honest words on honest music
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Trance Anthems For A Sunken Generation
“… an aggressive inversion of euphoric sound […] fractured and beaten into submission…”
Dennis Huddleston smacks us in the face with his rawest emotion to date.
Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea
Aufero
“… in an era of infinite distraction, the most valuable thing is a respite for the soul…”
Polar Seas
Sky Within Us
The final compilation from a Toronto-based ambient label run by Brad Deschamps
Maxime Dangles
Papa
“… blending a unique balance of ambient, electronica and club music on this soundtrack for the silent film…”
Dustin O’Halloran
1 0 0 1
“… an auditory exploration into the crossroads of artificial intelligence and our comprehension of existence…”
Beginning its life as a collaborative dance piece with choreographer Fukiko Takase, the new solo album on Deutsche Grammophon probes the deep questions surrounding nature, consciousness, technology, and the profound implications of AI.
Matti Bye
Capri Clouds
“… these pieces go straight to the heart and to the senses, evoking nostalgic moments from your mind…”
March 25th, 2024
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to your Monday! Spring is almost here! I can feel it …
Ben Frost
Scope Neglect
“… frosty fragile fretful armadillo crawling on your naked back…”
The familiar aural chemistry of metal is immediately untethered, isolated in the vacuum, stripped of its cultural trappings and heavy armory, and loaded into a particle accelerator.
J. Doursou
Song For Elena
“… the anxiety of the inescapable horrors and the dread of helplessness from being far away from war…”
Celer
Engaged Touches (Expanded and Remastered)
“… a sonic postcard from a time and place unlike any other… a true masterpiece…“
Remastered by Stephan Mathieu, this expanded album is back as a reminder of music’s powerful imprint on lives present and past…
Mike Lazarev
Morning, January 1st
“… maybe this time, it will be slightly different… maybe this time we have learned…”
Ben Chatwin
Dolmen
“… physicality of sound, evoked through modular synthesis to imbue life and instability into the recordings…”
“… I find that too much choice leads to less creativity… I need the creative process to be instantaneous…”
Callum Mintzis
Once Again
“… a reflective journey through the exploration of life’s philosophical questions…”
“… for every choice, there are roads not taken, and occasionally, it’s interesting to go back and explore some of those what-ifs…”
February 26th, 2024
January has come and gone. My best-of-the-year selections are now just a memory [at least, a preserved one]. …
Belle Chen
Kingdom Animalia
“… an imaginative and quirky celebration of the forests’ colourful ecosystems…”
ILUITEQ + Lorenzo Montanà
Noesi
“… according to the philosopher Plato […] the highest knowledge of the eternal forms or ideas…”
Cedric Vermue
Variations
“… floating in a perpetual, ethereal and dreamy chord…”
“… I’m looking for things that open up the universe or reveal the hidden spaces within us…”
Andrew Tasselmyer
Flowers in a Storm
“… beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap…”
A Strangely Isolated Place
Reflection on 2023
An end-of-year celebration from Ryan Griffin of ASIP
50 tracks from 50 releases of 2023
Label Profile
Muzan Editions
An introduction to an Osaka-based boutique ambient and experimental label.
A vinyl-only mix from Mike Jedlicka celebrating his favourites of the year from this still-spinning format…
Salvatore Mercatante
Love Of Lies
“… how does the idea of ‘nothing’ fit into the realm of sound and, at the same time, exist at every turn…”
Braulio Lam
Claroscuro VIII
“… an ode to the observation of natural light and its effects on our emotions…”
December 30th, 2023
Well, here we are, folks, in the final days of this rather interesting year, with my …
December 31st, 2023
Yay, the last post of the year! I’ve been at it for some time now, and …
Hauschka
Philanthropy
“… a catalyst for a conversation about kindness, which is needed now more than ever…”
After his well-deserved Academy Award and a BAFTA for his work on “All Quiet on the Western Front” Volker Bertelmann returns to a studio album, with his much-missed prepared piano and a reflection of love for the humankind.
Six Missing
Guidance
“… this would be the point in the film where the hero’s world is starting to melt and come apart…”
A label showcase and a reflection on this past year from a lovely independent Valencia-based imprint, Archives, curated and operated by Agustín Mena, aka Warmth.
Emil Friis & Patricio Fraile
Minor Music
“… reflecting the duality of life, encompassing both the major and minor moments…”
Bersarin Quartett
Neuronen
“… cinematic environments, microtonal shifts, polyrhythmic structures… and a bit of sawtooth bass…”
“… I generally use sound design and electronic elements to support or underpin the acoustic instruments…”
Steve Luck
Be Curious
“… a quiet, contemplative, and mysterious atmosphere, inspired by piano works of Erik Satie…”
“… music is around us all the time… making music is more a matter of selection, less a matter of creation…”
Poltrock
The Tragedy Of Hanlet (AB Session)
“… quiet and intimate piano and string lullaby inspired by a synth riff…”
Jan Nemeček
On Subtle Horizon
“… revealing hidden depths with low sub-bass, drony mutations and granulated particles…”
“… shimmering waves of wistful strings subside into a bit of darkness, maybe sadness, and some introspective grief…”
Label Profile
Shimmering Moods Records
A quick roundup of October releases by this boutique ambient label from Amsterdam.
Linus Alberg
Vienna
“… effortlessly fluttering melodies held together by bass, harmonium, and fragile echoes of the breathy trumpet…”
Alva Noto
HYbr:ID II
“… a journey into the realm of intricately manipulated production inspired by resonance and elasticity…”
The second instalment in Casten Nicolai‘s series of dub-infused digital structures, spatial manipulations, and immaculate sound design.
“… the universe and everything in it consists of vibrations… to reach into that river of energy and pluck out ideas is a gift…”
Massimo Pupillo
Horagalles
“… stepping away from these frozen territories of the inevitable future and instead take a look back at the ancestry of the past…”
fatalism
Lanesplitter
“… the rising swell of bleak dynamics splitting the atmosphere from dark to light…”
“… the very edges of the sonic landscape, where beauty and destruction lie on opposite sides of the dynamic spectrum…”