VARIOUS ARTISTS Velvet Desert Music vol. 2 (Kompakt) This is a marvel. German musician/producer/selector Jörg Burger’s second Velvet Desert Music compilation for Cologne’s Kompakt label serves up warm, groovy, atmospheric electronica of startling freshness. The exclusive and mostly instrumental tracks by artists from France, England, Mexico and Germany – including Jorg himself – were commissioned […]
There are strands of Japanese anime that have many of same qualities as great ambient and atmospheric music. Mushishi is one of them: a kind of pastoral psychedelia, but grounded in a unique Japanese stillness and devoted to the craft of storytelling. Back in 2006 I experienced the extraordinary anime TV series Mushishi for the […]
JOSÉ OROZCO MORA Formas Aparentes (Constellation Tatsu) Constellation Tatsu, a small record label with possibly the best name in the world, continues to transmit various strands of new age, experimental electronica and psychedelic minimalist music via its HQ in Oakland, USA. From the latest batch of releases comes Formas Aparentes by newcomer José Orozco Mora, […]
MICK CHILLAGE Mirrors (Neotantra) The Dublin-based Mick Chillage – who is also one half of electronica duo Autumn of Communion – swings back to beatless on his latest solo album, and he sounds right at home on deep ambient label Neotantra. I didn’t care much for his first album on Neo but Mirrors is a […]
REMOTE VISION The Outer Plateau (Exosphere) While his ambient tech-trance duo Ascendant and associated label Synphaera has been taking something of a break lately, American composer and sound architect extraordinaire Don Tyler has been busy with his new solo alias Remote Vision and the “dark cinematic space” of his new sub-label Exosphere. The Outer Plateau […]
GIGI MASIN Calypso (Apollo) Italian multi-instrumentalist Gigi Masin is back with his first major statement since his wonderful trio Gaussian Curve’s most recent effort from 2017. As far as I can tell, he plays everything on Calypso, and it does sound more of a layered studio creation than his GC work. Inspired by his visits […]
GREGORY PAUL MINEEFF After Today (Cosmicleaf) Australian artist Gregory Paul Mineeff’s fine new album sees the Greece-based Cosmicleaf label taking another successful departure from the psychedelic downtempo beats it’s best known for. The often beatless After Today is awash in electric piano lines, meshed with minimalist synth pads and textures and some weird phrasing using […]
STEVE GOOD Nothing is Ever Created or Destroyed (puffdragon.net) Fans of ambient dance music might remember an early Steve Good album under his downtempo alias Puff Dragon, a singular exotic gem known as Sazanami (2005) which was released on the Tokyo-based Dakini Records. After a long break from releasing, Steve has recently reappeared and started […]
Guest poster Gary Hunter from online journal Low End Theorists shares five recent albums to get you acquainted with ambient in Australia right now. Australia’s local ambient music scene is thriving. Thanks to a number of record labels like Analogue Attic and Ken Oath, Oz ambient has established its own distinctive style over the past […]
WANDERWELLE & BANDHAGENS MUSIKFÖRENING Victory Over The Sun (Semantica) An eerie historical account of weird shit happening in the skies above Basel, Switzerland in 1566 is the inspiration for this dark and powerfully evocative blend of cinematic ambient and atmospheric techno. Dutch duo Wanderwelle were responsible for last year’s Polynesian ambient techno delight Gathering Of […]
VARIOUS ARTISTS Tonic Immobility: From Here to Tranquility vol. 11 (Silent Records) LINGUA LUSTRA Red Shift (Silent Records) Rebooted in 2016 by founder Kim Cascone after a 20 year break, San Francisco’s Silent Records these days is very much about the psychoactive drone music and experimental noisescapes that its academically-trained founder has been immersed in […]
VARIOUS ARTISTS Maui Chill Volume One (Waveform) Ambient dub and eclectic electronica label Waveform Records is still with us – founded in 1994 from the ashes of UK label Beyond Records – and so is its founder Forest and his long-running Music Starstreams radio show. Now based in Hawaii, he’s recently released the first Waveform […]
