Somniâs Bloom is the sort of debut so rich with personality and character, so effortlessly smooth in its glide from song to song, that itâs hard to imagine Leo Shulman even breaking a sweat during its creation. But this gem of a debut, an immediate entrant into the beat scene canon, is the culmination of nearly three years of painstaking revisions and full-on reinventions. Arriving fully formed on August 17th via LA electronic staple Friends of Friends, Bloom is an unfurling, a declaration, a love letter from Shulman to the music of his life. Now a breathtakingly elegant listen, this debut was an Apocalypse Now-level creative battle between Shulman and his desired sound during these early days of creation.

The work was worth it. On Bloom, Somni displays chops heâs honed from a lifetime of musical pursuits. Thereâs the classical influence he inherited from his British family of musiciansâhis homeland until he moved to California at age eight; the beat scene cool he devoured as an LA resident during Low End Theoryâs heydey; and the jazz chops he honed with his New School classmates over eight hour practice sessions during college. All of these facets of Shulmanâs life coalesce into this debut Somni LP, an album indebted to influences and places, fads and moments, yet twisted and skewed to the liking of a totally unique musical voice. Thereâs âOvergrown,â the Nabeyin-featuring first single, filled with chopped and melted harps and strings; never before have classical instruments been introduced to the filth quite like this. âBefore Youâ impressively ambles along with a shuffled groove, always off-kilter yet never disorienting, while âSilverâ is a maximalist ode to springtime and that first day of eternal sunâimages and feelings conjured without a word uttered.

These moments are just mere samples of what Somni accomplishes on Bloom, and with how astonishingly assured the record is from front to back, itâs likely just the edge of what Leo Shulman is about to explore. After three years of working towards Bloomâs eventual, well, blooming, one listen will prove it was more than worth the wait.