During a 2010 stay in Stockholm, Sweden, Stefan Tcherepnin cold-called the Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) and began making frequent visits to the facility’s Serge Modular, the synthesizer system developed by his uncle. Tcherepnin secured a makeshift residency at the studio, and soon met Anders Enge, a musician and producer associated with the acid techno label Börft. For over a decade, the pair have collaboratively explored the instrument’s outer-limits in the hallowed studio where figures like Knut Wiggen, Ralph Lundsten, Catherine Christer Hennix, and Hans Edler have all previously called home, ramping up in 2020, when Tcherepnin relocated to the country full-time. Only occasionally have the duo shared their findings with the world, as with the self-released, tiny-batch tape Troll Slander (2011/2021).

Return of the SAD 1024 Vol. I and II collect a spurt of such experiments, conducted between 2022 and 2023. At the time, Tcherepnin and Enge were toying with creating patches based on pre-existing structures—a painting by Tcherepnin exhibited at his Meredith Rosen Gallery show, the pair’s daily travels as recorded by Google Maps’ Timeline feature—and refining their outputs. Over four whirring record sides, the two pay special heed to the Wilson Analog Delay, a famously slick bucket-brigade module made up of a pair of titular, now-rare SAD 1024 chips. And so the ensuing music is phantasmagoric in more than one way: ethereal, amorphous, and near impossible to replicate in any other context. The tracks were recorded live, and are presented here with minimal overdubs or splicing, save for the occasional overlay of an AKG-plate reverb unit, leading to a sonic palette that is subtle, elegant, and ever-expanding—like the nose of a fine wine.