“Lonely but ecstatic” is the fitting way Christelle Gualdi describes the experience of listening to her new album as Stellar Om Source. Gualdi first rose to prominence through a series of releases centered around early Emeralds and J Ferraro-style kosmische synth jams. For Joy One Mile, released last week on RVNG INTL, Gualdi has entered into a more energetic mode, but one that doesn’t lose sight of the project’s historically heady contemplation. Stellar Om Source’s new sound was born from the union of spontaneous chance and personal style. Gualdi was offered a Roland TB-303 for dirt cheap, and the analog bass synth provides much of the momentous activity throughout Joy One Mile. Listeners are compelled to enter Gualdi’s subtly skewed universe, on a world anchored in the amorphous fictions of Philp K Dick and JG Ballard while possessing the cinematic arc of film music. As a final risk, Gualdi sent her finished album to the techno producer known as Kassem Mosse for a mixing and production treatment.

The results are stunning. Joy One Mile is easily one of the best albums of 2013 so far; one that any listener could return to, time and again, on a solo bus ride through the city, half drunk and delirious, euphorically alone. Check out the Gualdi-directed video for lead track “Polarity” below, and grab the LP here.