On the sublime title track and centerpiece to Swanlights, their latest, most sweeping full-length yet, Antony Hegarty and his Johnsons paint an evocative portrait of a world fast deteriorating. Opening to the sound of Hegarty’s patented warble and a somehow suitable distorted drone, it isn’t long before “Swanlights” spirals into a deeply moving sonic collage, one that for now stands alongside “Hope There’s Someone”, in terms of sheer emotive power and resonance, as the chamber-pop outfit’s most profound work. Hegarty, in a rare turn, shows an affinity for effects, affecting his signature vocal quavers with a touch of distortion and tape effects, all to breathtaking effect.

The theme carries over to the two new tracks here, “Find the Rhythm of Your Love” and “Kissing No One”. The lyrical nakedness Hegarty is so noted for is very present, along with the aforementioned sense of wonder evident in the romping, almost Balkan midsection of “Find the Rhythm…”. Also, well intact is Hegarty’s distinctive fragility, which marks the slightly disappointing “Kissing No One”, which is little more than another of Antony and the Johnsons’ usual sort of piano dirge. The real gem here, though, is Oneohtrix Point Never’s unearthly reworking of “Swanlights”. Last year, Hegarty lent his mournful croon to a positively heartrending take on OPN’s “Returnal”, and the Swanlights EP finds him returning the favor. Daniel Lopatin, who does business under the OPN name, shuffles and retools the track’s hesitant piano and eerie vocal stylings, contributing a haunted analog drone line of his own to top things off. A master of ambiance in his own right, Lopatin manages to whip up a thick haze of doomy, gray foreboding, resulting in a remix that’s absolutely indelible, if only for its unveiling of a whole new set of sonic and emotional sentiments hidden deep in the source material.