Being an insomniac has some advantages. As is normal for me, I stayed wide awake until 4 a.m. listening to music. While doing so, I came across an album by kamancheh maestro Saba Alizadeh which was so eerily beautiful that I had to suggest it for your perusal. The avant-garde Continue Reading
Drone
Lia Bosch – Ever Expanding
Lia Bosch, as I understand it, is a sound composer from Italy who has made an album that feels like the soundtrack to my mind these days. It’s quite a dark listening experience, mixing drones, a sort of 1950s B-movie soundtrack vibe, and post-industrial menace. Quite powerful listening, if a Continue Reading
Carmela & Carme López – Vinde Todas
This is something of a live music artifact containing not only the work of avant-garde gaitera Carme López but that of some of the best names of the Celtic music scene in Spain.
Heathertoes – Ballagàrraidh
My dear brother in music, Heathertoes, has released a great album for rainy-day listening. Elements of dub, trip-hop, and a crunch, almost lo-fi electronic music aesthetic, spice up an album’s worth of brilliant ideas sketched into pleasant daytime listening.
sanguis – Wounding
From the sanguis Bandcamp site: “Wandinger tries to capture fleeting moments – all tracks are unedited first takes, some recorded only with his phone in various places, from a friend’s flat in Neukölln to his family home in rural Bavaria. Background noises become a part of the music and create Continue Reading
Philippe Petit – The Acoustic Cornet, an hommage to Leonora Carrington
From our friends at Mahorka Records via their Bandcamp site: “Philippe Petit approaches (Leonora) Carrington’s text as one would approach a signal coming from another frequency. Fragments. Resonances. Distorted transmissions. The acoustic cornet becomes a metaphor for listening itself: an instrument that amplifies what society prefers to keep inaudible.”
Various Artists – Arborescence: Bouquet Sauvage
This compilation, curated by the composer Aborescence, includes several of the leading lights of ambient music, including Robert Rich, Rudy Adrian, Alio Die as well as newer names (at least to me) like Robert Davies and Roy Mattson. From Arborescence’s Bandcamp site: “Bouquet Sauvage is a curated compilation comprised of Continue Reading
Alphaxone – ARCHIPENOM.II
From the Alphaxone Bandcamp site: “A continuation of fractured atmospheres, slow-moving tension, and submerged emotional weight. This chapter dives deeper into erosion, distance, and the quiet violence of time.” Iranian artists could use a hand at the moment, as do all good souls suffering in their war-torn homes.
Ashtoreth & Grey Malkin – A Crown Of Silver Antlers
My goodness, this is going to be a genre-defining release once it comes out! Two luminaries in the ritualistic folk scene, Ashtoreth and the inestimable Grey Malkin, collaborate on this upcoming release (due Friday the 13th, ironically enough), which is dedicated to their fathers, both of whom passed away during Continue Reading
Audion Magazine – Audion 86 (multimedia)
This appears to be the first Audion Magazine release of 2026, as far as I can tell. For those unfamiliar with this incredible magazine, it was essential reading for me during my teenage years as I sought to learn about progressive rock and its subgenres, particularly avant-prog and Rock In Continue Reading