There’s a sense throughout Eyes to See and Ears to Hear that ~ isn’t trying to tell you where he’s arrived. He’s more interested in showing you the road.
The Adelaide artist, formerly known as Ridgy, has spent years using music as a way of making sense of his inner and outer worlds. Since beginning to release music under the Ridgy name in 2020, he’s worked alongside underground artists including MAVI and Camden Malik, as well as the creative collective Hidden Renaissance. But the shift toward ~ feels like more than a change in name. It reflects an ongoing search — a willingness to move toward what isn’t known and document whatever he finds there.
That sense of searching sits at the heart of Eyes to See and Ears to Hear. The album is spiritual without being preachy, and it makes for an introspective listen without becoming weighed down by itself. Across psychedelic samples, warm atmospheres and hypnotic grooves, ~ finds a space where uncertainty and hope can exist together.
The opening track, “The road I go,” immediately establishes that feeling. Layered, reverb-soaked samples drift over rich bass as ~ settles into a hypnotic flow, his writing circling around direction, purpose and the quiet determination to keep moving. The KAYEMJAE-assisted “I’ll get to where I’m going,” contains a title that feels less like a declaration of certainty than a decision to trust the process. The track brings a little more grit into the album’s world, balancing gospel warmth against raw sonics and verses about resilience and intention.
There’s something particularly human about that tension. Eyes to See and Ears to Hear doesn’t present self-growth as some clean, linear process. Its spirituality feels rooted in experience — in setbacks, doubt, reflection and the choice to keep going anyway.
“A walk in my mind” turns that inward. Hazy and slightly dreamlike, the track moves through glitchy percussion and memorable grooves while ~ paints an increasingly vivid picture of his own headspace. It feels like being allowed to wander somewhere private for a few minutes, with the music acting less as a backdrop than as a map.
That inwardness reaches another point on “Jacob’s ladder,” featuring austin fox. The production takes its time, gradually building into something soulful and subtly intense. There’s no rush to reach the emotional peak; the song lets its weight accumulate naturally, giving both artists room to sit with what they’re saying.
“Brand new day” closes the album, and it leaves it somewhere different from where it began. Its crystalline soundscape carries a tangible feeling of relief, but not the kind that comes from having everything figured out. It’s the relief of having made it through something. Of waking up and realizing that, despite everything, there’s still another day ahead.
That might be what makes Eyes to See and Ears to Hear resonate. Beneath the psychedelic textures and carefully constructed production is a fairly simple human impulse: to understand where you are, to understand how you got there, and to believe there’s somewhere worth going next.
~ has always treated music as a means of exploring his relationship with the world and with spirit. On this album, that exploration becomes particularly vivid. The songs feel like fragments collected along the way — moments of doubt, conviction, struggle, gratitude and renewed perspective.
There are no easy answers here, and thankfully, the album doesn’t pretend there are. Instead, Eyes to See and Ears to Hear finds something meaningful in the act of looking and listening itself.
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