Tag: drone

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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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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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Klara Lewis – Thankful

Extraordinary stuff from Klara Lewis on the opening and title track of her new album for Editions Mego, starting life as simple, mournful strings before becoming increasingly deranged, distorted and overwhelming over the course of its 20 minute runtime.

https://klaralewis.bandcamp.com/album/thankful

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zakè & Tyresta – Undiscovered

The Worlds We Leave Behind, the second full-length from the duo of zakè (aka Zach Frizzell) and Tyresta (aka Nick Turner), opens with Undiscovered; a heavenly, inviting glide that occupies a full quarter of the album’s run time. It sets the scene perfectly with a bedrock drone beneath a cyclical, ascending melodic theme, until gently shifting into shadows and choral loveliness in its final third.

https://zakedrone.bandcamp.com/album/the-worlds-we-leave-behind

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Steve Fors – (good enough) for now

There are very few things I enjoy more than discovering an artist I love for the first time; a feeling that is undoubtedly heightened when said artist is also relatively unknown. It’s pretty much the entire reason for this blog: claiming a minute fragment of credit for highlighting incredible music that would otherwise remain unappreciated. Appreciate me, please! Sickening really, but I can’t help who I am. Anyway, If – like me – you hadn’t previously heard of Steve Fors, his new album it’s nothing, but still is some of the best, wistful ambient I’ve heard this year. And I’ve listened to a lot!

https://hallowground.bandcamp.com/album/steve-fors-its-nothing-but-still

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theboywhochosethesea – the seas beyond the stars

Oxford based experimental producer theboywhochosethesea drop the title track for their new album, released later this week on Bandcamp as a digital/cassette release on the Expert Sleepers record label. Pairing dusty, subdued piano lines against a backdrop of bristling synths that steadily rise and fall, its dissonant textures are expertly handled creating a piece that simultaneously pulls you towards both the light and the dark.

https://www.instagram.com/theboywhochosethesea

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Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer – Stureby House Piano

In 2017 Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer traveled together to the Åland Islands (an archipelago that is host to around 6,500 islands) in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. The concept of recording music there came about as Honer & Chiu learned more and more about the islands and were taken by the serene and strange quality of the place. I’m much looking forward to Recordings from the Åland Islands (the album that came out of their time there) landing next month, as Stureby House Piano – the second single to the taken from the LP – is just lovely, and a perfect way to drift into the weekend.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/recordings-from-the-land-islands

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Ekin Fil – Being Held

There’s something uniquely joyful about hearing an artist’s work for the first time, loving it, and then discovering they have an extensive back catalogue in which you’re destined to completely lose yourself for some time to come. Before this morning I had never heard of Turkish musician Ekin Fil, and now I am completely obsessed. Variously described as “drone-folk” (amazing) and “Grouper-adjacent” (reductive, but fairly accurate), her latest album Feelings is absolutely stunning, and Being Held is just sublime, ominous throughout until the merest fragment of distant vocal lets you know that everything’s going to be ok.

https://ekinfil.bandcamp.com

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LEHNBERG – Junjamin Jaganepa

I honestly struggle to write about drone tracks in any meaningful way other than variations of “this is overwhelmingly beautiful/dark/powerful”, and the same goes for this brilliant 8 minute piece from Swedish composer LEHNBERG, so just listen to it and let it completely take you away from whatever mundane task you’re likely caught up in.

https://www.davidlehnberg.com