Hanging around Ehren River Wright’s neck you’ll find a small charm with four Latin words emblazoned across it: Momento mori, momento vivere.

“It means, ‘Remember that you must die, remember that you must live,’” explains Ehren, the composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer better known as SoDown. “That’s what this new album is all about. It’s a reminder that our mortality is a gift, that death is what makes life so special.”

Recorded at Ehren’s own studio in Denver, Colorado, Worlds Beyond marks the highly anticipated full-length debut from SoDown, who more than delivers on the promise of his early work with this bold, adventurous collection. Blurring the lines between the organic and the electronic, the music is both exhilarating and meditative all at once, equally at home on headphones as it is blasting out of a festival PA. Ehren’s writing is deceptively sophisticated here, drawing on stoicism and Eastern philosophy in a search for some greater meaning and purpose, and his production is similarly ambitious, hinting at times to everything from dubstep and future bass to reggae and hip-hop through an intoxicating mix of live instrumentation and electronic elements. The result is a rich and cinematic hybrid, one that manages to balance the visceral and the intellectual in perfect harmony as it grapples with life and death, darkness and light, struggle and transcendence.

“Music has always been a conduit to understanding the world around me,” Ehren reflects. “It’s the human experience tattooed over time.”

In that sense, Wright’s been a metaphorical tattoo artist for most of his life now. Born and raised in Boulder, he became obsessed with music as a child and learned to play any instrument he could get his hands on growing up. Saxophone took priority, but by his teenage years, Wright could hold his own on the guitar, cello, keyboards, and drums. In high school, he discovered underground hip-hop, reggae, and electronic music, and in 2010, he attended a Pretty Lights concert at Red Rocks that changed his life forever.

“I started going to shows every single weekend after that,” Wright recalls, “and that’s when I realized I had ideas of my own that I wanted to explore. So I decided to drop out of college and focus all of my energy on making music.”

From there, Wright began releasing a series of singles and EPs that helped earn him a devoted following and rave reviews, and by 2017, he was onstage at Red Rocks (opening for Pretty Lights, no less). In the years that followed, SoDown would go on to headline Denver’s Mission Ballroom, return to Red Rocks for a sold out performance with Boogie T, support Illenium at the Forest Hills Stadium in New York, the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, and The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington, and land festival slots at Coachella, Electric Forest, Global Dance, Shambhala, and more, all while spreading his message of joy, love, and gratitude.

“To be SoDown is to seize every opportunity, try new things, and ultimately live the most epic life possible,” Ehren explains. “This universe is far too beautiful and life is simply too short not to do what makes you happy. Unconditional love is the most powerful force in the world, and bass music is my way of expressing it.”