Today, Perturbator has released “The Swimming Pool,” which is the third single from his new album, Age of Aquarius, that is due out on October 10, through Nuclear Blast Records. The tune is a serene instrumental piano ballad that evokes video game music by fittingly as Perturbator first broke through the soundtracks to the beloved Hotline Miami shooter games in 2012 and 2015.

The track’s gorgeous and moonlit ambiance is vaguely surreal by hinting at a dream that inspired the composition: “The Swimming Pool’ is a little moment of respite in an otherwise mostly aggressive album,” Perturbator explains. “It’s simple, minimalist, and intimate. Inspired by a dream I had years ago in which I found myself stuck in a huge hotel, searching ever so unsuccessfully for the swimming pool.”

On Age of Aquarius, Perturbator offers up a more propulsive spin on his moody early work, showcasing his most confident, plainly beautiful and thematically refined music to date. Where his previous album, 2021’s Lustful Sacraments, was about bad habits and addiction, his sixth LP explores how individualism, conflict and war are interrelated and dominant societal forces. Both brutal and sublime, Age of Aquarius feels like the musical equivalent of a scream into the existential void.

Photo Credit: Vivianne Navarrete