Too chill for the dancefloor but too evocative to be ambient, Soul Cleanser succeeds as the best of both sonic worlds

Being loud is one way to get noticed. But if that’s all there is, it becomes white noise, which ultimately lulls more than it impresses. Take this loud world we’re living in. Everything’s at maximum all the goddamn time, yet we live in a state of obliviousness that’s never been deeper.

Orlando electronic artist Soul Cleanser, however, takes the reverse tack. “Some time ago, I went out to dinner with some friends and somebody said that they needed some water to cleanse their palate,” he says. “And in that moment, I thought to myself, ‘Wow. Imagine that but for your soul.’ And that’s how Soul Cleanser was born.”

Although not even a year old, this prolific project has already been featured at Circuit Church and amassed a catalog of three full-length albums, two EPs and more than a dozen singles. Counter to the sturm und drang of the world around us, Soul Cleanser’s sound is an immediate relief and refuge. Tranquil though it is, the music isn’t just background atmosphere. His latest album, The Source, is a nine-track sanctuary of distilled work that occupies a stylishly liminal space in electronic music. It’s too chill to be dance but too evocative to be ambient, all the while wielding the virtues of both. 

The Source drifts fluidly between Berlin School-style electronica, synthwave and downtempo. It sometimes verges on microhouse (“World Collapsing”), though always leans more toward the lounge than the dance floor. Sometimes airy (“I Would Prefer Not To”), sometimes dramatic (“The Old Gods”), but always sleekly minimal, the album occupies a tastefully insular zone that’s supremely comfortable in its restraint.

“I wanted to create music that allows you to have a moment and enter your inner world and be at peace within yourself,” says Soul Cleanser. “This world that we’re living in — with all this overstimulation and hyper productivity and civil unrest — has kept people away [from] looking inward and valuing the magic and the beauty in and around them that they’ve been forced to ignore in favor of the empty promises of our society.”

Against the numbing blizzard of modern life, the concentrated serenity of The Source is a jolt of pure, crystal clarity. It now streams exclusively on Bandcamp.

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