle and snap, tracks visualise an individuality, names are anointed, with the collaboration with singer dvdv on Shadows Of Memories, a floating, mesmeric highpoint, a dreaming siren.

No fears, the children of the heat embark.