drone / ambient

After the critically acclaimed 'Collaborations I' album, Belgian guitar ambient act Stratosphere returns with a five-track EP. Aptly titled 'Repository', this EP delves into Ronald's archives and compiles five tracks written for an equal amount of special occasions. Although this EP is not as varied as 'Collaborations I', it is a perfect overview of the immersive, multi-layered ambient sound that pleasantly surprises ambient aficionados everywhere. 

The EP opens with 'Hear', a slowly lingering ambient piece composed for the HEAR-festival, curated by Mike Kramer. In a way, this is a traditional Stratosphere track, with a neat blend of gloomy drones and meandering soundscapes. 'Anticipation', composed for Serge Timmers' debut novel 'Cecilia's World', is a sweet and almost classic drone ambient piece, all in perfect Stratosphere tradition and perfectly fitting with the calm atmosphere of the book itself.

'Essence' is an exception. This is the most "acoustic" that Stratosphere has ever been before. Pure, almost stripped down of any effects, but still the typical Stratosphere atmosphere is present.

And then, there is the intense and dark 'God Was Nowhere To Be Found'. This track was inspired by the opening scene for Serge Timmers' second novel, a superhuman thriller titled 'I Do Not Want This'. This track is a short but an exhilarating and suspenseful tune. Again, perfectly suited for its purpose. So is the magnificent closer 'Tides' by the way, composed to play live at Ashtoreth's Palazzo sessions. I was there, shaking my head in disbelief and mumbling "this guy is a genius". I was not this only one thinking that. 

In all, this is simply a must-have for Stratosphere fans and a perfect start for those who want to get acquainted with his sound. The tunes on 'Repository' are baffling examples of Stratosphere's musical abilities. They certainly raise the bar in the drone-ambient scene. So, do yourself a favor and dive into the dreamy universe of Stratosphere. Get the EP, relax and let your mind wander off. It rarely gets better than this.
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Serge 

ambient

There is something inherently exciting in listening to an album and artist about which you have no preconceptions. Will I like it, will I not like it and what musical style will my ears be treated to are all  things yet to be discovered.

So, in this weeks installment of a musical Pandora’s box we have an album by German composer Oliver Haas who goes by the moniker of Aporie and his new album Temporary Meaning. Bandcamp tags the album as ambient, post rock, drone, experimental and kraut-rock, quite a stew for me to experience, lets get started shall we.


Album opener The Foundation of Being starts with a droning note which morphs and ebbs and flows around delicately picked guitar notes, it's quite beguiling and already I'm pleased with what I'm hearing. Next track An Inevitable End follows a similar template but introduces heavily distorted guitar tones towards the end of the track which adds another dimension to the drone like nature of the record. Following track The Weight of an Idea feels like a de-constructed kraut-Rock tune with everything which makes a bombastic record stripped out, then only the very basic building blocks delicately built back up again made out of nothing more than wisps of sounds.

The next few songs continue the ambient theme and I keep drifting away, thinking of sitting in a church with the worlds quietest choir singing just for me in the background, it's all very mesmeric. That is until The End of a Legacy hits with some spacey tones and shake me out of my introspection, it sounds like someone is chasing me down a corridor on an intergalactic spaceship, either that or I'm in a futuristic space buggy hurtling towards an unexplored space station, I haven't quite decided yet.

The Universe Collapsing showcases more ambient textures with an ominous base throbbing which is quite unnerving and strangely hypnotic. Buried in Time ups the tempo slightly and introduces some very relaxing piano styling to proceedings and I'm very thankful for the variety. When next track Meaning in a Meaningless World starts, I imagine the swirly 60's special effects of space films for some reason, not sure why. Final track Echo Into Void brings back the delicate guitar notes and in a very nice way brings the album back round full circle to the first song.

So, to sum up, whilst not my usual musical preference (I usually prefer things on the heavier side), I've heard enough that I like what I hear and if you like your drone and ambient music, give this a listen, you will not be disappointed.


