Haunted By the Sky: The Secret History of Tor Lundvall’s Ambient Pop
With a decades-long career of crafting ambient material as flexible in tone as it is in scope, a new box set reveals secrets to Tor Lundvall’s unknown catalog.
ambient
Re-Considering the First Five Muslimgauze Releases in Memory of Bryn Jones
Muslimgauze’s first five releases are some of the most interesting, fully-realized artifacts to crawl out of the early 1980s industrial, experimental drainpipe.
Erik Hall Creates Minimalist Compositions with Warm Beauty on ‘Canto Ostinato’
Composer and multi-instrumentalist Erik Hall shares his second installment of a trilogy with a tribute to Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt on Canto Ostinato.
John Bence Turns to His ‘Archangels’ for Detoxification
John Bence’s Archangels has got to be one of the quietest new albums. He’s conjured a storm’s eye, making it a fascinating aesthetic contradiction.
Instrumental Rock Kingpins Unwed Sailor Know How to ‘Charm’
Unwed Sailor rule the instrumental rock landscape, but in order to keep their 18-month album release cycle, their new record had to be re-tracked from scratch.
Gareth Koch and Martin Kennedy Soundtrack the Great Beyond on ‘Music in the Afterlife’
On Music in the Afterlife, Martin Kennedy and Gareth Koch put themselves in the running for an impossible task to make a soundtrack for eternal bliss.
Pulse Emitter’s ‘Dusk’ Sports Lush Synthesizer Experiments
Pulse Emitter’s Dusk possesses a keen sense of melody, as arpeggios and melodic lines cross over each other, creating a lushness that washes over the listener.
Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Lists/Music/Music Features/PopMatters Picks/The Best Music of 2022
The 10 Best Ambient Albums of 2022
The post-pandemic flood of self-released ambient records has oversaturated the market in the best way: here are the best ambient albums of 2022.
Patrick Shiroishi Explores Family History with the Arresting Calm of ‘Evergreen’
Japanese-American experimental multi-instrumentalist Patrick Shiroishi once again pays tribute to his heritage in this deeply moving new album, Evergreen.
Old Fire Attempts to Find the Beauty in Bleakness
The music on Old Fire’s Voids is slow and unsettling, like folk music from a location devoid of hope.
Phillip Golub Gives Processed-Based Composition an Uncommon Warmth on ‘Filters’
Approached as neo-classical minimalist jazz, Filters is a triumphant solo debut from Phillip Golub and another fascinating album from greyfade.
Jordan Reyes Faces His Fears with the Phenomenal ‘Everything Is Always’
Chicago experimentalist Jordan Reyes confronts mortality, anxiety, depression, and a pandemic with a cathartic new album, Everything Is Always.
