Release Story
Iconic 1990s electronic musician Solar X returns with a new album, Divergent Sequences, released digitally on 7th of November 2025 via Hyperboloid Records.
Solar X, aka Roman Belavkin, hailed as the “Godfather of Russian Electronica” and “Aphex without a Tank,” has been off the radar for 25 years. He's all but vanished from the scene after dropping the mind-bending Little Pretty Automatic in 1999 via London’s Worm Interface. Aside from a few gems like the 2001 EP Chanel No. 303 (Hymen Records), fans have been left wondering: where did he go, and would he ever return?
The answer started to emerge in 2019, when DJ Nina Kraviz reissued Solar X’s 1996 album Xrated on vinyl with trippy new artwork by Keiichi Tanaami.
Other labels followed suit: Defective Records dropped a compilation with Solar X in 2020; Worm Interface and Art-Tek reissued an expanded Little Pretty Automatic in 2024; then came a deluxe vinyl version of his debut, Outre X Mer, reanimating rare tracks once buried on cassette and pirate MP3 sites. And just this February, Ant-Zen re-released Masters of Meanders — now with three new tracks.
Whispers of a comeback turned into rumors, culminating in amped online posts about a “new strong monster album.” And now, it’s official.
Once a cult hero of Ptuch magazine, today Roman Belavkin is a professor of mathematics and a world-class expert in artificial intelligence at Middlesex University in London.
The album title Divergent Sequences refers to a mathematical term — a “divergent sequence,” a series of numbers that grows, shrinks, or oscillates, but never converges to a single point.
“Music is a divergent sequence of sounds,” says Belavkin. “It moves through listeners, resonating and spreading through them like a living field.”
Divergent Sequences is a 75-minute, 18-track journey created between 2000 and 2025. Each track was sketched during a distinctive moment in the artist’s life: leaving Moscow, cycling through Nottingham’s Wollaton Park, partying in London, and strolling through the city of Akihabara, Japan. The music is loaded with experimental synthesis, intricate drum programming, custom-built gear, and fearless microtuning — but at its heart is melody.
A special highlight of the album is a collaboration with theremin legend Lydia Kavina — great-niece of Léon Theremin and one of the few who studied with him personally. Lydia has collaborated with Annie Lennox and Thom Yorke. On the track Cycler, Solar X’s electronics meet the living breath of her instrument.
“You should listen to Solar X if you not only love music but also care about meaning, sound quality, and melody. With this album, we’re opening a new chapter for Hyperboloid Records. From now on, when you hear our releases, you’ll know: what’s in your ears is a legend — or someone culturally significant,” says Dmitry Garin, founder of the Hyperboloid Records.