Year: 2026
Label: Zoharum
Rapoon are one of those hyper-productive projects who have so many albums out it’s next to impossible to form a comprehensive overview of their discography. Especially considering the discography is ever expanding: this year alone, the one-man project has released four albums including this one.
So we’ll go from the context of our previous Rapoon reviews, which in themselves present a broad spectrum within the realm of ambient. From the frozen, sweeping soundscapes of Time Frost (review) to the tribal rhythms of Dream Circle (review) to the drum ‘n’ ambient of Cold War: Drum ‘n’ Bass (review), no two Rapoon album have been alike.
In a way, Goodbye To Dreams Of Space pulls together all these strands and forms some kind of amalgamation. There are tracks with tribal percussion loops here, such as A Reminder Of Time, but also more abstract tracks, some decidedly experimental soundscapes, and even a hint of dark ambient.
On one hand, the multitude of approaches on the album makes for an album that isn’t perhaps the most cohesive at all times. The stylistic shifts from track to track can be significant, and sometimes can throw the listener off a bit. On the other hand, the cuts are rarely heavily abrupt, so whilst the album as a whole lacks uniformity to some degree, it doesn’t lean into the other extreme end either and feel like a disjointed compilation of tracks.
In broad strokes, ambient is the name of the game, but as established above, with considerable stylistic breadth. A track like A Cold Depth with it’s haunting, cosmic drones that sound like huge metal monoliths passing by in space, goes almost into dark ambient territory with its desolate and haunting atmosphere. A Reminder Of Time with a repetitive tribal loop, heavily effected choral voices and some eastern-sounding stringed instrument – sitar maybe? – paints pictures of vaguely Eastern temples and palaces.
And then there’s A Message Lost with its jerking beat and weird, chittering synth effects which elude words. They remind me of a fascinating, macabre and psychedelic computer game I played earlier this year called Dread Delusion (visit them here) – a game with a colour palette like vomit (in a good way!), retro graphics, and a delightfully twisted, melancholic world full of bizarre geography, weird creatures and odd sounds.
Just take a look at some of the screenshots of the game. That’s the kind of place listening to Goodbye Dreams Of Space transports me to: a place somewhere on the border of nightmare and dream; somewhat demented but totally alien, and psychedelic in a way that is at times is tranquil and at times unsettling. A place not of this earth. In that sense, Rapoon does not bid me to say goodbye to dreams of space – but to actively dream of it. Of other worlds and horizons.
Sometimes the jagged, repetitive loops and weird sound effects can become somewhat irritating and grating. However, for the most part, the rather understated compositions which depend on just one or two primary layers with a layer of two of subtle effects to flesh out the sound work well. Goodbye To Dreams Of Space is captivating in a way that’s hard to describe – somehow even when it is annoying and irritating, the album remains both evocative and captivating.
This makes for an album that is interesting to listen to, and one that it is hard to remain indifferent to. In a genre such as ambient, where already the name underlines how it’s meant to be unintrusive music, this can be a double-edged sword. However, Rapoon admirably also avoids the pitfall of making an ambient album that can’t serve as ambient music. Goodbye To Dreams Of Space works beautifully as background music, but is at the same time an album that rewards concentrated, focused listening.
All in all, Goodbye To Dreams Of Space is a remarkably interesting album.
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