Easy listening isn’t so easy to make interesting, but Simi Sohota has reengineered the power of the calm vibe with Paradise, his fourth full-length effort with his band Healing Potpourri. A bouquet of chamber pop, yacht and kraut rock with a surf-sided breeze spelling its way in from the cosmos, Sohota – alongside producer and collaborator Sean O’Hagan (who has worked with Stereolab, and quite contextually relevant here, gotten near to a failed-to-launch Beach Boys comeback project back in the ‘90s) – have created an album that indulges in soft rays of sunlight and sighed reflections on connections through organic highs and interstellar journeys of the self that see every color in this strange human experience. The San Francisco musician’s craft evolves more ornately than a mere chill with Hagan’s assist as well, adding strings, horn, and contemporary piano sections around alien synth signals, projecting the mind from different astral planes. It makes for a true paradise away from anything resembling what we feel here in this world.

Highlights: “Wind”, “Fireworks”, “Here”

Healing Potpourri’s Paradise is available now on Run for Cover Records.

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