Audiopile Review: Remix albums can often feel redundant and easy to skip, even for fans. So when we heard Astrid Sonne’s Great Doubt, one of our favourite releases of 2024, was getting the full edit treatment, we were a little apprehensive. Those nerves faded fast once we saw the roster—and then vanished entirely upon hearing ML Buch’s “Overture” Edit that opens the set. In many ways, it plays like a who’s who of artists we’ve been enamoured over the last year. Fellow Escho label mates Smerz, Fine, and Molina all appear; Smerz offers a nocturnal, R&B-tinted take, while Fine and Molina team up with Sonne to reimagine “Do You Wanna” as a loose-knit posse cut. Other standouts include Slauson Malone 1’s frenetic, dance-inflected version, a hypnotic, percussion-forward rework from shop favourite Valentina Magaletti, and a couple of edits that push further into abstraction, particularly Lolina’s, which adds layers of texture and welcome obscurity to the source material. HVAD closes the set by stretching “Light and Heavy”—originally a fleeting intro—into a sprawling ambient piece. Each artist leaves their mark, but what’s more impressive is how cohesive it all feels, a testament to the strength of the source material. At the end of the day, it’s just more Great Doubt, but frankly, we still can’t get enough. Edition of 600, and our supplier is currently out of stock!

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The judicious pick of editors render the downbeat charms and quietly reflective, penetrating lyrics of ‘Great Doubt’ into spaces faithful to, adjacent, and far removed from Astrid Sonne’s beloved originals. Variously teasing its baked in ingredients of chamber music, art-pop, and R&B from curious new perspectives, they range, for example, from the plonging industrial dub rework of ‘Boost’ by Conrad Pack, to a standout 12 minute expansion of ‘Light and Heavy’ along moonlit, Autechrian lines by an ever reliable HVAD, whereas avant R&B star Blood Orange emphasises the breezy soul of ‘Give My All’ is a bright, lustrous overhaul refreshed with tumescent art-pop harmonies, and ML Buch puckers ‘Overture’ to a sparkling whorl that highlights her collaborator’s instrumental tekkerz.

Valentina Magaletti (whose work rate, at this point, makes us wonder if she’s a tulpa) can be counted on for a dusted downbeat take on ‘Everything is Unreal’, and Lolina likewise reliably enhances the oddness of ‘Almost’ in her elusive way, whilst the likes of pop duo Smerz and Slauson Malone amplify Sonne’s infectiouus hooks with a dance-pop appeal.” -Boomkat