In this month’s roundup we have skeletal, sketchy post-rock structures, soaring, choral compositions and a piano cover of an electronic music legend. Stare at something beautiful and lock yourself into the 15 best ambient tracks of the month.
20 Sevens – I can’t wait to look at the moon
From the debut EP Florida based artist 20 Sevens titled ‘Here I am here I am here I am, so glad you are so glad you are so glad you are’ which should tell you everything you need to know about the melancholy tone of this. Brittle drums and warm pads combine for a dusty, beautifully DIY feel, with sketchy vocal samples adding an extra layer of intrigue.
Oro Azul – Atlantis
Oro Azul is a new collaborative project from Michael Red and Ultima Esuna. Their new EP Water Seeds takes us through 4 shades of an aquatic garden: some sounds are mosslike, a protective balm. Other tones come through as minerals and metals, shining in the refracted light from above.
Dorian Dumont – Windowlicker
On this second solo album, pianist Dorian Dumont digs even deeper into the oeuvre of Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin. His piano cover of the iconic Windowlicker is absolutely pitch-perfect.
May Shenfeld – Interstellar
Maya Shenfeld is a Berlin based composer exploring the space between modes of musical production used in experimental, classical, and popular music. Her new album, Under the Sun encourages us to explore and rethink how we relate to our environment, with the standout Interstellar building to a dramatic, modular crescendo.
Not Me But Us – Inner Space
A duo of Italian producers Bruno Bavota and Fabrizio Somma (K-Conjog), Inner Space incorporates elements of dub techno, ambient and even melodic house, resulting is a shining, deeply uplifting slice of electronica.
Dustin O’Halloran, Bryan Senti, Reykjavik Silfu Choir – Spiritus Naturae Aeternus – Pt. 1
The Oscar-nominated film composer of Lion, Transparent, Old Guard, Ammonite & more comes through with his latest project, a collaboration with Bryan Senti and the Reykjavik Silfu Choir. Expect spacious, deeply meditative tones, heartbreaking strings and gorgeous piano throughout.
Adam Wiltzi – Dim Hopes
Stars of the Lid’s Adam Wiltzi’s latest solo project reimagines the drowsy effects of a barbiturate. Eleven Fugues For Sodium Pentothal on paper sounds almost desperately soporific, but the results are actually beautifully life-affirming.
Laurel Halo – Octavia
Octavia, a piece for piano and electronics, explores the relationship between melodic motifs and textures in a singular way, intermittent moments of melody, harmony and sound materials connecting and disconnecting, to indicate a series of nets or webs, swaying in and out of one another.
Invictus Hi-Fi – The Last Broadcast
A town lost to time and shifting borders, a doctrine melting away like ice, the fading ideas of a man who claimed to control the weather and a distant satellite almost beyond communication. These are some of the concept’s British experimental electronica artist Invictus Hi-Fi explores in his new album The Vanishing, with The Last broadcast the latest single to be releases from the project.
Discovery Zone – Qubit QT
The rest of JJ Weihl’s latest LP as Discovery Zone is anything but ambient, moving through various shades of pop and electronica, but at the midway point of the album this short slice of hollow tones and meandering synths provides a welcome moment of respite.
Lilha – Disperse
Classically trained cellist, composer and storyteller Lihla (Lih Qun Wong) presents her debut album, ‘Socha’ for A Strangely Isolated Place. Combining a vast instrumental skillset of piano, cello, electronics and spoken word, she crafts intensely immersive aural-hallucinatory worlds of intricately shifting landscapes.
Daou – Overpass
Daou’s Forgotten Stories LP is envisioned as a collection of ten short stories, centered around the theme of rediscovering and shedding light on ten particular narratives that have been obscured by the passage of time. The loops utilised in the creation of this collection were recorded over a span of five years in France, captured on tape and incorporating additional elements such as field recordings and shortwave radio signals.
Glowworm – Manta
Glowworm is the music of guitarist Kevin Scott Davis and pianist & vocalist Asia Dojnikowska. Their latest collaborative project was recorded partially in Poland and partially in the US, this time leaning into their new sound as a duo, and largely centered around Dojnikowska’s presence as a pianist and vocalist.
Kelly Moran – Moves In The Field
Kelly Moran further evolves her sound from the minimalistic, hypnotic piano of her 2023 EP, Vesela, in her latest album, Moves in the Field. The experimental electronic explorations of her past projects make way for these more direct, yet equally captivating compositions.
Nuna Guma – A Spectral Turn (low mix)
This actually landed in February, but I trust you’ll forgive its inclusion here as it’s just so brilliant. Numa Gama returns with a left-field take on her music-making, A Spectral Turn. Inspired by Derrida’s Hauntology, and the post-capitalist instigations of Anna Tsing, she weaves an eerie and cold subtropical soundscape that explores themes of freedom and imagination amidst the ghosts that inhabit today’s world.
