With Goodbye Ivan's second album release, Intervals, Arnaud Sponar once again takes us on a journey: first across the Atlantic to a brave new metropolitan jungle (L’Ennui, East River, Brooklyn Bound) and redneck refuge (Hollidaysburg), then back around through the melancholic humor of the Eastern Bloc (Na proschanie, Shutka) and finally nestling in a cozy Icelandic fjord (Strokkur, Lónsfjörður) creating the rich feeling of movement found on this record. The eerie spaces in between on Anxiolytics (The Visit) and Left Wind give the feeling of being utterly lost amidst moments of discovery and great confidence.

Though musical travel is nothing new for Goodbye Ivan, Intervals is many leaps ahead of his previous recordings. If the K Syndrome was the birth of Goodbye Ivan, Intervals is his adolescence on the way to full artistic ripeness. While still spirited with reckless abandon, it also has maturity and form and an accessibility that we've not seen before. Guest vocals by Simon Huw Jones (And Also the Trees, November) Alexandre Varlet, Alexander Cracker (Chapter) and Brooklyn-based Russophone Alina Simone on four of the albums tracks help to round out the meditative rhythms--typical of the K Syndrome--to form beautiful mini-masterpieces called songs. If you enjoyed the emotional troubadourian feel of the K Syndrome, but craved a little more direction and power, this may answer all your needs. Goodbye Ivan's follow-up album packs a satisfying listening experience into a compelling 60-minute interval.