Juno Recommends Ambient / Drone: August 2022

Review: Revered dub techno don Rod Modell has joined forces with Astral Industries label founder Ario Farahani for this brand new collaboration and stunning debut album. It was devised as an immersive fictional soundtrack and is beautifully rich with layers of FX, mystic motifs and stoner overtones that skink you in deep. Old Iranian records have been used as sample court material which lends it a real world cinematise and ancient charm with Persian sounds filtering through the hazy soundscapes. A fantastic album for mind, body and soul.

Review: Picture Music's works are pining dedications to idealized, fragile beauty. At the same time, the 80s Brisbane duo's name functioned as a nice pun, with every one of their works intended as workable in film, hence "picture music". Here their groundbreaking yet lesser-spotted ambient debut album, first released in 1987 on tape, gets a wax reissue via Left Ear. We're thrown back to a candlelit array of twilit tunes, from the curious, marimba-ey narrative developer 'Ivory Coast' to the light yet evocative, heart chakra-affirming piece 'Landscape'.

Review: Verdant's tenth release is another meandering and mystic trip through ambient electronic sounds that leaves you a million miles away from wherever you started. All four artists here excel with electro producer Reedale Ris kicking off in languid, far-sighted fashion with their mournful synths and distant cosmic designs. Out.Lier's 'Track 2' is another one cast adrift on deepest space with smeared pads and floating aural details suspending you in mid air. Jo Johnson's cascading synth motifs are pure and innocent and cathartic and Romanticise The World's 'Track 4' is mellifluous and hopeful.

Review: Justin K. Broadrick originally formed the Final project in 1984 in response to the upsurge in industrial and noise acts of the era. He made his live debut with the project at Birmingham's Mermaid Pub when he was just 14 years old and released a swathe of tapes before becoming sidetracked by Napalm Death, Godflesh et al. However the project has kept on, popping up on Downwards in 2015 and now landing on Luke Younger's Alter label in a burst of blue-hued, noise caked majesty. It's intense and somewhat oppressive, but also beautiful - a truly dualistic experience for divisive times.

Review: Jessica Ackerley (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Patrick Shiroishi (Los Angeles, California) are both members of the newly announced super-family-group SSWAN (along with trumpeter Chris Williams, drummer Jason Nazary, and bassist Luke Stewart). Both have prolific outputs and work diligently to push the boundaries of their respective instruments and previous musical ideas.

'Across Water' sees Ackerley and Shiroishi contributing their own unique takes on the ambient sound. Jessica contributes 'I Am Here' and 'The Crevices Between My Heart', each following the collection's theme of water while the guitar and synth work on the second composition gives way to visuals of deep-sea life that can only sustain itself away from the hustle and bustle of crowdedness. Similarly, Patrick is no stranger to straddling the fine lines between subtle and overt emotionality. 'Because You Went There' and 'Leaving It All Behind' are his offerings, seemingly looking up to the sky rather than down ay the ocean, infused by the sweet and smoggy California air.

Review: Gimmik serve sup what many are saying is his most mature and accomplish album yet. It is a concise work that perfectly sums up his signature sound as it goes from euphoric to dance-y and back again. The bass and bleeps hit hard, the electro drum programming is seance to none and the electronics are truly cinematic. It is an album full of standout tunes like the beautiful downbeat cut 'Decay Of A Ballblazer' and hazy, immersive 'All Around The Lake' but each individual pice also adds up to one killer album overall.

Review: Intended as a series of companion pieces to accompany the artist's tenth album 'Solastalgia', 'Agitas Al Sol' is Rafael Anton Irisarri's latest statement of wonder in drone, released three years later. Whereas the 2019 album was like gazing in awe at a slow-motion avalanche hurtling towards us, this follow-up is like surveying the aftermath of said avalanche in real time, allowing for a more tactile submergence in texture, with less drone resounding. Yet another brooding, crackly, tape-loopy mantra on eco-anxiety from the American producer and engineer.

Review: 'Liberamente' is now available for the first time on cassette. Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea create soft-textured and slowly unfolding sonic landscapes, somewhere between guitar-oriented drone music and modern classical. Liberamente is the kind of album that demands attention and patience from the listener, yet it's ultimately a very rewarding one. Stylistically Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea sums up several decades of American soundscape and drone music, taking threads from Windy & Carl, Auburn Lull, and Stars of the Lid then weaves them into a contemporary, and sonically adventurous whole. On the surface it suggests simplicity, but dig deeper and the seven pieces on Liberamente reveals a rare compositional dexterity. This is minimalism at its finest.