Premiere: Dark Forces by The Allegorist plunges us into a gorgeously surreal, shamanistic future

It’s the ultimate neo-futuristic concept album, complete with invented language for the lyrics (“Mondoneoh”) and a protagonist known as Dragon Rider. But the music is exquisitely composed 21st-century cinematic electronics. Anna Jordan’s The Allegorist has produced a fanciful opus for total immersion.

Great news for MOTU interfaces: new Ultralite, Apple Silicon and Big Sur support

The Mark of the Unicorn shines brightly. MOTU are here with a ground-up redesign of their blowout hit audio interface UltraLite (now on revision mk5). Combine that with expanded support on Apple platforms and a still-great driverless line, and you have a MOTU interface for just about any job.

Roland SYSTEM-8 synth is free to try in April – here’s why it’s a sound designer’s friend

Want that new synth feeling, but for free? That’s the hybrid-vintage-modeled-new synth SYSTEM-8 this month from Roland – and we’ve got the sound designer of its new preset library to tell us why we should download it.

Polyend Medusa 4.0 and FM mode takes hybrid synth out with a bang

As Polyend’s epic hit Tracker gains momentum, their gorgeous Medusa synth continues to mature – even as it reaches the end of its production life. A new FM engine, more playable options, and LFO sync make this a complete refresh – and a tastier companion to Tracker (or whatever your rig includes).

Polyend Tracker Artist Editions are full musical releases, not just pretty faces [Gallery]

For all the accessibility of music tech, that relationship between artist and builder matters. So yeah, these Polyend Trackers are pretty, but they also come with sound and music releases, too, by Bogdan Raczynski, Legowelt, and Pete Cannon.

Berghain is open again as a cute, cartoony animated AR app

Techno palace Berghain has never been so adorable as in the work of illustrator Virginie Kypriotis. And now you can load it on your iOS device – perfect for anyone deep in third-wave pandemic techno withdrawal.

Premiere: Olenc’s Particles takes a microscopic trip inside a cello string

Someone sucked Bochum, Duisburg, and Dortmund into a digital realm full of VR air pollution visualization – and in the debut album, Ljubljana’s Olenc deconstructs cello strings with the precision of an electron microscope. Journey inside.

In Fracture Space software instrument, a 3D playground of sonic fragments for $12

Somewhere at the border of granular synthesis, 3D immersion, and game engines, the Fracture Space team have built a compelling looking new instrument.

Gleetchlab, experimental DAW, is now on Windows too – and crazy as ever

No timeline. No sequencer. No stereo limitations. No “included library of trap loops and trombone samples.” Nothing but glitch – so much glitch. And Gleetchlab is not only still evolving, it’s on Windows as well as Mac. (Insert snark about glitch and Windows here.)

Endorphin.es go live-friendly with new sequencer, multiband processor

The crew in Spain have come up with devilishly clever new tools this week – the Ground Control sequencer and Golden Master multiband processor, both ideal for playing live.