A light, playful, and melodic album by a Japanese ambient master. Originally recorded in ’87, and only getting a posthumous CD release in ’06, the album is finally getting a global release in 2025. As I listen to the music, it is soundtracking a non-existent indie movie in my head.
Live At The ICA – The Black Dog
Pioneering techno and “home-listening” IDM and ambient British electronic artists performed at a sold-out show in London’s ICA in 2024. The performance starts out slow/ambient before it get’s the party started.
Shakers came to America 250 years ago and instruments (female acolytes) of the religion would create “gift drawings” based on reported visions of the spirit realm–gifts from God. Cantu-Ledesma’s anticipated release comes from a similar place, in that the artist believes music is a gift, but also the influence of practicing as a Zen priest and a hospice worker.
Banshee / Basse Brevis – François J. Bonnet / Sarah Davachi
This isn’t a collaboration but a combined release by Portraits GRM. Banshee is composed from materials collected on the Isles of Mull, Staffa and Skye, Inner Hebrides, and feels like you are traveling to and from, and to and fro, these seaside locations. It’s orchestral, and evokes the natural and foreign simultaneously.
The Reverent Sky – Steve Roach
It’s not the sheer volume of Steve Roach’s output that amazes me, it’s that all that output is always of such a high quality.
Siamo tutti in pericolo – Golem Mecanique
Drones layered with chants give this Golem Mecanique release a liturgical feel.
Berlin-based Dutch-Italian composer Aimée Portioli created Tuning the Wind in 2022 as an installation piece., but since then, it has been adapted into multichannel, 4DSOUND, and stereo installations, as well as performed live on numerous occasions around the world, and now this full-length release. For 36 minutes and 15 seconds reworked recordings of wind become a prepared instrument of sorts and mesh with synthesizers to become a natural symphony.
Primer – Hainbach & Ensemble Modern
I found out about Hainbach through his popular niche YouTube channel. On Primer, the Berlin-based composer collaborated with Ensemble Modern, and uses what put his channel on the map–nuclear research equipment and magnetic tape loops–to create ever shifting electronic compositions.
My city just came out of a record-breaking snowfall–40cm in overnight and over 70 cm in 4 days–so this album seems somewhat à propos. It’s more than a week later and the city is still cleaning up the mess. After a warmer, clearer week, we’re not in the clear yet as the weekend forecast is for more snow. Winter in the city can be hell. In contrast, “Northern Michigan Snowstorms” is an auditory journey that captures the serene beauty and introspective magic of stormy winters nights in the countryside.
Canada’s favorite ambient son has released this EP of various pieces originally written for various TV and film projects, including Infinity Pool, and The North Water, but that were left off the final scores.
Kind Regards – Oren Ambarchi & Eric Thielemans
This is the second release from guitarist Oren Ambarchi and drummer Eric Thielemans and captures a single unbroken performance in Poitiers, France in November 2023.
Not Around But Through – AMULETS
Portland-based experimental musician and tape wizard Amulets merges ambient, shoegaze, and post-rock, in this release that explores the emotions involved in a purposeful desire to face trauma and vulnerability.
Austrian guitarist Christian Fennesz’ The Last Days of May is a piece that is just shy of 24 minutes recorded in May 2024, and produced as a sound installation in collaboration with the Art Gallery of New South Wales for Volume 2024. The piece starts out with slow percussive bangs that sit in a large, empty space, the sound of a low frequency oscillator in an old piece of gear buzzing through a guitar amp like a small machine chugging in the distance, until the listener is surprised by a guitar chord that is at once in your face but ringing in the depths of the aforementioned space.
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma has released the first single off of his upcoming full-length Gift Songs (March 21, 2025). Coming in at a hair over 20 minutes, if the The Milky Sea is an indication, Cantu-Ledesma’s new album will be one of the best ambient releases of 2025. Also, if you pre-order the album, Mexican Summer will be donating 100% of Bandcamp Sales to MusiCares that provides crisis relief, preventive care, recovery resources, and need-based financial assistance for people across all music professions.
Koselig – Benoît Pioulard, Viul, From Overseas, zakè, Marc Ertel, Wayne Robert Thomas
To celebrate Zakè Drone Recordings’ 5th anniversary, they released Koselig—a curated collection of long-form compositions featuring Zach Frizzell’s (zakè) close friends: From Overseas, Benoît Pioulard, Wayne Robert Thomas, Marc Ertel, and Viul.
Metals – Scott Gordon
Scott Gordon’s debut album Metals features his custom Spinning Plate Instrument, that he first started experimenting with in 2018, and is a kind of idiophone featuring 9 suspended plates of different sizes that can rotate freely on the vertical axis, modulating the tones produced when struck.
Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds – Lawrence English
The Art Gallery Of NSW curator Jonathan Wilson invited Lawrence English to create a sound environment, reflecting on the Naala Badu building (meaning ‘seeing water’ in the Gadigal language) that opened in 2022. Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds is the piece that was offered as an atmospheric tint to visitors walking through the building throughout the year following its opening.
Ways To The Deep Meadow – Ocean Moon
Ocean Moon is one of the aliases of producer and Lo Recordings label head Jon Tye. This release is tranquil, hypnotic, and borders on New Age but is also reminiscent of the ambient lounges of techno’s yesteryear.
Sleep Deprivation [Broadcast channel] – The Black Dog
The Black Dog have created a broadcast project to share new music, share rarities, play live, and feature other artists. They’re broadcasting on YouTube, Twitch, and Kick. They’ve set a goal to get 1000 subscribers on YouTube and reach 3000 watch hours…so go subscribe! They’re still testing the software and bandwidth, so it could be a little rough around the edges, but it has always worked well for me.
New Tim Hecker! I think he has to be my de facto favorite ambient artist as I’ve been to at least three of his shows and I believe he lives in my town (at least he was in the crowd at the last Oneohtrix Point Never show I was at). His new EP Shards will be released on February 21st, and features pieces originally written for various film and TV soundtracks. Sunset Key Melt has a breathy, twinkling melody, reminiscent of sunlight refracting on the moving water of a lake in summer, but it slowly gets engulfed in–or melts into–a slightly foreboding noise. Another new track, Morning (Piano Version), is also available.
Aurora Terminalis – William Basinski + Richard Chartier
We’ve got a new release by some ambient royalty here with friends and collaborators, Basinski and Chartier. I didn’t know this was coming so it is a nice surprise. Far removed from The Disintegration Loops, this is more akin to the crashing waves and leftover haze of sound that are de rigueur.
The Undreamt-of Centre – Laurence Pike
It seems odd to include a very percussive album by a percussionist in a list of ambient albums but the drums, electronics and choir of The Undreamt-of Centre conjures a soundscape that is very similar to the best of ambient albums.
Perverts – Ethel Cain
OK, here’s another odd choice. Although Ethel Cain is usually associated with the indie, rock and folk genres, her latest offering, Perverts, is a dark and drone-filled affaire that is getting a lot of critical acclaim. As the title gives away, the album’s lyrics explores ways of perversion.