Candy Claws’ new release, Hidden Lands, is a spacey, strange, and marvelously sparkly new age offering, complete with synthesizers and vocals that are too wispy to understand.

Kay Bertholf and Ryan Hover combine voices for a dreamy, yet often upbeat flow. Songs like “Sunbeam Show” and “Warm Forest Floor” deliver a soft, jazzy, Latin beat that is a little like disco, but always soft and easy.

The disco shows itself a bit more on the track “The Breathing Fire,” a song that calls to mind the theme song from The X-Files. It is an eerie ballad that gives way to a playful, but not quite melodic tune.

Indeed, much of the album features delightfully discordant notes. “Silent Time Of Earth,” which is not at all silent, is another example of dissonance that gives many of the songs such a playful and interesting feel.

The album is based on the book The Secret Life Of The Forest. Even though there is little that seems natural about the tracks of Hidden Lands (except perhaps the vocals, and even they feel alien), oddly, it makes sense that the album was inspired by nature. It is music you might listen to during yoga or lucid dreaming.

Hidden Lands isn’t perfect. The ghostly and indecipherable lyrics get tiresome and the discord is overplayed.

Still, the album delivers a positive and calming experience. Hidden Lands is music for dreaming.

Grade: B