VARIOUS ARTISTS Cosmic Duality (Synchronos Recordings) From San Francisco’s Synchronos label comes this fine sampling of the kind of downtempo instrumentals you’ll hear on the better chill stages at psytrance and electronica festivals. New tunes, and good ones, doused in multi-coloured tones, layered and trippy arpeggios and lots of head-nodding grooves. Dub is the cornerstone […]
VARIOUS ARTISTS Cafe Del Mar Dreams X/10 (Cafe Del Mar Music) What happened to Cafe Del Mar, I hear you ask? The Balearic compilation series that pretty much invented chillout music for sunsets – one of the original pillars of 90’s ambient dance music – is strangely faceless these days. Original DJ’s Jose Padilla and […]
URBAN MEDITATION Currents of Space (Fantasy Enhancing) SVEN KÖSSLER & SI MATTHEWS A Constant State Of Flow (Fantasy Enhancing) MOSS GARDEN Understanding Holy Ghosts (2013, reissue on Fantasy Enhancing) Fantasy Enhancing is one several fabulous new labels recently birthed by the respected – and apparently inexhaustible – Brit electronic producer/composer Lee Norris, his other current […]
TWILIGHT ARCHIVE Drift Factor e.p. (twilightarchive.com) Chris Mancinelli and Tom Vedvik’s “post-jazztronic urban ambient” project Twilight Archive is not prolific – only three albums and two e.p’s since 2003 – so a new release always get my attention. The new e.p. Drift Factor is well up to standard and moody as hell, another head-nodding downtempo […]
TOM EATON How It Happened (Spotted Peccary) Sound engineers turned composers make some of the most immaculate-sounding music in ambient. Typically, by the time they start releasing their own material we get the best of both sides: fresh creativity coupled with exceptional studio craft. Keyboard player Tom Eaton does everything and has been doing so […]
TOM ADAMS Particles (Moderna) ED CARLSEN Morning Hour (Moderna) DAIGO HANADA Ouka e.p. (Moderna) In terms of quality, Canadian modern classical label Moderna Records is hitting the right notes again and again. It continues to quietly nurture and inspire a small roster of local and international artists and is releasing some astounding work that deserves […]
THE 7TH PLAIN Chronicles (A-Ton, triple album set) The 7th Plain is an early and much-revered alias of techno auteur Luke Slater, his contribution to the earliest, ambient-ish form of British techno known variously as IDM or just listening techno, a style popularised in the mid 90’s by Warp Records’ Artificial Intelligence series. That Chronicles […]
SVEN LAUX AND DANIELA ORVIN The Writings (Dronarivm) From the Moscow-based Dronarivm label comes this first-time collaboration between two Berlin-based artists, an exceptional quality hybrid of modern classical and droney electronica. The Writings is very cinematic at times with piano figures set against hovering strings in a way that echoes Thomas Newman. At other times […]
SOUNDS FROM THE GROUND Binary (Upstream Music) Albums from ambient dub maestros Sounds From The Ground very reliably range from good to great. This year’s Binary is a great one, big in palette yet lean in sound, still anchored to ancient dub roots while travelling light years beyond it. Now in their 25th year together, […]
SONIC SOLUTIONS INC Resurrectionem Ex Mortuis (2019, Obey Records) “My brother and I are around 50 and have no illusion of fame.” Right, then. No baggage, just phenomenal music. Hailing From San Diego USA and chalking up album number four, the duo of John and Will Goff aka Sonic Solutions Inc have fashioned a hypnotic, […]
SODA LITE Vale & Stone (Inner Islands) Absolutely top notch electro-acoustic ambient from a young Australian musician who’s work reflects his deep interest in ecology. Vale & Stone has brains and beauty, with its twinkling melodies and pretty cadences on synths, bells, gongs, marimbas and slit drums given weight by thoughtful improvising and warm, vivid […]
