Beyond the Reach of Light by Oakland based Field of Fear is an album whose emotional input emanates from a place of deep depression. The resultant sounds - heavily processed synthesizers, guitars and samples pushed to punishing extremes that pull equally from drone, power electronics and industrial music to create something that sits uncomfortably in the venn diagram between them. The push and pull between extreme sounds is reflective of Drew Zercoe’s mental state at the time - refracted focus, instinctual and desperate moods create dynamics that never allow the listener room to fully get comfortable. Much like his previous album Ashes where Zercoe used metadata from photographs of places the fires ravaging California ruined to inform the sound on that equally punishing tape, Zercoe’s field recordings around Oakland were hollowed and used to modulate different effects on this record - allowing a sense of synchronicity tied to place to prevail and nodding towards the material conditions that often exacerbate latent mental health symptoms. Zercoe’s mentor David First’s approaches to composition and LaMonte Young’s experiments in just intonation show up as red glowing lights beckoning us through the bardo as much as Boris and Suno)))’s heavy hands on Zercoe’s shoulders.