It’s a cloying, sweaty hotness, stiffening in its grasp – yet it also chills, simultaneously a shooting cold. Not a shiver… more an icy rush, constantly turning over and renewing. But it’s never entirely comfortable, and there’s a thrill in that, a willing submission into the unknown, a high-wire act on the sharp edge of the dialectic.

Ecstasy. The word itself derives from the Greek “ekstatasis,” meaning to stand outside or transcend oneself. Sydney artist Marcus Whale’s fourth solo album is a shrine to this namesake, an embodiment in sounds of an overwhelming feeling, one of ultimate pleasure and devotion beyond the individual.

Across Ecstasy, furious, footworked breakbeats evoke a heaving, synchronous dancefloor of dancers submitted to a living, moving whole. Curtaining these tracks, and sometimes even taking centre stage, is an ever lingering, almost medieval drone of angelic voices beckoning from beyond the void.

Marcus Whale is undoubtedly an incredible singer. ‘Oblivion’ is spellbinding, a devotional hymn carried by his vocals. Yet, “ekstatasis” remains on his mind, as he mostly sublimates his vocals to the greater whole of his music, modulating and oscillating them in pitch, burrowing in between the folds in the music.

For Marcus Whale, an album is not just an assemblage of songs, but a total, considered project: music, performance, costume, visuals. Ecstasy, brilliant in its songwriting and meticulous in its production, is a triumph of conceptual vision. What’s more, this concept is reflective of the standing of Marcus Whale as a revered member of Sydney’s musical and creative community; himself both constantly giving and experiencing, offering his vision, his small part as a gift to the greater whole. But what a world that small part is.