Almost two decades into his career, Lionel Williams is an enduring fixture of the psychedelic scene. He unveiled his Vinyl Williams alias in 2007, immediately establishing the blueprint for a sound that shimmers like bioluminescent glitter. With releases on labels including Chaz Bear’s Company Records, Requiem Pour Un Twister, and Harmony Records, Williams translates vast, galactic concepts into cosmic sonic textures. It seems fitting that Williams is the inventor of a system for understanding relationships called Musical Astrology — an app that allows you to hear the music of your birthdays, as well as the precise musical pitches of the planets in relation to Earth, on any given day.

Today, he shares two new singles: “Sunlight” is a lo-fi instrumental with standout instrumentation and can be found on Portasymphony, while “Extra-Life” is a bright-hued cut from the hi-fi Polyhaven. Williams’ new double LP, Polyhaven / Portasymphony, emphasizes the flip sides of his sound. It’s out June 13th via Harmony Records, and can be pre-ordered here. 

Polyhaven is a word that Williams uses to describe an image of a floating island in the sky. It was recorded using reel-to-reel and digital techniques, as an exercise in extreme high fidelity. Portasymphony is titled as a reference to recording a symphony using a Tascam Portastudio. An experiment in lo-fi limitation, its 17 tracks came to life entirely on the titular 8-track cassette machine. Held side by side,  Polyhaven and  Portasymphony contrast opposing qualities in intriguing ways. Across both records, Williams pulls from trippy memories such as going to The Integratron and feeling completely weightless. Packaged together as a gatefold LP with a lenticular cover, the records will live on as an eternal artifact symbolizing Williams’ seemingly endless wellspring of ideas.