Some say The Essence of The Universe has been making music for years. Others say the band doesn’t exist at all — that it’s merely a sonic experiment conducted in secret government labs beneath the forests of Sweden.

What we do know is that two men, Daniel di Porto Rosa and Nic Nikita, have emerged with something they call music, though it seems to shimmer beyond genre, form or era.

Their sound is alternative only in the sense that it’s an alternative to explanation. There are no clear influences, only “songs that demanded to be born.” The band’s stylistic elasticity stretches from apocalyptic ballads to psychedelic cabaret to something that resembles jazz, if jazz had been invented by monks trapped in a disco.

When asked about their origins, they simply say they met at an Anti-Kid Rock Convention in an unmarked conference room and knew immediately they would never be the same.