Bear in Heaven: Time Is Over One Day Old

Bear in Heaven's sound has always been richly layered, mingling drone, krautrock, pop and prog rock to often dizzying effect. For their fourth album, Jon Philpot and Adam Wills have brought in a new drummer, Jason Nazary, and he adds a distinctive energy to a record already bustling with ideas. The band have spoken about paring back their sound, yet the result here is dense, mysterious and inventive.

The wobbly introduction of Autumn is like something from a 1970s children's TV programme – until the swirling synths and searching drums find Philpot's subtle vocal, which is a steady beacon that bobs above the scuzzy sound that props up Time Between as well as the eerie dissonance of Dissolve the Walls.

This eeriness is present on much of the record, and it reflects a philosophical and musical preoccupation with fading time. There is a weaving in of the immediacy of punk, with more nuanced influences that slowly burn and crackle.

The percussion is propulsive on If I Were to Lie and Demon, while the shape-shifting Memory Heart is full of jangling, echoey guitars that delicately explode amid synth flourishes. The latter are a symptom of something far grander: animated musical ideas that are quickly stated, then just as quickly taken away.

Bear in Heaven use minimal instrumentation to create an unfolding, generous work that ultimately sounds quite celestial, particularly on something such as the glowing They Dream or the album's most majestic composition, The Sun and the Moon and the Stars, which is warm and moving, like an old folk song washed through with moonlight, shoegaze and a lot of reverb.

This is a contemplative record, about trying to find a sense of personal freedom amid the demands of time. As Philpot tells us how dark a place the world can be on swaying closer You Don't Need the World, we are reminded of music's vital force – and how, sometimes, a song's potency is in how it subverts perpetuity. bearinheaven.com Download: They Dream, The Sun and the Moon and the Stars, You Don't Need the World