Oakland cinematic and ambient synthwave project S.C.R.A.M. will release its fifth album, Coma Filament, on September 23.
The solo project of Pranjal Tiwari was built around a simple but unsettling image: an abandoned ghost ship drifting through deep space. Tiwari describes the creative question behind the record as imagining the atmosphere of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris colliding with the first Alien film.
The result is an instrumental-heavy journey through brooding electronics, horror ambience and cinematic tension. Tiwari performed synths, sampler, guitar, bass, mini-saxophone and effects, while Berlin-based artist and musician Zeena Schreck contributes ambient vocals to the opening track, “Forgotten Language.”
Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer Studios mixed and mastered the album. The project’s sci-fi concept also reaches into astronomy: the title refers to the Coma Filament, part of the enormous Coma Wall structure in the universe, while several track titles draw from deep-space objects and constellations.
S.C.R.A.M. began during the isolation of the 2020 lockdowns as a vehicle for Tiwari to create soundtracks for imaginary films, and Coma Filament pushes that idea directly into space-horror territory.