The last occasion that something dropping onto my doormat caused as much excitement was probably the time that someone pushed a lit firework through my letterbox. That was years ago. Probably around the time of the last solo Fennesz album, come to think of it. Thankfully, given the feverishly high levels of expectation caused by its extended gestation period, his new album Black Sea is another cracker.

It begins sounding like an alien version of another Touch album, Chris Watson and BJ Nilsen’s Storm: strange electronic bird-like sounds suffocated by an all-too close thunderstorm. The sudden dispersion of these by grinding industrial feedback lets you know that you are in a very different landscape to that characterised by the ringing melodies of Endless Summer and Venice. Is Fennesz returning to the brutality of earlier releases such as Field Recordings and Hotel Parallel? Not quite: as on last year’s single On A Desolate Shore A Shadow Passes By, this is interrupted by beauty, near-silence and a shimmering acoustic guitar. Static waves lap at the shore while you admire the view. These dramatic contrasts continue throughout Black Sea, with the dark and light existing simultaneously amongst the album’s many layers. Deep beneath the arc-welded surfaces of “The Colour Of Sea” are muffled melodies, the prepared piano of Anthony Pateras, while on “Glass Ceiling”, Bailey-esque guitar boinks are adrift on huge bass rumbles. The collaboration with Touch artist Rosy Parlane, “Glide”, is an awesome construction, a wall of granulated shoegaze guitar imprisoning something subtly symphonic. “Perfume For Winter” and “Vacuum” are as song-like as you are going to find here, but even their pristine facades are scoured by an electronic grit. Slow dissolves leave songs separated by vast oceans of black space, memories of their distant melodies fading to black. With this richest of albums, Christian Fennesz has create something truly unforgettable. His best yet, quite possibly.

Also worth a mention is a new collaboration between Fennesz and fellow Austrians Martin Brandlmayr and Werner Dafeldecker, Till The Old World’s Blown Up And A New One Is Created. The title track took them around four years to piece together, and takes almost as long to listen to. Its unhurried, stately progression is reminiscent of Brandlmayr’s groups Radian and Trapist, with Fennesz adding flickers of acoustic guitar to slowly unfolding percussion and electronics. The short pieces on the second disc are livelier; on “Tau” Fennesz contibutes buzzy guitar to some rumbling, hissing electronics, while “Jets” is a comparative cacophony, all lovely drone and clatter. “Mi Son” is a conventional yet compelling finale, with Fennesz in epic guitar solo mode.

Black Sea is available now from the Touch shop, while Till The Old World’s Blown Up And A New One Is Created can be yours if you slip some shekels the way of Mosz.