36 & Zakè - Stasis Sounds For Long​-​Distance Space Travel III (2025)

Stasis Sounds for Long-Distance Space Travel III is imminent. The time has come to reawaken from extended stasis as we approach the orbit of a potentially habitable exoplanet—designated the Blue New World. Join us for the Final Approach, as the first telemetry and visual data begin transmission, offering early glimpses of this uncharted and promising celestial destination. released June 3, 2025.

36 & zakè – Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel III (PITP, 2025)

Among the many kind remarks and deeply personal stories that have been shared with zakè and 36 about their beloved series, Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel, perhaps the most succinct and poignant is one from a fan, regarding the first installment:

“I was terrified of space travel, until I heard this album.”

In those few words, the complex themes and contrasts that the artists explore through their comforting hymns of cosmic scale are summed up beautifully: when we think about journeying to new worlds, we face a collision of hope, uncertainty, loss, humility, and wonder. We imagine the breath and warmth of our human forms in a sterile vessel hurtling into the coldness of the vast unknown, leaving familiarity far behind.

The release of Stasis Sounds I, in January 2020, unintentionally coincided with the dawn of a complicated era in which each of us was confined to a controlled environment, and many relied on escapism for mental well-being. In that harrowing context, the album’s evocative environments struck a chord with a universe of fans deeper and broader than either artist had yet reached. Parsing the flood of reviews and listener responses, one discovers that Stasis Sounds I (and its 2022 follow-up) inspired countless internal voyages, soundtracked the creation of a best-selling novel, and led to the development of a brand new piece of music software, among other things.

On the long-awaited Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel III, composers Zach Frizzell (zakè) and Dennis Huddleston (36) complete their five year expedition with two extended movements: “Final Approach” and “Blue New World”. In describing this collection, Huddleston notes:

“Stasis Sounds I and II reflect on the uncanny feeling and abstraction of being adrift, far from safe harbor, while part III has a more up-front, direct sound as the destination appears on the horizon. In its second half, we actually land and settle, so it's about the quiet thrills and anxieties of starting anew while anchored in the past, with the knowledge of what people brought from Earth. We all serve the same vision in this place, and these records belong as much to the listener as they do to myself and Zach.”

Across the six-part “Final Approach”, swirls of hushed radio static are teased into layered, tonal meditations, and placid melodic constellations glisten on the edges of rich, analog synth harmonies. Midway through the movement, the serious work of controlled descent occurs, as a pulsing low-end mimics the friction of the atmosphere against the ship’s surface in a striking transitional moment. Easing toward the ground, a gorgeous, treated piano theme pairs lamentation with awestruck disbelief, and we remember that the excitement of progress and discovery is always tempered by the melancholy of some significant letting go.

Closing movement, “Blue New World”, begins with loamy bass and diffuse harmonic clouds that waft across the landscape. As it progresses, dark beauty defines this new reality, with a monumental roil that feels eternal, organic, and shot through with alien mystery. A sustained rumble dominates the suite’s midsection, hinting at Frizzell’s well-known fondness for artists like Khanate and Sunn O))), honoring that speaker-eating heaviness while shearing away the attack.

Elsewhere, there is the suggestion of rainfall, of city-building, of all the things to be done while working toward a new ideal for existence, and on the 12-minute finale, Frizzell and Huddleston run the sonic gamut in a haze of forward-thinking nostalgia. In its final passage, their galaxy of drones recedes, a melodic meteor shower appears overhead, and the ship’s engines fall to silence. Taking in the view from this endpoint, we find that the Stasis Sounds series offers a vivid, three-dimensional experience suitable to nearly every mood and circumstance, imbued at every turn with a sublime and lasting humanity.

Tracklist
1. Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel (Final Approach 1) (05:41)
2. Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel (Final Approach 2) (05:40)
3. Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel (Final Approach 3) (06:01)
4. Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel (Final Approach 4) (05:41)
5. Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel (Final Approach 5) (05:44)
6. Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel (Final Approach 6) (07:27)
7. Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel (Blue New World 1) (05:53)
8. Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel (Blue New World 2) (12:36)
9. Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel (Blue New World 3) (05:34)
10. Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel (Blue New World 4) (06:13)
11. Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel (Blue New World 5) (11:54)