• Music

    Taennya – Natural Serenity

    July 22, 2021 - By 

    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. The tracks are instrumental, with big, cavernous washes of sound.  As far as ambient music goes, this gives off a warm, calming feeling without being saccharine.  You will hear beats and voices here and there, and these help to guide you deeper into this enveloping sound.  A very engaging release.

  • Music

    Cyanosis – Unscathed

    July 12, 2021 - By 

    Costa Rica, musically, has always been a mystery to me.  The last contact I had was with a brilliant DJ out of San José who hosted a progressive rock radio program, but to find out that there is experimental music coming out of the country is a very pleasant surprise. Cyanosis is not a stranger to this site, as Efrain Valerio’s work was reviewed when he participated in a split album with our friends Destruktionsanstalt in April.  This is the first chance I have had to hear his own work, and it is as bleak a recording as I have…

  • Music

    Gadi Sassoon – Multiverse

    June 8, 2021 - By 

    Gadi Sassoon is an Italian sound designer and composer whose latest release comes from the venerable Los Angeles-based record label A Strangely Isolated Place.  I had only heard one track of his work before, this coming from ASIP’s 2020 Compilation.  Though impressive, it didn’t prepare me for one of the bleakest experiences I’ve had listening to ambient music I’ve had since, perhaps, mid-period Lustmord.  If you listen to this album on headphones, be forewarned: the sounds will reverberate in your bones for a while afterward, and I say this as a compliment.  The tracks swell and disperse in a way…

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek with Ilaria Boffa – Reifications // Minimal Animal // Reanimations

    April 29, 2021 - By 

    Another Akashic Records masterpiece.  This imprint never fails for me. Jeff Gburek works with Italian composer, researcher and poet Ilaria Boffa to make a hazy, deeply psychedelic piece of musique concrète.  The three works on this album are sonic storytelling, layering voice on voice, and  is perhaps the best way I can describe this release.  Sublime, but I expect no less from the parties involved.

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek – Three New Albums

    February 19, 2021 - By 

    We have the tremendous pleasure of announcing three new albums by composer Jeff Gburek. The first album is in collaboration with his partner Karolina Ossowska, who plays violin, ocarina and kalimba on this release.  Gburek performs on zither, mandolin, miniature bandura and something called a blue-sky instrument, something new to me.  The music is quiet, thoughtful, and meditative.  It was a relaxing experience hearing Jeff’s and Karolina’s interplay. The next release deals with shortwave radio sounds.  This is in keeping with the best of experimental music, where one lets the noises speak for themselves.  Jeff states: Flux and Permittivity is…

  • Music

    Lagas Turmales – §︴

    February 16, 2021 - By 

    Lagas Turmales is a producer out of Monterrey, Mexico who produce a quiet, droning, monochrome ambient music.  It’s lack of dynamics is precisely how ambient music should sound to me, if we’re talking about a purist definition of the genre.  This is warm, rippling ambient music worth relaxing to.  One could say it would fit in well as part of a Tarkovsky soundtrack. This is a project I’d like to know more about.  Transitory Tapes is responsible for releasing this intriguing album.

  • Music

    Sublamp – Lianas

    February 8, 2021 - By 

    French imprint Eilean Records was a truly remarkable label with 100 releases of ambient and related musics.  I was going through my collection today and came across this album I purchased sometime in 2018. Sublamp is a fellow Los Angelino, Ryan Conner, who is a sound and video artist by profession.  This work, like all of his titles, is a record about an imaginary space, a soundtrack for a non-existent territory, if you will.  It’s a meditative piece perfect for headphone listening, and it’s one that I hope inspires you to dig deeper into Eilean Records‘ back catalog.

  • Music

    Departure Street – Everybody’s Leaving

    February 5, 2021 - By 

    From the bio: Allan J. Kimmel (aka Departure Street) is an American/French solo electric guitarist based in Paris France. He plays alternative ambient and neo-folk music with shoegaze & American blues underpinnings. I could not have said it more succinctly.  This is not my first time reviewing Allan’s wonderful guitar work.  I featured his previous release, Two Islands In The Heart, in March of 2020. This album is one filled with clouds of guitar ambiance which relaxes and doesn’t get too much in the way of one’s thoughts.  There continues to be a shoegaze or very minimalistic indie rock-flavored guitar…

  • Music

    Lappländer & Ancylus – Veden Varaan

    January 27, 2021 - By 

    Lappländer & Ancylus are a project hailing from Finland.  According to their bio, both Janne Lappalainen (Lappländer) and Visa Uotila (Ancylus) have over two decades of history working in electronic music. This is quite a powerful listen.  It reminds me of mid-period Tangerine Dream under the cavernous influence of Steve Roach, though with far shorter tracks.  Quite a good effort.

  • Music

    Bolduchin – Shellac

    January 23, 2021 - By 

    It’s impressive to hear when those who work outside of music under normal circumstances bring their talents into music, especially of a dark ambient variety.  Giacomo Triglia, who works under the name Bolduchin, provides a bleak, yet very lively soundtracks to the horrible dreams we all have now and then.  Actually, this would make a perfect soundscape for walls closing in on you.  Labels like Cold Meat Industry and Cryo Chamber would find this very familiar sonic territory.