Swine | Blood MonthMuteant Sounds (DL) Terrific drawn out swells, like the wake of a slow-cruising barge or a very large school of marine life, epitomize Blood Month by Swine. Aquatic lurking hisses and gurgles form the eerie ambiances produced by the unique instrumentation within this album. One can recognize the sax (Tim Hill) presence […]
Maeror Tri (1988-1997) was the prior identity to work by Stefan Knappe (Baraka H), Martin Gitschel (GLIT[s]CH) and Helge S. Moune – Knappe and Gitschel would continue on as Troum, who are still quite active. Their prolific brand of ambient/drone is one of the unsurpassed in the field and it took the incredibly ept Polish […]
Ambient as an incredibly elusive genre, and can be a near infinite category, as it can encompass anything from electronics, through drone, to modern classical and even new age. In a way this wide range of musical possibilities is reflected through four October releases reviewed here. Very often, ambient is the realm of solo artists […]
When | Jogging Housedauw (Cassette/DL) Although the limited and special edition packages are sold out, cassettes of Jogging House‘s When are available after a slight manufacturing mishap. Femke Strijbol’s graphic design for the album is a fine fit for the soothing and big-bass infused electro-ambient music. Dauw, a Ghent-based tape label, seeks to ‘create unique […]
Netherworld | Algida BellezzaGlacial Movements (CD/DL) Dedicated to the birth of his daughter in 2015 we have the new recording by Rome’s Netherworld (Alessandro Tedeschi), Algida Bellezza (which may roughly translate to “frozen beauty“). Singlehandedly using the Roland VP9000, his chilly atmospheres offering something altogether of the most compelling of ambient today, dare I term […]
Three releases that can loosely, and very loosely at that, be said to have ‘a folky’ touch. But, if you expect an all-acoustic affair, or something that is veering towards sad-eyed singer/songwriters, you should probably look for something else than the three albums reviewed here. But then, you’d probably be cutting yourself short because you’d […]
Eleh | Living SpaceTouch (CD/DL) Housed in a gorgeous jewel of square packaging that opens to various aquatic shades, this is the latest from Eleh with his first new output on Touch in nine years, though his work has been represented by other fine labels (Important, Line…) over the course of the intervening years. And […]
Duenn | PatternPast Inside the Present (CD/CS/DL) The latest from Japanese electronic sound artist Duenn is Pattern. This recording is laid out in two parts, or two lengthy ambient ‘patterns’. The sonic soundscape drifts, or rather it glides along extremely fluidly. Any slight ripple is noticeable in this rather minimal composition of secluded harmony. About […]
Telefon Tel Aviv | Dreams Are Not EnoughGhostly International (DL/LP/CD) ‘Defiantly spaced-out post-wave…’ ‘Gravelly loops/samples.’ ‘Hydra; downtempo aesthetic.’ ‘Velvety and ghastly vox…’ etc. are some of my notes in reflection from listening to Dreams Are Not Enough. Even prior to the full-length release, the leader single track a younger version of myself has 22K+ streams […]
Gnome & Spybey | CollectiveAnt-Zen (DL) This is a compilation of tracks by Tony D’Oporto (Gnome) and Mark Spybey from 2009-2014 working as a duo under the moniker Gnome & Spybey. It has some in common with the moody, wavy synths of Moby’s very contemporary ambient atmospheres, as well as his Voodoo Child alter-ego. The […]
Tapes and Topographies | Ubiquitous CloudsSimulacra (CD/DL) On the rare full-moon Friday the 13th of September 2019 Tapes and Topographies released their lucky seventh album care of Simulacra Records. Long-diminishing echoes pulse to give the title track a radar-like current. Confident yet tender key strokes illuminate the soft drone as silvery lining. From the get-go, […]
Ghost in the Clocks | AnoiceRicco (LP, CD, DL) From Anoice (care of Ricco Records – Tokyo) comes the 5th installment of a cinematic instrumental post-rock saga of their own creation. Members of this super-group have since made worlds of their own as solo artists but ‘Ghost in the Clocks’ is announced as a follow-up […]
Nathan Moody | ShadesNoisejockey (CS/DL) Californian sound designer and musician Nathan Moody adds to an already impressive catalogue of dark, expansive electronic music with this new album. It finds the artist creating an immersive, and often oppressive, suite of tracks where glints of light only occasionally push through the cracks. This is an album whose […]
Fahmi Mursyid | One Instrument SessionsOne Instrument (LP/DL) From Java, via the One Instrument record label, heralds the deep sensual organic compositions of the Fahmi Mursyid sessions. Save for the press release, a listener may not comprehend that each of these six arrangements consist of one instrument each (all traditional Sundanese) – a strict guideline […]
Sleepland | Out of HueSpekk (CD/DL) This is Kengo Yonemura as Sleepland who has been creating delicate ambient works infused with drone since 2013. This new release in the perfectly curated and long-running series from Spekk, is a generous addition to their balanced roster of works that soothe, and stretch the imaginative world of intersections […]
