For a man that’s been continually inspired by the Vancouver weather, it’s rather fortuitous that local electronic and indie-pop producer Loig Morin’s ode to the more frigid temperatures melting away was released at the tail end of a heat dome in his hometown. The third in his series of season-based projects, Adieu Hiver – or “Goodbye Winter” – is the first one that’s not directly named after the season itself, instead seeing Morin switch up his approach creatively: instead of the sounds on display representing all of a season’s joys, Morin’s latest feels like two seasons doing battle.

Now accompanying Morin’s typical bright acoustics and upbeat pop melodies, most of the tracks here are carried by synthetic, distorted and filtered synth work. Because predicting where a Loig Morin song will end up is nearly impossible, as many of these tunes continue to shift through two or three different phases before they reach their conclusion, these chaotic and icy moments, usually accompanied by metallic, industrial crashes of percussion, almost feel like they’re threatening to derail the song. Morin’s vocals often get stretched out or sent flying into the void without warning. But Morin’s love for indie-pop and 80s new wave – “Baisers de Savoie” has to be his greatest homage to that genre yet – always storms back to reclaim things with more celebratory and jubilant tones, heralding the arrival of spring and dampening all that represents the below-zero.

Sung almost entirely in French as usual, Morin’s deep vocals continue to add a level of conviction that bridges language barriers. He refers to his studio as a lab, and listening to Adieu Hiver certainly feels like witnessing a mad scientist creative at play, waiting to see which quirky new sounds and cinematic worlds he can create.

Read our interview with Loig Morin!