​Simon

ambient / experimental

Alting Falder I Samme Rum is an album released on May 31, by Danish ambient musical project øjeRum. Almost forty-five minutes long, the record has six tracks, all named after the album title, numbered from one to six. With a prominent experimental layout, and a dynamic degree of minimalism, the album definitely displays a monumental tenacity, that overtly dilates its expansive sonorous features. With calm harmonies that delegates to its dispersive majesty the eternal shadows of otherworldly dimensions – for the soul to rest in a realm where all hearts perish within the melancholic charisma of absurd lethargy –, the sound present on this album will definitely take you somewhere, possibly to a place where horizons can be touched, and even created according to personal wishes.

With a majestic style that definitely presents itself as a gracious agent of everlasting and genuinely resourceful serenity, Alting Falder I Samme Rum is an almost surreal masterpiece, with a relaxing diagram of captivating proclivities, whose perfectly crafted harmonious alignment defines the grace of its warm, cautious and obliquely discreet melodies. Displaying a sensational musical veracity – whose rhythm drives the listener to a colossal and reverberant state of grace –, this work has a proverbial and eloquent artistic density, constantly revitalized by the pungent mordacity of its own placidity.  

Despite its homogeneous musical layer, there is a certain degree of dynamism into this artist’s music, that elevates its sonorous configuration to a distinct pattern of creative sensibility. Standardizing the cosmogonies of its imprudent virtues, its laborious musical atmosphere is shaped over a candid and volatile intensity, that perfectly understands the reason behind its voluble and arduous sonorous splendor.

With a graceful sensibility that is overwhelmingly cohesive and decently structured, Alting Falder I Samme Rum reveals itself to be a highly spectacular and formidable album, whose marvelous sonority undertakes the pleasure of alternative ambient music to a whole new glorifying level, full of ubiquity and ambiguity. Despite showcasing creative abilities that could be perceived as somewhat limited and restrictive at times, øjeRum nevertheless conceived this record as a singular and fantastic masterpiece, that aggregates subversive, refined and original principles into the genre, inserting a discreet level of experimentalism in the lurid cataclysm of the sound’s musical anatomy, effectively propitiating to the listener the ability to dive into a completely different world. One that can be felt as more affable, loving and tender than this one, even though is also inadvertently ephemeral, translucent and transient.  


Wagner

electronic / idm / ambient

Welcome to the strange and otherworldly universe of Von Tesla, a place where music seems random and futuristic. This 133 minutes lasting double album is like nothing you have ever heard before, unless - of course - if you are a huge Autechre and Aphex Twin fan. In that case, 'Ganzfeld' might not sound renewing or refreshing, but it's still an excellent addition to your weird collection. The album is inspired by the Ganzfeld effect, a phenomenon of perception caused by exposure to an unstructured, uniform stimulation field which can cause hallucinations. (read all about that on Wikipedia). And yes, perhaps this music can indeed cause a few hallucinations along the way.

The album opens abruptly, with the beats and noises of 'Aftermath'. It quickly becomes clear that we are not dealing with a normal ambient/downtempo album. I mentioned the name Aphex Twin before and I think the godfather of intelligent dance music will rather often appear in your mind while listening to this stuff. Complex beats, noises from highly advanced planets and eerie field recordings create unique pieces of music. Sometimes harsh and unforgiving, sometimes dreamy and gently, like in the sweet ambient tune 'Lighted Room'.

'Out Of The Surface' feels like Plaid doing something with breakcore, which is bizarre, thus quite interesting. Although my personal preferences go out to less nervous tunes like the beautiful closing track 'In The Red'. Yet, before we can fully enjoy that, we have to undergo a whole lot of seemingly unstable rhythms. 'Caustic Network', the opener on CD2 threw the Autechre reference into the mix. 'Dream Part' flirts with harsh noise and 'Feedforward' seems to experiment with Speedy J's 'A Shocking Hobby'.

So there you have it, a weird electronic album for weird people but one that will quite often surprise and dazzle you. If you're into any of the aforementioned acts, you definitely need to get your hands on a copy of these two shiny CDs. There is no artwork so there is nothing to distract you from the sonic trip you're about to make, courtesy of Von Tesla. On the other hand, if you want music to be easy digestible and ear-friendly, perhaps you shouldn't be here...


​Serge

ambient / dark ambient

Rusted Tone Recordings

This is pretty much my favorite kind of "collaborating": one artist having more than one project, having these projects work together on an album. Jim Wylde and sp3ct3rs are one and the same person but for this release the two personas come together.

