The Dublin-based electronic explorer Peter Fitzpatrick is best known under his CIRCUIT3 moniker his melody-driven synthpop that wears its classic Synth Britannia influences proudly on its sleeve.
Yet, on his latest long player, ‘Metanoia – Music From Therapy’, Peter Fitzpatrick takes a sharp, courageous detour. He steps away from the comfort of structured pop songs to construct a deeply personal, spacious and quietly expressive suite of minimal instrumentals. A Greek term meaning “a transformative change of heart”, ‘Metanoia’ serves as a sonic diary of the slow but ultimately liberating process of modern psychotherapy. Rather than using words, Fitzpatrick chooses to let his analogue instrumentation do the talking.
The record opens with the disquieting ‘Cracked Eyes’. Reaching back into the fragile memories of childhood, its slow-moving sonic aural clusters are highly reminiscent of Brian Eno’s ‘Neroli’, floating in a sea of beautiful, melancholic isolation. This transitions into ‘Mood’, an abstract piece that captures those feelings which are still too shapeless to name.
‘Imperfect’ introduces gentle, rhythmic pulses that lend a distinct Germanic quality to an otherwise eerie haunting atmosphere with an icy Kosmische precision. The darker mood deepens on ‘Burnout’, where shady, bubbling modulations evoke the rich, textured work of Richard Barbieri formally of JAPAN. Then the clouds part as ‘Where Are We Going?’ introduces an acoustic piano, bringing a sudden burst of daylight in a moment of peaceful reflection.
Photo by Jackie Hudson Lalor
The second part of the album explores the mechanics of recovery. ‘Shielding From The Past’ utilises an ambient drone that is beautifully countered by a melodic call, acting as a metaphor for the psychological walls people build and the courage it takes to dismantle them. ‘What If Everything Goes Right?’ blends a cascading sequencer run with the haunting snaps of a synthetic male choir in a hopeful highlight to savour.
The emotional centrepiece of ‘Metanoia’ is undoubtedly ‘The Hope’, an 11 minute collaboration with Vince Clarke; here he applies his signature melodic textures to Fitzpatrick’s cerebral lattice. The resulting soundscape echoes Clarke’s ambient collaborations with Martyn Ware on ‘Pretentious’ and ‘Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle’ for an expression of restraint where hopelessness and hope exist alongside each other.
‘Metanoia’ is CIRCUIT3’s journey into electronic minimalism for a vulnerable and deeply cinematic piece of art. It is an illustrious body of work that deserves to be savoured for its undoubted and intended therapeutic possibilities.
‘Metanoia – Music From Therapy’ is released by Mortality Tables on 14th August 2026, available as a CD and vinyl LP from https://circuit3.bandcamp.com/ or download from https://mortalitytables.bandcamp.com/
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Text by Chi Ming Lai
10th August 2026
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