The Sky Was Out of Tune, the second collaboration between Anushka Chkheidze and Robert Lippok, marks a departure from its predecessor, Uncontrollable Thoughts – even though the ingredients are similar. The difference is that this time, their blend of ambient, classical elements and electronica is woven together so intricately that it is almost impossible to distinguish the individual parts. Unlike on the previous album, there are hardly any opulent melodies to speak of – at most, brief hints that immediately drift away like clouds.
The two musicians bring quite different influences to this seemingly unstable soundscape, which appears to be constantly rearranging itself: Lippok comes from the crunchy world of ambient post-rock and has a penchant for dissonance and noise; Chkheidze, brought up on Georgian choral singing, brings a flair for elegiac melodies. On the new album, this merges into a single composition lasting just under half an hour, divided into eight movements. The long piece emerged from a live performance at the ‘Festival of Future Nows’ in autumn 2025 at the Neue Nationalgalerie. The closing track ‘VIII’ is virtually paradigmatic of the constant evolution of their sound: a metallic pulsation gives rise to a floating soundscape, from which a snapping beat emerges. Hovering above it all is a short, recurring motif – until everything that provides structure slowly ebbs away like ocean surf.
