Jacob Long has been releasing dark, eerie soundscapes as Earthen Sea since the early 2000s, when he was a member of the Dischord-signed post-hardcore band Black Eyes.

His solo project was less active during the late 2000s and early 2010s, when he and fellow Black Eyes alumni Daniel Martin-McCormick were playing tribal post-punk as part of Mi Ami.

While that group eventually started making hazy, lo-fi house music similar to Martin-McCormick's work as Ital, releasing the 2012 album Decade on the Los Angeles-based 100% Silk label, Long went in a much more reserved direction when he began incorporating beats into his solo work.

Rather than sunny, playful club tracks, his beat-driven excursions are sparse, solemn, and introspective.

Following releases on Martin-McCormick's Lovers Rock and Nicolas Jaar's Other People, An Act of Love is Earthen Sea's initial release for Kranky, and it makes sense that the project would become labelmates with ambient techno artists like Loscil and Ethernet.

Some of the tracks feature crisp, shuffling beats, which have a bit of a nervous jitter to them, but they're set atop glacial synths and icy pianos.

When the tracks are beatless, they sound like the musical equivalent of distant waves rushing deep in the night.

What Long does isn't exactly complicated, at least on the surface, but it's still highly immersive and quite gorgeous.

Recommended for fans of Rafael Anton Irisarri's work as the Sight Below, Deepchord, Bvdub, and of course most artists on Kranky.