ROBODOP SNEI Wide Zones (Slice Records) German born and Melbourne-based, Daniel Eschbach aka Robodop Snei returns with another quirky and mind-expanding downtempo distillation of synthpop, electro, dubby trance and psychedelia. Much in the same vein as his wondrous Strange Ongoings (2013), Wide Zones is loaded with powerful, deep, punchy tunes infused with that unique analog […]
PITCH BLACK Third Light (Dubmission Records) Active since the late 90’s, eclectic dub-based duo Pitch Black (New Zealanders Michael Hodgson and Paddy Free) don’t release many albums, but downtempo that’s as delicious and groove-laden as Third Light is worth waiting for. This stuff is built to go the distance: smooth grooves with gnarly trimmings, lots […]
OHIO Upward, Broken, Always (12k Records) Upward, Broken, Always is a hazy, warm and evocative journey back to the childhood homes of Americans Taylor Deupree and Corey Fuller, who formed a new duo to create this fresh and free-flowing mix of neo-folk, post-rock and lo-fi ambient adventuring. The album is like a patchwork quilt of […]
OFF LAND Field Tangents (Txt Recordings) Prolific Boston-based musician Tim Dwyer aka Off Land has made one of his best albums in Field Tangents. This is a rich, serene and slightly eerie work of beatless, pastoral ambient electronica, highly tonal but never saccharine. The album’s sense of flow is unusually powerful, helped by the mixed […]
MOTIONFIELD A Clear Horizon (Txt Recordings) Signals (Neotantra) Swedish composer Petter Friberg’s contributions to ambient as Motionfield include the towering Luftrum (2015), a slow-motion masterpiece of lush, oceanic, IDM-inflected chillout. After that album he made a few more that commendably took a somewhat different direction, seemingly ignoring any pressure for more of the same. Now […]
MATT LAJOIE The Center and the Fringe (Flower Room) It’s amazing what a gifted guitarist can do with a few six-strings and a looper pedal. On The Center and The Fringe, American player Matt Lajoie takes the road less travelled by avoiding the huge washes of spaced-out reverb so beloved by many guitarists making ambient […]
K. MARKOV Interactivity (Exosphere) Ah, the sequencer, the defining throb of the Berlin school and so much of the psychedelic electronic music that followed in its wake. Tangerine Dream were its Almighty Creators, the first band to ever use the Moog modular system as a standalone bass looper, pushing their primitive machines to their programming […]
KAYA PROJECT The Ambient Mixes 2 (Bandcamp) HIBERNATION Ambient Re-Works 01 (Bandcamp) Active since the mid 1990’s, UK composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Seb Taylor is still setting standards in downtempo electronica for others to aim for. If you don’t know the name you might recognise his more notable aliases: the melodic world beat of Kaya […]
J. ROWE Channels of the Lake (Sounds of the Dawn) The Detroit-based Sounds of the Dawn started life in 2012 as a blog sharing rips of mostly out-of-print new age and relaxation cassettes from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Then it became a label releasing new music, part of the revival of authentic new age […]
JORDAN CHRISTOFF Enveloped (Constellation Tatsu) Not so much a series of drones as a series of blurs, Canadian Jordan Christoff’s marvellous debut album Enveloped is aptly named. As one fan at Bandcamp observed: “His music is like air, but at the same time like the connecting viscera of everything.” Christoff’s pieces are luminous like the […]
JOHAN AGEBJORN feat. LISA BARRA Mossebo (2008, reissue on Spotted Peccary) Mossebo is a unique and haunting meeting of icy Scandinavian electronica and gorgeous new age-style wordless vocals, my favourite reissue this year. A new discovery, in fact, as I missed this when it came out in 2008. Johan Ageborn’s touch is delicate, his skittering […]
JOEY G ii Hood Canal e.p. (Ambient Zone) Despite the absence of vocals you might describe this brilliant little gem as leftfield pop. Multi-instrumentalist Joey G ii shows a gift for writing surreal songs without words, driven by strong melodies and some kooky, clever chord progressions. It’s also laced with field recordings from the Hood […]