Visions | TemplesCyclic Law (CD/DL) The latest from Frederic Arbour, here aka Visions, is his latest disc, Temples. It is an atmospheric, almost gothic drone that emits through the air like microscopic droplets. Traces, which leads the charge builds adroitly in a dappled haze. Said to be a “hymn to lost civilisations” it finds its […]
Laura Luna Castillo | FolksonomiesCudighi Records (CS, DL) Strings and no-input in unison – the first track, ‘I See But Say Nothing’ of Folksonomies by Laura Luna Castillo takes the listener somewhere between a carnival and a forest cove. Tidal wafts of electronic sine waves and disguised dub are paired with soft strings – ticking […]
Nathaniel Young | Accosting Form, Pure IntentMysteries of the Deep (LP/CD/DL) We are always excited to hear someone’s public debut, and this is the first-ever I’ve also been exposed to from Mysteries of the Deep. Nathaniel Young‘s Accosting Form, Pure Intent at first reminds me of the first time I heard either Jan Jelinek or […]
Lucas Norer | Dispositionself-released (BK/USB/DL) This latest recording from Austrian a/v artist Lucas Norer, Disposition, is a creative salute to the largest open-air instrument in the world: the Heroes’ organ (built in 1931) in Kufstein Fortress, Austria. Washes of hiss and synthetic ambient at the outset lead into splintered passages that are fairly chill. Orgelwind, […]
Luís Fernandes | DemoraRoom40 (CD/DL) This is my first exposure to the work of Portugese sound artist Luís Fernandes. His sound is a dappled, abstract-static ambient with a side of electronica that comes unexpectedly between the frazzled Rising Edge and the flighty Fractured Harmony With Pulse. It’s a fascinating twofer that couldn’t be more opposed […]
Jakob Rehlinger | PowehiArachnidiscs (CD/DL) The title is derived from the Hawaiian phrase for the name given to the first black hole to be photographed, here as interpreted by Quill Hardy’s near embryonic coverart. Jakob Rehlinger‘s Powehi are a half dozen tracks with an un/familiar flash to the past and the future of a dialed-in […]
Inner Vision Laboratory | ContinuumZoharum (CD/DL) Karol Skrzypiec‘s vision starts with a narrative about the psychological challenges in the purpose of life, but goes outside the realm with futuristic themes in A Perception Redefined. This is a synthesis of sci-fi soundtracks, a new age twist and open-ended ambient. It’s hazy in this embryonic stasis of […]
loscil | EquivalentsKranky (2xLP/CD/DL) One of my most important role models growing up was none other than Alfred Stieglitz. Not only was he an incredible photographer, but also a curator, and for many years I too, as a photographic artist dabbled in the medium (of curation). The man laid so much groundwork for conceptual photography […]
Tag Cloud | Slow LightFuzzy Panda Recording Company (CS/DL) The latest from Chris Videll as Tag Cloud encapsulates four works that are at once a step out of time, and its quite peculiar to venture to guess which way they point. Slow Light verges on the psychedelic, something shadowed, something Moog. It’s a bit of […]
Line Spectrum | BrumaGlacial Movements (CD/DL) Line Spectrum is the moniker of Ukrainian artist Oleg Puzan, someone who is new to me, but I’m excited to have made the discovery with this new release on the Glacial Movements label. Constructed from meticulously manipulated field recordings, the five tracks making up Bruma are impressive soundscapes from […]
Cyanching | Shadow of a ShadowBezirk Tapes (CS/DL) From London-based Taiwanese composer Cyanching comes an ear-catching debut. Her work, at least at first, comes off subtle with a shroud of harmony slowly emerging from a quiet space. Perhaps Shadow of a Shadow is the sonoric equivalent to mise en abîme, as it transmits what sound […]
Hüma Utku | GnosisKarlrecords (LP/DL) “Pilgrimage chronicles, transmuted into mesmerizing sounds” Hüma Utku is an electronic composer hailing from Istanbul, Turkey and currently based in Berlin, Germany. Her work involves exploring the possibilities of how sound textures and rhythm can be used to evoke a sense of ancient within abstract electronics. Having released material under […]
Yann Novak | Stillness901 Editions (CD/DL) As the sonic component of an audio visual exhibition, Stillness finds the LA-based artist expanding on his long running investigation into widescreen ambience that is the aural equivalent of a Hiroshi Sugimoto seascape. The album is divided into coastal-related themes: Subtropical and Oceanic, each representing the two climates that […]
Ekin Fil | You, Only Vaknar (CS/DL) “Silence expressed with sound” Ekin Üzeltüzenci, aka Ekin Fil, is a lo-fi folk, ambient and electronica artist, hailing from Istanbul, Turkey. Upon arrival in You, Only, the listener is greeted by an adorable piano followed by jolly sweet, yet haunting female voice. Melancholic in every sense, personal, romantic, a homage […]
Emme | Into The DarknessModularfield (CS/DL) This is a techno like nothing else out there right now. The press nugget kind of summarized the ethos here: Although a seemingly dark title, the music is a sonic journey and a catharsis, with the cosmos, technology, the future and life experiences as her focal point. Emme uses […]
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