Creatively, RÜFÜS DU SOL have a tendency towards globetrotting. The Sydney trio tend to chase the artistic imprint of landscapes and senses of place, literally and figuratively letting their surroundings surround their music. 2016’s Bloom was recorded in Berlin and absorbed the city’s cold-morning minimalism. Inspired by the desolate warmth of Death Valley and Joshua Tree, they decamped to the deserts of Venice, California for 2018’s Solace. They were not alone in this endeavour. A local shaman was enlisted to help them focus the record’s broader, contrasting themes of anguish and celebration with an elaborate studio vibe check. RÜFÜS DU SOL’s method recording lends Solace the intimate yet faraway quality suggested by its emotional depths and the setting they were unearthed in. Balanced by impossibilities, sometimes it is about yearning for an oasis while drowning (“Underwater”). Sometimes it is about craving the haze of change that shimmers over perilous dunes (“New Sky”). At all times, it is far more organic than anything the band explored prior despite being, absolutely, an electronic dance album—even though, at one point, coconuts were ripped apart and sampled. Lead single “No Place” proved to be well chosen, a perfect anchor for the good ship Solace and its voyage across an unlikely sea to parts unknown—but, much like the nameless impetus that leads RÜFÜS DU SOL far and wide in search of their musical truth, they know them when they get there.