Over the course of their 15-year career, Son Lux have been inveterate collectors of sounds, collaborators and styles. The trio of Ian Chang, Ryan Lott and Rafiq Bhatia started recording just as the first generation of New York City indie revivalists were fading, and became part of a genre-curious group of bands and artists that were looking for new sources of inspiration. Son Lux's 2013 breakthrough Lanterns was the sound of those tastes coalescing. It merged bedroom pop, classical arrangement and hip-hop production into a beautiful, shape-shifting album that featured a who's who of musician's musicians in the production credits. The band has been busy since then, and continued widening that community of collaborators before reaching a crescendo at the 2023 Academy Awards, where they were nominated for Best Original Score for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Creating a 49-song soundtrack for a movie about parallel universes seemed tailor-made for Son Lux, and they recruited artists like Mitski, David Byrne, André 3000 and Randy Newman to help. Staying true to form, Alternate Forms feels just as delightfully mercurial and eludes description as soon as you think you've nailed it down. The sounds swell and shrink, from stripped-down dirges like “Easy (Fight to Forget)” to the futuristic calypso of “Pyre (Alarm Bells)” to the hazy beats of album closer “Lanterns Lit (Singing Light)”, which is equal parts Flying Lotus and ANOHNI. After more than a decade of making music, Son Lux are still curious, still hungry for the wonders that exist in different sounds.