In Retrospect collects together key tracks from the body of work released by f5point6 on See Blue Audio. The alias of visual artist R. Cleveland Aaron, the goal here was to pick a representative track from each of his 11 See Blue Audio releases, in so doing charting a course through his catalogue and his musical development.

The album concludes with ‘La femme au port’, an entirely new track that leans into a sort of jazzy freedom, which sounds unlike anything else on the album. It vaguely reminds me of what St. Germain might sounds like if he was performing an ambient set in a disused church. ‘La femme au port’ offers a glimpse of Aaron’s future directional shifts, a far cry from the more obviously ambient tracks that dominate his other releases.

Not that these are derivative, aimless ambient pieces. Far from it. Aaron has a particular way of framing and evolving these pieces which set them apart from some of the bland sonic wallpaper that the genre has often embraced. ‘It’s Perfect Here’ opens with a undulating synth note before colliding kinetically with other a panoply of other sounds, including one that seems to corkscrew slowly ground-ward. It is serene, volatile, subtle and poised between darkness and levity. Elsewhere, ‘Hexapod’ offers a rhythm formed by resonant pulses that becomes fringed by a squelchy synth pattern. This is Aaron in slow-build mode, nudging the track out of pure ambient drift to a sort of low-key, dreamy slow-motion techno.

My personal favourite track here is ‘Fertile Ground’, which could be the high watermark of Aaron’s ambient explorations. It is a collection of movements, ranging from dub-like atmospherics to a coda that sounds like a piece of minimal classical music for orchestra and electronics.

An illuminating career survey, filled with rich texture and stylistic unpredictability.

In Retrospect by f5point6 was released February 13 2026 by See Blue Audio.

Words: Mat Smith

(c) 2026 Further.