Tag: ambient

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Pefkin – Gossip In The Leaves

I alluded to this release last week, but it’s so good it deserves a bit more love. This is taken from the new album from Pefkin, aka Gayle Brogan, witten in autumn 2023, during a big life shift—including her move from Glasgow to Sheffield—this three-track album reflects the emotional journey of change. Using a stripped-back setup of viola (an instrument she’d never played before), synth, and voice, Gayle recorded each track in a single take. It’s deeply affecting and a late contender for ambient/drone album of the year.

https://pefkin.bandcamp.com/album/the-rescoring

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Not Waving, Romance – Love Pervade The Sinless Breast

Possibly my favourite ambient pairing, Not Waving and Romance, return with their latest LP Wings of Desire, inspired by Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. And if that sounds catastrophically pretentious – correct! But ambient pretentiousness really does result in some of the best track names in music (honourable mention to Dylan Henner on this front). Love Pervade The Sinless Breast (!) is gorgeous, sweeping, mournful: everything you need to start your week with a bang.

https://notwavingromance.bandcamp.com/album/wings-of-desire

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Mary Lattimore, MIZU, Jamal Shakeri, Laraaji – Midnight Moon Pool (Womb of the Soul)

If you think that’s a long artist / title combo… you’re right! And it comes from a VA compilation the scope of which is genuinely staggering. With production beginning in 2021, and over 100 artists contributing, TRAИƧA is a new compilation across 8 chapters and 46 songs, spotlighting the gifts of many of the most daring, imaginative trans and non-binary artists working today. Artists include (deep breath) Mary Lattimore, Devendra Banhart, claire rousay, Ana Roxanne, Julien Baker, Grouper, Moses Sumney, Andre 3000, Gia Margaret plus, plus, plus. Ridiculous.

https://redhot.bandcamp.com/album/tra-a

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doris dana – tedio

Did you miss me? I was in Scotland for a week, and the wifi situation was untenable. Anyway I’m back now and have this deliciously mournful, Grouper-adjacent recommendation as an apology gift. The alias of Colombian-born artist Mónica Mesa, doris dana delves into the abstract aesthetics of liminal spaces and intangible experiences, and her new album Reveries is a late contender for experimental album of the year.

https://somewherepress.bandcamp.com/album/reveries

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Dylan Henner – There Was A Scattered Light Between The Leaves

College Music Presents: PhonoSynthesis is the label’s fourth VA compilation, and explores the intimate relationship between music and nature, spanning solo, acoustic sounds through to modular synthesis masterpieces, and everything in between. Includes contributions from Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Shopan and this beauty from Dylan Henner.

https://collegemusicrecords.bandcamp.com/

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DANIAILYAS – Breathe and Start Again

Well this is just totally lush. DANIAILYAS is a transatlantic collaboration between Barcelona’s Dania Shihab and Portland’s Ilyas Ahmed. On their debut EP, Enough For Me To Remain, Shihab’s ethereal vocals and sweeping synths are intricately intertwined with Ahmed’s fluid, unpredictable guitar work. The result is a deeply immersive, almost spectral experience, balancing tenderness with an underlying tension. What emerges is both intimate and disorienting, like a love letter written in shadow and light, offering release and rupture in equal measure.

https://daniailyas.bandcamp.com/album/enough-for-me-to-remain

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Oliver Coates – 90

The blog has gone pretty ambient-heavy this week, but the heart wants what it wants. Today’s offering is taken fromThrob, shiver, arrow of time, the new album from Oliver Coates who created the incredibly moving soundtracks for the 2022 film Aftersun (highly recommended) amongst many other things. 90 is glassy, sparse, delicate and beautiful.

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CS + Kreme – Corey

Naarm’s CS + Kreme return with a dreamy, psych-folk-infused third album that drifts through bittersweet electronics and dubby, heady grooves. Known for their shape-shifting sound since their 2017 debut, their latest album The Butterfly Drinks the Tears of the Tortoise, from which Corey is taken, is their most poetic and ethereal yet. Blending early industrial influences with Pacific rim sounds, it features everything from flamenco and Javanese strings to South African rhythms and chamber classical moments. A captivating, mind-bending journey, perfect for a reflective escape.

https://thetrilogytapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-butterfly-drinks-the-tears-of-the-tortoise

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Not Waving, Romance – From The Weary Earth To The Sapphire Walls

Last seen joining forces on their transcendent new album Infinite Light, Not Waving and Romance are back with a fantastically named new single, about which I can find absolutely nothing online save for a YouTube upload with a mere 77 plays. If more people liked this kind of celestial ambient droning, the world would be a significantly better place.

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Quazar554 – Pulsar (Jupiter-6)

Quasar 554 is the project of producer Paolo Alberto Lodde, also known as Dusty Kid: someone I was pretty obsessed with close to two decades ago, especially his track Luna, which I think opened a mix or compilation I used to hammer and still holds up as an absolute banger. Anyway! As Quasar 554 he was invited by the One Instrument label to create an EP exclusively using the Roland Jupiter-6. Often overshadowed by its pricier predecessor, the Jupiter-8, and sometimes criticised for its cold and thin sound, Lodde has eked out some genuinely emotional moments from the Jupiter-6, the results of which are worth checking out even if you’re not a massive synth nerd.

https://oneinstrument.bandcamp.com/album/quasar-554-jp6book