If there’s a throughline running across Pirog’s work, it’s a persistent desire to collaborate with musicians who push his creativity in new directions. Each track on The Nepenthe Series, Vol. 1 showcases a different side of his creativity. The album provides a kaleidoscope of approaches, from the haunting ambient drift of “Bernal Heights,” a solo cut that evokes William Basinski at his finest, to the floating unease of “Dense Blazing Star,” an unsettling piece that emerged after bassist Luke Stewart sent him a recording of tapping bass sounds that resembled a blazing fire.“It sounds like I'm playing a synth on that track,” Pirog notes, “but I’m using a vintage fuzz pedal from 1965.”