A pleasant surprise out of Edinburgh, Scotland. Jonny Martyr is a pianist who manages to, “build a world of sound with contemporary classical, electronica, post-rock and serialist influences.” There is truth in advertising in this release, as each track manages to balance these genres perfectly. It looks like Martyr has a Continue Reading
Ambient
Celer – In Light Of Blues
Will Long is Celer, an ambient music composer living in Japan and therefore, a relatively close expatriate neighbor of mine. He releases a lot of music, as is the fashion with some highly competent composers these days, but his work feels like a cut above. Though this album has 12 Continue Reading
Gil Talmi – Unspooled
Thanks to my friend and Galego brother Andrés, I’ve come across a soundtrack composer and sound designer out of New York called Gil Talmi. He has been nominated for an Emmy Award (presumably in soundtrack music and apparently fond of working on socially conscious projects. I’m far from a bleeding heart, Continue Reading
Various Artists – Lost Tribe Sound: Salt and Gravity Series
Readers who visit frequently know that I have a few artists and labels who I am happy to champion because they never let me down in terms of quality of music or their curating abilities. I’m happy to add another label to this list: Lost Tribe Sound. The label is Continue Reading
Various Artists – Gudelnaya Polyana – Solar Systo Togathering 2020
Good music and good new labels are easy to find if you apply yourself. Zhelezobeton is not a new label, per sé, but a lot of the bands they work with will be new to listeners who don’t normally follow what is happening in the Russian sphere of influence. This Continue Reading
Various Artists – Unexplained Sounds Group – 7th Annual Report (Mid Year Edition)
Our dear friends at Unexplained Sounds Group release consistently good ambient, post-Industrial and noise music compilations. As we have reached the mid-point of 2021, Raffaele Pezzella and company have released what they (rightly) deemed to be the best of the year to this point. From their Bandcamp site: Unexplained Sounds Continue Reading
The Ambient Drones of Bill Baxter – Dreamscape One
I can’t say that I’m able to find any hard information on who Bill Baxter is, but he releases an almost ridiculous amount of music. Amazingly, the quality is consistently high. The tracks are very long, but they’re quite engaging on a pair of headphones. If you want to learn Continue Reading
Taennya – Natural Serenity
Taennya is Tatyana Maslova, an ambient music composer from Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia. The city is home to some of my favorite musicians (including Roman Stolyar and Sergei Belichenko among others), and it looks like I have another musician whose works will be on my playlist for some time to come. Continue Reading
TienYinMen – Between Clouds (雲峽)
TienYinMen are a collection of composers and musicians based in Hong Kong who release a lot of thematic soundtrack music played on traditional instruments and electronic instruments. They have a healthy body of work to choose from, and I found this one to be the best out of a great Continue Reading
Kaelin Bougneit – Geograph
After a few dark albums, I thought I would share something that, while also a bit darker than normal, shows shades of the Berlin School and rather gentle Industrial soundscapes. Kaelin Bougneit is a composer and label owner (Subviolet Records) based out of Portland, Oregon, and this particular album has Continue Reading