New releases last four weeks: Ambient/Drone

Review: Survival horror franchise Alan Wake saw its second instalment in 2023, following the game series' 2010 debut. Again, we follow novelist Alan Wake, as he attempts to escape his imprisonment in an alternate dimension by penning a horror story about an FBI agent, Saga Anderson. Both a detective story and a shoot 'em up, the second game bolsters the franchise's neo-noir and gothic Midwestern tropes; the soundtrack is fittingly both lachrymose and chilling, with its contributing scorers - Petri Alanko, Old Gods Of Asgard, Jean Castel and more - portraying Nordic moods of modern, nailbiting mystery. Through stark, grim, minor-keyed anthems, trip-hop furrowers and trembly orchestral laments, we find dead bodies found in the woods, fight spriggan-esque creatures, and soak in moods of noir crime psychodrama, all chillingly captured in a single sonic melange.

Review: Billow Observatory returns to the fully ambient realms of their 2012 debut with a deeply introspective, percussion-free release that drifts through spectral soundscapes. Created by Jason Kolb and Jonas Munk, the duo's transatlantic collaboration has matured across four full-length albums marked by precision and emotional depth. Here, abandoning traditional structure, the album instead looks to harness the power of chance and randomness with shimmering guitar textures that crackle and dissolve like dust in water. It evokes a world slightly out of sync that is brooding, haunting and beautifully immersive while underlining their place as masters of refined, atmospheric ambient music.

Review: As we hapless reviewers make our way through these five new experimental LPs by Current 93, we cannot help but feel increasing torment and terror at the figures portrayed on the front covers of each record: hand-painted by David Tibet himself (the artist has increasingly indulged such formal solo trend-buckings through his own Cashen's Gap imprint in recent years) they appear like sleep paralytic demons or the ghosts of cancelled English folk yore. All the records are apparently ritually connected to a recent string of live appearances between London and Hastings, and Tibet's penchant for demonologic peerage titles such as GreenSleeve Drakon and Gnostic Sketch - blurring a sense of self-referentiality and occult otherworldliness - leave us bewildered and slack-jawed.

Review: Moony Tunes is one of five new 12" LPs recently unveiled by David Tibet aka. Current 93, mad witch doctor of the post-80s industrial continuum. An ever-morphing project, Current 93 always implies motifs of apocalyptic folk, dream logic, and esoteric revelations, and this volume, subtitled Preparing To Sleep In Menstrual Night, feels like a whispered dispatch from the edge of sleep and symbol. True to C93's nature, it resists easy description, lullabying eerily through hoveringly attentive drones and spellcasting vocals. Each pressing includes a riso print of Tibet's painting Moony Toons, hand-signed in pencil, thus hand-stamping an album best received as a kind of ritual, and shaped by the occult aurae of Tibet's performances in London and Hastings earlier this year.

Review: Another of five LPs by Current 93 (David Tibet) through his own audio-esoterica label Cashen's Gap, this brilliant yellow and green hued LP nods to the universally recognised colour of earth-ground wire, and comes in the wake of a recent two part set of "channellings" (live performances) in both London and Hastings. As ever, Tibet steers the dream ship through surreal poetics and creaking soundscapes, and offers us a risograph print of his artwork, titled MayBe Skeletal RainBow, or perhaps Building The RainBow PainBow Preparing For Menstrual Night (we're not sure).

Review: To mark the one-year anniversary of Reveries, Sonic Cathedral drops a new two-tracker that brings a Detroit reimagining to 'Vale' and 'Cadere'. Produced by John Hanson, aka Saltbreaker, the project features live improvisations by saxophonists Yali Rivlin and Thalamus Morris and cellist Jordan Hamilton. Each of them did their thing in a single take with Hanson composing around their performances, and the result is a graceful blend of serene melancholy and rhythmic sophistication. Oodles of warmth and organic textured is added to the originals and these interpretations act as a fine tribute to Detroit's enduring uniqueness.

Review: With Heilun, Hyldipi makes a stunning debut on ambient powerhouse Past Inside The Present by presenting seven meditative compositions shaped by his native Iceland's raw, introspective beauty. Crafted entirely with guitar and minimal hardware, each track feels like a gentle conversation with nature, ephemeral and soul-soothing. From the delicate strums of 'Opnun' to the deep serenity of 'Hvild,' the album flows like glacial melt, patient and healing. 'Fadmur' blooms with aching emotion, while 'Kyrrd' closes the journey in subaquatic calm. This is ambient music for deep listening-an improvised, transcendental escape into stillness, where the ego dissolves and all that remains is presence and peace.

Review: Annea Lockwood is a pioneering New Zealand-born experimental composer who returns to Black Truffle with her third release for the label. Although she is now the handsome age of 85, Lockwood continues to explore new sound sources and collaborate with a range of performers and 'On Fractured Ground' features recordings made with Pedro Rebelo and Georgios Varoutsos while using Belfast's "peace lines" as resonant instruments that deeply evoke the dark history of the Troubles. 'Skin Resonance' is a collaboration with Vanessa Tomlinson that explores the bass drum's sonic properties while infusing them with elemental textures. Both pieces showcase Lockwood's reflective, meditative approach and make for another significant entry into her creative story.

Review: Parus is a Belarusian ethno-ambient project blending pagan songs with modern soundscapes and Zara is their debut album. Led by ethnographer and folk singer Hanna Silivonchyk, the record features traditional Belarusian songs in various dialects, all accompanied by synths and field recordings crafted by Anton Anishchanka. The tracks were gathered during ethnographic expeditions across Belarusian national parks, and songs like 'Soniejka' and the title cut offer intimate reflections on life, love and mythology. It connects to the past while maintaining a deep personal edge that makes Zara a fascinating exploration of Belarusian culture.