One is known for his dark, lingering and ritual soundscapes while the other focuses more on complex emotional ambient music. On 'All That You Wanted' you seem to get the best of both worlds: an intriguing set of ambient tunes to guide you through the lonely summer evenings.


The album contains eight tracks, which come quite varied, even though the overall feeling is one of minimalism. Title track 'All That You Wanted' is a slow, lingering piece of ambient, driving on almost shrieking soundscapes. Many of the other tracks seem to follow that example, although there are a few exceptions. The most notable of those is 'Kest (ft. Beth Roberts)', where minimal synths support fragile vocals. 'This Too Shall Fall' is another one of those exceptions, an eerie, grainy sounding melody.

'Seon' is another one of those mystifying tunes where melody meets atmosphere. I think this is my favorite track here but that's not an easy decision to make, considering the overal quality of this album. Eventually, the eternally droning 'As Light Breaks The Trees' closes this album in style. For ambient fans, this surely is one to check out, especially if you like your ambient somewhat gritty, gloomy and often noisy. 


​Serge

avant-garde / drone / experimental

Not that long ago, I was at Dunk Festival, reminiscing about the origin of their much loved forest stage. Along with a few festival buddies, I remembered the very first gig in that forest, even before it became a real stage. It was Canadian drone/ambient powerhouse Thisquietarmy and his massive soundscapes. It was pretty amazing, too. 
Years have gone by and Eric Quach has not been at Dunk ever since. So I guess it's time to give him another shot next year. After all, he's got plenty of stuff in his repertoire. He can come alone, or with a full band or in the company of Aidan Girt (Godspeed You! Black Emperor). The latter would be simply baffling.

Some Became Hollow Tubes is the name of their mutual project. Eric on guitars and synths. Aidan blasting away on the drums. With 'Keep It In The Ground', they delivered a stunning piece of work, one that you will have to listen to several times and at several different volumes. The album contains six tracks, opening a bit hesitant with 'Red Eyes or Bleeding from the Nose or Mouth'. This track gradually evolves and somewhere in the middle of the thirteen minutes lasting sonic assault, the music has slowly put its droning tentacles in your brain. By the end, this is no longer Eric and Aidan, but a well-attuned act and a force to be reckoned with. 

There is one act that often comes to mind when I listen to most of these tracks: Yodok III, or maybe better, The Void Of Expansion. Track two, 'Do Not Run Away or Hide Sick People' could be a track from one of Eric's other projects: Hypnodrone Ensemble. Further down the road, Aidan Baker and his Caudal trio come to mind and - obviously - here and there elements from Godspeed You! Black Emperor come shining through. But, I don't feel like Some Became Hollow Tubes is a band influenced by all these, I think it's pretty much the other way around. Let's just call it an amalgamation of two exceptional talents.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this album is the sheer amount of variation. I mentioned a few different acts, and when I did that, 'Another Bad Subplot About a Boy's Search for his Father' was just starting. With this tune, I'm even being reminded of Ashtoreth for a little while, before the drums come out and turn the whole thing into a jazzy drone tune. My favorite track is 'Dog Faced Propulsion', perhaps the most dramatic and pulsating track on this brilliant album. I think the message is clear here. If you're into drones & drums, kraut & psychedelic, ambient & percussion, you need this album. You'll need to pre-order quickly, too. These will sell quickly...


​Serge

post rock/ ambient / experimental

A Moon Daguerreotype is an album released by Italian post rock band Goodbye, Kings, on May 27. Almost fifty minutes long, the record has eight tracks: Camera Obscura, Méliés, The Magician, Drawing With Light, Phantasma, Giphantie, Space Frame Natives, The Ancient Camera Of Mo Zi and A Moon Daguerreotype. With a methodic and exceedingly abrasive sound, the style presented by the band is thoroughly consistent, preciously sculpted and vividly intense. Although the sound appears to be generic at first, as the album evolves, a more authorial and genuine, though pervasively discreet layer of melodies reveals the brightness of its singular and fantastic grace.   

