A Brooklyn-based electronic-psychedelia producer and a Trinidadian astrophysicist/sax player walk into a bar…

It sounds like the set-up to a bad joke, but that’s roughly how the new album by Stephon Alexander and Rioux came about. Discussions about music and astrophysics led to recording sessions that would eventually result in Here Comes Now, an album described as “part Sun Ra, part Brian Eno” that contemplates space, time and our place in the universe.

Featured on the album is No Wave pioneer, DNA co-founder and bossa nova revivalist Arto Lindsay. “While living in London, my friend Brian Eno invited me to dinner in 2001 to meet two of his close friends from his days in the Downtown New York Scene,” recalls Alexander. “Over dinner I got to know Arto and became good friends with him over the years.”

“Over a decade later when I started working on Here Comes Now, Rioux mentioned that one of his influences growing up was Arto, and Arto and I had always spoken of collaborating. So it felt natural for me to send Arto some demos of what we were working on. He recorded his vocals in Rio De Janeiro and sent them over to Rioux, who was dumbfounded with joy to be mixing Arto’s vocals into the track.”

“‘I Guess We’re Floating’ isn’t exactly the kind of noise music or bossa nova that Arto’s is most known for,” Rioux admits, “however his contribution to this track showcases his versatility as a vocalist and his open-mindedness towards new schools of musical thought.”

Stream ‘I Guess We’re Floating’ and watch a video about the collaboration below. Here Comes Now LP is due on August 4 via Rioux’s Connect imprint.