With Love Letters via Echelon, German sound sculptor Nerthus explores the shadowy tension between intimacy and control in the age of global surveillance. Inspired by the infamous ECHELON system, a vast and secretive network of electronic espionage, the album evokes a world in which every message may be intercepted, and every thought silently monitored. Rather than relying on familiar samples of intercepted transmissions, radio noise, or encrypted signals, Nerthus opts for a more nuanced and evocative approach. Through deeply immersive sound design, he constructs an oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere that reflects the psychological weight of being watched, tracked, and decoded. The result is an ambient/post-industrial landscape steeped in paranoia, silence, and dread. The soundscapes also conjure the very environments in which such covert operations might unfold: cold, fluorescent-lit facilities, underground data centers, anonymous laboratories filled with machines humming in coded dialogue.
It’s a lovely spooky late-night thing.