With a serene, but mordacious style, that intelligently explores excruciatingly dense and sober minimalist devices, the music of Goodbye, Kings departs from a delightful perspective of pristine sensibility. Displaying crystalline harmonies that delivers a formidable degree of audacious, though lucid experimentalism, the exceptional level of dense and sagacious musicality gradually revealed by the band showcases a virtuous level of originality, that, intermittently, leaves the listener amazed, in a great and unimaginable condition of euphoric rapture, hardly believing in the gracefully majestic sound slowly revealed, and splendidly appreciated. 

With a formidable and extraordinary level of authenticity, A Moon Daguerreotype slowly reveals itself a truly incredible state of the art work – a marvelously spectacular sonorous journey –, where deeply creative harmonies collide with the brutal strength of inflexible, but brightly sculpted colorful melodies. A wonderfully marvelous and aggrandizing work, whose originality inadvertently transposes musical boundaries with a great deal of audacious excellence, Goodbye, Kings projects the versatility of its groundbreaking talent in an ocean of irreplaceable sonorous elegance, sidelined with a perfectly consistent and solid artistic proposal. 

Definitely a majestic work whose profoundly instinctive originality makes the record a pleasant experience all the way through – besides its beautiful, delicate and poetic style – the sound present on A Moon Daguerreotype is never predictable, repetitive, nor tiresome. Without any fear of creating something entirely different, and developing a very peculiar and sensorial genre of music, exceedingly impossible to properly categorize, Goodbye, Kings has conceived this sensational album to open a new artistic horizon, a new atmosphere of epic grandiosity, introducing a more vivacious and sober element of sonorous sensibility, that certainly has all the potential to make them the next wonderful phenomenon in the worldwide arena of the underground scene. 


Wagner

dark ambient / space ambient

Exosphere Music

With four extensive tracks – Sentinel, Sweet Oscillation, Gem Float and Love Prism – Sonic Being is the most recent album by an artist known by the exotic alias of Lingua Lustra, released by Exosphere, a sub-label of Synphaera Records. An interesting album, whose dense atmosphere highlights the consistence of imperiously diluted harmonies, Sonic Being is primarily a very dilated and expansive work, where sound departs from the cosmogony of a cautious, ubiquitous and dark resonance, even playing with an ostensibly graceful, but fragmented degree of minimalism. 

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A delightful work of art, that plays with the psychological perceptions of the sound, an imminent sense of anguish, doom and demise is exceedingly highlighted from the beginning, and the record works mostly on this disruptive zone of dark and lugubrious expectation. With an ostensibly protuberant void – filled with the vortex of a voluble density –, the artist expands the apex of its sonorous gravity to involve in the horizon of its melodic virtues the wider possibilities of the resounding dynamic tissues present in the periphery of the melodies. 

With an elegant and calm atmosphere, Sonic Being deepens the crystal skies of the music’s dynamic zone, to seek a point of convergence between the harmonies, where no intrusive elements can be inserted. As the sound becomes exceedingly vivacious – although concomitantly homogeneous –, the artist’s style progresses to embark on a colossal wave of serenity, that can never be properly satisfied, though the diligence upon which its impenetrable integrity is conceived unveils a sound where the reason becomes the primary element of an artistic antagonism, that evaluates the dissidence of its own structural pragmatism.   

Definitely, a very sensitive album, whose sound plays intelligently with the senses, Sonic Being is a calm, proficient and elegant sonorous rapture, that will take you to a fascinating journey throughout the vastness of the universe. A record that brings to the audience the best the genres of space and dark ambient has to offer, the artist displays a very singular, coherent and meticulous style, that is sensible to its own creative susceptibilities, delivering a set of colorful emotional tonalities on the crest of its versatile mosaic of everlasting lethargies, that gradually converges to a vivacious realm of splendorous sensibilities. Nevertheless, its musical atmosphere flourishes – despite its desolate captivity –, with the final result being a relatively fantastic work of art that moves from one point of the universe to another, without ever leaving its somnolent and reclusive place of origin.

