New Age and ambient music have terrible connotations: bland, musical Nyquil. Moholy-Nagy shed those perceptions on their debut album, Like Mirage. The Berlin/San Francisco trio, consisting of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Danny Paul Grody, and Trevor Montgomery, rival the dreamlike soundscapes of Brian Eno and the celestial tones of Tangerine Dream.

Like Mirage recalls one of Eno’s latest works, Small Craft on a Milk Sea — a self-proclaimed soundtrack with no movie. The soundscapes are grand and cinematic, but push far beyond Earth. The soft pulses of “Brute Neighbors” are like cosmic waves, lapping against a small boat. Those waves later wash onto lunar shores on “Sunday Brunch.”

The soft taps of the drum machine drifting through the drone on “Astronomy Is a Natural Science” are expected, but the band willingly steps out from the ambient shadow. They’re not afraid to add live drums and faster tempos, such as during the second half of “Brute Neighbors.”

Moholy-Nagy probably doesn’t seem like most of today’s music, but it is actually part of the burgeoning outer sound genre, alongside groups like Collections of Colonies of Bees and Julianna Barwick. Like Mirage draws from the past, looks to the future, and fits in seamlessly with the present.

(Temporary Residence Ltd., PO Box 60097, Brooklyn, NY 11206)