When you’ve been deeply lost in the world of techno for years, it takes something really special to capture your imagination, hooking you for days, even weeks on end. Omonimo is one of those rare creations, a unified set of tunes that immediately leapt into the pantheon of great techno albums.

This might be my favorite self-discovery of the year. Dino Sabatini crafts incomprehensibly gorgeous aquatic techno, peerless mood and fearless in feel. The Italian techno producer may be a contemporary of artists like Donato Dozzy and Rod Modell, but the sound captured on Omonimo is unlike anything else around.

This is beat music for deep sea exploration, for real adventure, for laying-in-bed-all-day introspection. The textures caress my eardrums like few other albums have ever done. The overarching mood is meditative, spiritual even, but the production is blessed with a profoundly tactile feel, rife with handcrafted instrumentation and palpable humanity behind the boards.

Omonimo was made for full hypnosis, inner explorations into shamanic discovery. It hits a sweet spot I never knew existed and it may be one of the best albums of the year.

The album unfolds in four distinct movements, neatly matching its sides on vinyl. The first three blend together in perfect coherence, forming a logical progression that blooms organically, like a tightly wound jazz band riffing in slow motion. Then everything winds down; it feels like Sabatini is taking a deep breath, inhaling the little universe of sound he’s just unraveled.

It’s just a ellipsis. The final stretch opens to shimmering synth curtains billowing over a beatless plane of existence; it’s the sound of ascension, speckled with flutes and distant chants, urging the listener upward. As these fresh elements dance through a brighter atmosphere, colossal beats re-enter the frame, muted by distance to a gentle roar.

If the album feels like marching through a torchlit jungle at night, the final passage is reaching a temple, entering a zen garden, and seeing the stars, knowing intrinsically that it’s home. The final denouement is an appropriately named nine minute sendoff: And It All Ends Here.

If you’re a fan of focused, expansive, meditative music, you need to hear this album.

You can listen to the entire album streaming here:

You can purchase Omonimo directly from Dino Sabatini on digital, CD, or vinyl format, courtesy of the artist’s own label, Outis Music.