 
Wagner

dark ambient / space ambient 

Exosphere Music

Presence is a dark ambient music album, released in May 14, by Chris Russell, through Exosphere, a sub-label of Synphaera Records. With a dense, but distinctly protuberant atmosphere, and a very oblique sonorous layout, you definitely feel yourself absorbed into another dimension, where your sensitivities collide softly with a renitent, but tempestuously aggressive doom, that is ready to take you to an indefinite abyss of sinister captivity. A spectacular work of art whose profound layers derive its strength from a substratum of dispersive harmonies, Presence has on its discreet, but exceedingly pungent essence an expression of its marvelous grandiosity and elegance, where the excellence of silent virtues punctuate a scale of resonant majesty, that exposes a world of doomed expectations, solely conceived from the restless configuration of a musically devised sinister perspective.   

Sixty-eight minutes long, Presence has seven very intense and primordially diluted tracks: 1) Amber Clouds; 2) Dark Matter; 3) Charon Base; 4) Presence; 5) Aphelion; 6) Teide; 7) Planemo Unfolding; unveiling in the best perspective possible the true essence and the most impeccable qualities that the genre inherited from the greatest geniuses of dark ambient, this album follows with a marvelous degree of honor and fidelity the lugubrious paths previously conceived by the likes of Kammarheit, Svartsinn and Ugasanie, with a formidable degree of competence, diligence and groundbreaking artistry. With melodies that dive deep into a fugacious ocean of everlasting melancholy, effectively creating an eternal night of frivolous despair, Presence gradually releases a consistent darkness over the physiology of its own musical realm, nurturing a fragile fraternity with a horrendous promise of fear, that is imperiously sidelined by a contiguous, lethargic and mysterious symphony of agony. 

With a pungent sound whose dilated layers rescues its own pretensions towards the funereal emptiness of a dying infinity, the sound prevalent in this album stays in the periphery of its own destructible anguish, effervescing in the extraordinary rhythmic dissolutions of a visceral plague the drastic urgencies of its own susceptible volatilities. With a stable surface of harmonies, though, the sound is also very tranquil, pristine and almost palpable, as the irreplaceable navigations of its inflexible anatomy dilacerates the pervasiveness of its delusional tonalities, abundant in somnolent hypnotism, that inadvertently brings on its apparent calmness the mortuary afflictions of an instigating anxiety, generated by the inherently consistent disposition of the sound. 

A great gift to all dark ambient lover’s out there, Presence feels as a truly genuine composition of a restless creative mind, eager to drive you to a solitary and desolate world of gloom and isolation, where a reality entirely conceived in black, white and grey is all that you will ever have. A sound that brings together a sordid coalition of precipices – manifested as a symphony of laborious sadness – that will make you feel permanently lost in a parallel world of bizarre omniscience, elaborated as if reality itself is an experimental movie of E. Elias Merhige.


Wagner

drone / ambient

I wasn't going to write today. The plan was to prepare for another legendary Dunk! festival and go to bed early. But then I saw a post by Ben, sole member of drone act Sitka. He announced a new album and I decided to play it while I packed my bags.
Result: my wife is now packing the bags and I'm here writing about this cold, eerie and mesmerizing album. I guess things don't always go as planned but I don't mind. 'Splitting Oak' is an inspiring album, Sitka's second after 'Spirit Lake' which was released in 2016. I have been following him shortly after, curious about the evolution of Sitka and I must say, I was not expecting this.

The album contains four tracks, or one track split into four parts. In these, Sitka follows the much loved drone ambient tradition. With minimal layers of guitar-scapes, seemingly shivering through the speakers, Sitka creates calm, soothing ambient textures, be it somewhat gritty and harsh at times. In that aspect, it seems like Ben has been inspired by N. (Hellmut Neidhardt), who also wanders on the rougher side of the ambient spectrum.

Parts 1 and 2 are quite similar in structure and atmosphere. Part 3 is a short, repetitive ambient loop, opening for the brilliant closer, a long track and my favorite on this album. Here, I do sense some influences from our good friend Stratosphere, also both in structure and in atmosphere. Perhaps this is the evolution I was expecting, more than the other three tracks. Yet, besides these obvious influences (I can probably name some more), Sitka is slowly creating his own sound.

Yes, Sitka is evolving, getting more and more acquainted with his gear and that's a good thing. That means that soon Ben will hopefully perform on a regular basis and who knows, maybe influence other youngsters to pick up the guitar. I definitely love this album, not only because it's an excellent drone-ambient release but also because I love to see people enjoying their own musical progress. Be like Ben :-)


Serge