For this new round up of recent ambient releases, I am going to latch on to the symbolism of the fading of winter austerity into the full bloom of spring. Not because the albums represented here are thematically tied to the season, but more as a reflection of how sparse posts have been of late and what a luxuriant collection of music that has been gestating on my playlists waiting to be shared – and this isn’t even the half of it. So here, at least as far as the blog goes, is an efflorescent burst of new sounds to enjoy and new journeys to be taken featuring Anthéne, come le onde (formerly Music for Sleep), Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea, Federico Mosconi, James Osland & Andrew Heath, Kilometere Club, The Lonely Bell, and Olli Aarni.
Anthéne – present tense
The music of Anthéne comes in many shades and one need look no further than the soft diffusion of spring colors on the cover art of this new Stereoscenic release for a clue as to the sort of journey Brad Deschamps is going to take us on with his latest sonic foray. The music is pensive and touched by melancholy to be sure, but there is fragility and tender warmth to it that glows with muted optimism. Rounding out the album nicely are a pair of quite complementary reworks of two of its songs, one by the duo of Awakened Souls (James & Cynthia Bernard) and the other by IKSRE (Phoebe Dubar).
Present tense was mastered by Andrew J Klimek and is available in a hardcover digibook CD edition as well as digital via Stereoscenic.
come le onde – I ritmi improvvisi del silenzio
When the exogenous forces of streaming platforms may have forced Andrea Porcu to retire his Music for Sleep moniker, he took it as an opportunity for a new musical adventure as well as a new name. His debut as come le onde features emotive soundscapes that will not sound unfamiliar to his audience but also boldly integrates new elements in the form of trumpet, electric guitar, cello and voice which are performed by an array of guest musicians. The result is meditative, nocturnal journey full of interesting sonic colors.
I ritmi improvvisi del silenzio was mastered by Frances Gri and is available on limited edition CD and digital via Rohs! Records
Order: https://mforsleep.bandcamp.com/album/i-ritmi-improvvisi-del-silenzio
Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea – Reveries
We live in an era of infinite distraction, where often the most valuable thing you can find is a respite for the soul.
Zach Frizzell
Given how prolific and accomplished each member of the band has become their solo careers, we can probably refer to Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea as something of an ambient supergroup at this point, and on Reveries the efflorescence of lush ambience and classical motifs that billows forth from the trio of Zach Frizzell (aka zakè), Marc Ertel, and Damien Duque (aka City of Dawn) only lends more substance to the claim. The album really unfolds as a cohesive suite which, we are told in Thomas Meluch’s eloquent liner notes was “heavily reliant on improvisation, intuition, and allowing the compositions to exist in their own moment”. In the end, the listener is the ultimate beneficiary of these salutary sounds.
Reveries was mastered by James Bernard and is available on CD, digital, and orange vinyl LP from Sonic Cathedral.
Order: https://dcatis.bandcamp.com/album/reveries
Federico Mosconi – Slow Motion
Following a pair of delightfully forays into the more acoustic side of his music on recent releases like Nocturnal (Dronarivm, 2023) and Outdoor Melodies (Whitelabrecs, 2022), Federico Mosconi pivots back to the kind of immersive dronescapes that have characterized his more imposing works. Slow Motion presents us with three movements, or “stories”, comprised of sonic material which continually evolves in cyclical fashion to take the listener on an expansive and absorbing musical journey.
Slow Motion is available directly from the artists on limited edition CD & digital.
Links: https://federicomosconi.bandcamp.com/album/slow-motion
James Osland & Andrew Heath – Elysian Fields
Meticulously crafted, patient sounds come to us from southeast of England via Fluid Audio on this collaboration between James Osland (based in Devon) and Andrew Heath (based in Stroud). It is the second outing for the duo who are each deeply rooted in the ambient scene as solo artists and, in the case of Osland, running the well-regarded Elm Records label. It seems quite a natural fit with Osland’s abstract explorations of “sound, memory, and place” beautifully complementing Heath’s embrace of piano motifs, electronics, and field recordings. The result is something like a waking dream that seems illusory and out of time and yet somehow familiar.
Elysian Fields was originally released in an elaborate bespoke “book edition” CD by Fluid Audio (which is now in very short supply) while digital copies can be ordered from the label’s Facture offshoot as well as from the artists directly.
Order: Facture (digital) | Andrew Heath (digital) | James Osland (CD/digital)
Kilometre Club – At Dusk Hour the Crickets
Eventually when I listened back to the recording, I was impressed by the richness and movement of the recording, featuring cricket sounds mixed with the wind, the chatter of my friends and our children, and at one point, the sound of a faraway train…
Daniel Field aka Kilometre Club
Canadian electronic sound artist Daniel Field’s Kilometre Club makes its first appearance on Polar Seas Recordings with what he describes as “a soundtrack to the connection between the earth and the sky”. The origins of the album go back to a warm September evening in 2022 when Field and his family were sitting around a campfire while visiting with friends a couple hours north of Toronto. He left his field recorder running on top of his car and found what he came away creatively inspiring.
Inverting his usual approach of embedding field recordings in the music as it was composed, Field goes on to explain that he sought to match the tones, timbres, and atmospheric aspects of the sounds as they occurred on the recording. Enhancing its immersive quality the album is really a single continuous piece of music in which the track titles & division serve more as episodic markers. Lovely stuff.
At Dusk Hour the Crickets was mastered by Ian Hawgood and is available on limited edition CD and digital. Also highly recommended is An Alphabet of Distance available for pre-order via Imaginary North which features ambient collaborations with 26 different artists.
Pre-Order: https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/at-dusk-hour-the-crickets
The Lonely Bell – The Absent Years
The Lonely Bell is an ambient music project from musician Ali Murray based on the Isle of Lewis, the northern most section of the largest island of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. Steeped in history, myth, & legend and with its rugged landscape facing outward to vast northern seas in all directions, it seems a fitting location for the kind of dark, capacious drone ambient music with which Murray plies his trade. With The Absent Years, however, we find him tempering his sound somewhat with passages of shimmering piano and guitar and melodies that veritably ache with melancholy. It would be hard to improve on the words of fellow musician & photographer Katie Griesar who describes the album as “landscape and dreamscape at once, an encounter with an immensity so elegiac and enveloping that it comforts.”
The Absent Years was produced, mixed, and mastered by Murray and is available on limited edition vinyl LP or cassette tape from the Oscarson label.
Pre-Order: https://oscarson.bandcamp.com/album/the-lonely-bell-the-absent-years
Olli Arni – Yö näkyy
Ten years after furnishing the inaugural release for the Ghent-based Dauw imprint, Finnish sound artist Olli Arni returns to the label to bookend the other side of the intervening decade with an expansive new record. Entitled Yö näkyy (loosely translated as Night Appears in English), the album comprises a pair of densely textured longform pieces woven from tape loops of varying lengths blissfully washing against each other in waves of granular beauty.
Yö näkyy was mastered by Ian Hawgood and is available digitally and limited-edition vinyl LP featuring artwork & design by Alicia Carrera. A very limited number of risograph prints of the artwork can also be ordered.
Links: https://olliaarni.bandcamp.com/album/y-n-kyy
Stationary Travels 