Blue Lake - Sun Arcs Vinyl LP

American-born, Copenhagen-based artist Jason Dungan, working under the name Blue Lake, returns with Sun Arcs, his latest longform album on the Tonal Union imprint. Following 2022’s Stikling—which earned a Danish Music Awards nomination and praise from The Hum blog alongside artists like Jack Rollo and Carla dal Forno—Sun Arcs builds on Dungan’s reputation as a singular voice in contemporary experimental music. A self-taught musician and instrument builder, Dungan has long favored constructing his own multi-string instruments, including a distinctive 48-string hybrid zither, to carve out a sound world that moves fluidly between ambient improvisation, off-kilter folk, and minimalist acoustic textures.

The album was conceived during a weeklong retreat to Andersabo, a rustic cabin in the Swedish woods where Dungan has hosted residencies and performances since 2016. Isolated from everyday noise, he wrote one to two pieces a day, drawing inspiration from the sun’s slow trajectory and his daily walks with his dog through the forest. That immersion in natural cycles threads through Sun Arcs, which reflects both Dungan’s dual identity as an American living in Scandinavia and his deepening relationship with Denmark’s landscapes of marshland and coastal solitude. The result is his most accomplished work to date: an intimate self-portrait that captures the shifting balance of nature, the passing of seasons, and a renewed sense of joy in exploration.