JAMES BERNARD Fragments (Past Inside The Present) ZAKE To Those Who Dwelt in a Land of Deep Darkness (Past Inside The Present) New American label Past Inside The Present has put out a large quantity of ambient in many hues during its first year, from mod classical to experimental sound collage. There’s much worth exploring, […]
ISHQ Autumn Leaves (ishq.org) In Diamond Light (ishq.org) Seasoned psyambient traveller Matt Hillier recently took a break from his Ishq project, but it didn’t last very long. This year we’ve recently seen a large swathe of Ishq releases in a wide array of sub-styles, from spectral tribal atmospherics and squiggly sci-fi futuretronics to lush psychedelic […]
HOLLIE KENNIFF The Gathering Dawn (n5MD) There are loads of electronic musicians making ethereal minimalist drone music, but how many of them can sing? Canadian-American artist Hollie Kenniff can, and beautifully. Her debut solo album The Gathering Dawn marries her reverberating wordless vocals with expansive, airy beds of synths, samples and rippling guitars, played mostly […]
HATAR In Sight (Lemongrass) RILDRIM Muffled Dreams e.p. (Lemongrass) Lounge and cafe music ala Cafe Del Mar is probably the most enduringly popular subgenre of ambient sounds, and consequently the most crowded. That means plenty of music that’s either unexciting or pure dross, but every year I’m happy to keep sorting the wheat from the […]
GAVIN MILLER Shimmer (Sound In Silence) I suppose it’s okay to call this fine release post-rock, insomuch as it features loopy processed guitars and drones and some organ and semi-Gothic piano, and progressions that vaguely resemble the quieter passages done by more adventurous rock bands like Pink Floyd or Sigur Ros. Whatever you call it, […]
ETHEREAL EPHEMERA In The Mysterious Distance (Bandcamp) The talented and insanely prolific Mancunian Brin Coleman wears many masks – I count at least nine – and his Ethereal Ephemera alias seems reserved for his most, well, what it says on the tin. In The Mysterious Distance is a 43-minute piece of harmonic ambient blessed with […]
DATA REBEL Upward Falling (Bandcamp) Intelligent dance music may be horribly named but this percussive form of 90’s ambient techno is still with us and inspiring new generations of e-musicians. UK artist Dan Howe aka Data Rebel is one of them. He mixes the crisp, complex percussive clicks and thuds of early IDM with melancholic […]
DAN ARMSTRONG A Long Time Coming (Bandcamp) Dan Armstrong is a mate of Si Matthews, the gifted UK artist whose solo albums of cosmic instrumental electronica have featured regularly Ambient Music Guide’s Best of Year lists. Dan’s debut solo album of panoramic ambitronic beats is a stunner, orbiting the same sun as his friend but […]
BRUNO SANFILIPPO Pianette (ad21 Music) Spanish electro-acoustic musician Bruno Sanfilippo’s new album Pianette is played on a piano that’s not quite a piano, and it’s utterly compelling. The slightly harpsichord-toybox-mechanical sound comes from his newly acquired Una Corda piano, built by German designer David Clavins and featuring a unique one-string-per-note design instead of the usual […]
BRIAN ENO with DANIEL LANOIS & ROGER ENO Apollo: Extended Edition (1983, reissue on UMC/Virgin) Awe. That’s what the deeper tracks from ambient pioneer Brian Eno’s spacemusic classic Apollo still evoke, most of them from the album’s first half, and profoundly so. Pieces like “Under Stars”, “Drift” and “The Secret Place”. Glistening, shifting tones, mysterious […]
BLUETECH Liquid Geometries in Dub (Liquid Sound Design) Although he’s best known for his punchy, quirky, dubby ambient pop instrumentals, Bluetech’s original Liquid Geometries album from 2018 was conjured in a beatless universe – all psychedelic drones, ethereal progressions and cosmic arpeggios, generally melodic and occasionally dissonant. These beatless foundations makes it an unusual candidate […]
BIOSPHERE The Hilvarenbeek Recordings (Biophon Records) The Senja Recordings (Biophon Records) Like the sun and the moon, these two albums from Norway’s greatest gift to ambient are inseparably locked in orbit around one another, but each casts a different light. Following his welcome return to form with the atypical but evocative ghostly nostalgia of Departed […]
