Easily in my top 10 albums of all time, and the highlight of ambient techno's finest year. I remember when I first heard it at the tender age of 17, my ears just didn't know how to process it, but now (alongside Biosphere's Substrata) it's my musical equivalent of comfort food.
At times cold, and austere, and at others warm and melodic, every track is hypnotic with layers of simple motifs intertwining to create intricate patterns of sound. Beats are as much a part of the texture of the tracks (like in Aphex's SAW 2) as the melodies to create music that seems to hover like great ambient music should.
Without a doubt, it's not everyone's cup of tea, but whenever I hear that discordant drone at the start of 'Foil', I know I'm embarking on a familiar and perfectly constructed sonic journey. Like the opening notes of 'Airbag', the twinkling of 'Takk' or the soft tones of 'Wildlife Analysis', it signals the start of an album which I know I will sound just as thrilling in 10 years time as it does today; one that I will return to time and time again after the short-term buzz of the latest 8/10 album wears off.