Assessing disparate productions he was stockpiling without a specific objective beyond making music, Nicolay realized that any given track could fit onto one of three potential releases based on style, feel, and tempo. Toward the end of 2020, he issued a resulting trilogy of EPs for individual digital release, and a few months later bundled them (minus one cut, "Luna") for a vinyl edition titled Analog Dreams. In a way, Analog Dreams is an extension of the musician's City Lights series. It's electronics-based, predominantly instrumental, and bound to elicit purposeful thought or mind-clearing movement with a sense of exploration. Unlike the City Lights volumes, it has no connection to a location. Going by the track titles, its gaze most often is skyward, and its greater sense of space leaves more room for the listener's imagination. The first EP, Lights in the Sky, threads atmospheric (if almost feverish) drum'n'bass after an intro that beams with one of Nicolay's escalating lyrical melodies. "Sooner or Later" features a tenderly guiding vocal from Creative Theory and the lively trumpet of Will Allen, Jr., while the similarly speedy "Lights in the Sky," launched by an upbeat post-punk bassline, integrates a layered and slightly distanced refrain from Nicolay's Foreign Exchange partner Phonte. Nicolay is on his own for the other two EPs. Never Stand Still, a more house-oriented set, is highlighted by "Nimbus," a radiant and swirling track that seems half as long as its nine-minute running time, and "You Break It, You Buy It," projecting radiant spangles like Jörg Burger's recordings as the Modernist (with a playful jacking outro that cleverly leads to the next track). Last is A New World, an appropriate title for some of Nicolay's most adventurous and sci-fi-sounding compositions. Elements of "Into the Unknown" have a slightly menacing quality like King Britt's Fhloston Paradigm, but as with everything else, Nicolay keeps the sound inviting. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi

1		Starting Point
2		Sooner or Later [Dub]
3		Thinking About You
4		Lights in the Sky
5		You Break It, You Buy It
6		First in Flight
7		Nimbus
8		Cristalix
9		A New World
10		Dream Sequence
11		Good Morning
12		The 21st Century
13		Into the Unknown
14		The First Light