As one half of Arab Strap, Aidan Moffat has spent nearly an entire decade exploring a seemingly inexorable downcast that starkly contrasts the buoyancy of his second full-length as L. Pierre. Although still an entirely instrumental affair, Touchpool features a collection of live players who greatly transform the minimal spine of drum and orchestral loops into massively overwhelming classical ambient recordings. Theatrical yet never ostentatious, the record becomes more substantive with each successive listen, as the slowly swelling strings and fixed breaks reach points of near-unnerving hypnotism. With Touchpool, Moffat hasn‘t just succeeded in composing cinematic music. He‘s actually captured picture-less cinema.