Juno Recommends Ambient / Drone: June 2023

Review: If you don't know the backstory then Fred Again and Brian Eno being on the same record might seem rather unlikely. One is an ambient innovator and long-time musical wizard who has worked with the like of David Bowie on his most seminal albums, and the other is a dance music powerhouse who has turned out plenty of pop hits under his own name and worked on even bigger ones with stars like Ed Sheehan. But as a youth, Fred was mentored by Eno, so there you go. Together they fuse their respective sounds perfectly - Fred's diary-like vocal musings over Eno's painterly synth sequences, the whole thing an immersive and escapist masterclass.

Review: Carsten Nicolai returns to his NOTON label with a new album of Alva Noto work, exercising his trademark minimalist glitch through the prism of a soundtrack to a theatre piece developed in 2021 for Swiss writer Simon Stone's Komplizen. As well as his usual fusion of stark, clinical soundscapes and pointillist digital impulses, Nicolai folds in delicate piano and compositional elements which invoke more tangible emotions than you might often associate with his solo work, perhaps taking some cues from his collaborations with the late, great Ryuicihi Sakamoto. Presented as a double LP release, this is a freshly romantic slant on the Alva Noto story encased within his unmistakable soundworld.

Review: Back in February, the prolific Past Inside The Present label boss Zake hooked up with Marc Ertel, James Bernard, and From Overseas at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis for a very intimate live show in a historic Gothic Chapel. A vast array of instruments were used including a Fender Telecaster, Meris Mercury 7, Eurorack modular synthesizer, Stingray bass guitar and literally tens more tools and toys and the resulting eight tunes of absorbing ambient are all presented here. It is another mystic and mystifying release from this label that reaches sublime new emotional highs.

Review: The ever inventive and always prolific zake is back on his own label Past Inside The Present with yet another new album. Deep Into The Unknown We Shall Endlessly Roam has already arrived with us on cassette tape and now it comes as a limited edition album on white and brown vinyl with just 200 copies pressed. It has been made from archaic tape machines such as a Sony M-570V microcassette voice recorder and obsolete VSC Soundpacer and then recorded to analogue tape for that levelly lo-fi and misty aesthetic. The artist himself says this record is "is dedicated to those who continue to yearn for greater understanding" and it is another sublime listen.

Review: ANNA is a Brazilian-born, Lisbon-based DJ and producer whose disposition towards music runs in her blood. The daughter of a Sao Paolo nightclub owner, ANNA seemed destined solely for a life behind the decks; but expectations were much upended after a nascent flair for composition also made itself clear. Despite bloodthirsty demand for her slamming DJ chops, Intentions is her debut album, rebelliously choosing to explore the world of ambient healing electronics instead. Paralleling ANNA's self-realisation journey, which led to a change in the way she makes music, the LP funnels collaborations and remixes from/with fellow therapeutic music aficionados like Jon Hopkins and Laraaji.

Review: Last year, Brian Eno served up his latest critically acclaimed album in the form of FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE. Now he follows it up with the much anticipated instrumental version. Despite his advancing years and the sheer scope of what he has already accomplish dint he ambient world - not least devising the genre in the first place - Eno still manages to excite and intrigue here. The artwork alone is beautiful, and the music inside is similarly lush - widescreen cosmic soundscapes with subtle melodies and shifting timbres, pregnant empty space and a knack for sounds designs with meaning few others can match.

Review: Lars Bartkuhn sonically portrays his recent relocation to Brazil on his latest ambient / new age LP Dystopia. It's an ironic title for sure, since it hardly sounds like what we'd usually imagine a dystopia to sound like. Perhaps the LP's making could shed some light on this paradox; Bartkuhn's first solo LP for almost nine years, it was born out of two interlinked ideas: a desire to create improvised music without the aid of computer sequencers or an electronic drum set, and a deeply held love of storytelling through sound. It's this revelling in imperfection which perhaps makes the album 'dystopic' - bits like 'Largo' and 'Do You Know How To Get Out' are beautifully rhythmic and driving, despite their apparent lack of computerisation going into the process. Sonically, it's aquatic, malleting, tactile, bubbly, serene.

Review: From pastoral 90s dance crossovers to left field analogue house mavericks and onto their current position as gifted, jazz-minded groove navigators, Ultramarine have never stood still over their long and winding career. At this point in time they slip into each new project with an ease and confidence which pours out of the music. On this new entry for Blackford Hill, they've chosen an unlikely muse in the Blackwater Estuary which runs into the sea just North of London. Quite whether you hear the undulating, tidal ebb and flow of large water masses in the music is subjective, but the mellifluous fusion of electronic and organic instrumentation is pure treasure for the ears, oozing warmth and full of charming surprises without ever sounding overwrought. By rights, Ultramarine should be considered a British cultural treasure and this album only confirms that fact.

Review: Northern England has this way of capturing the imagination. Sure, many of its towns feel half-forgotten in unromantic ways, infrastructure is appalling, and you've got the whole low life expectancy thing compared with every other region in the country. Push beyond all that, though, and when you're out exploring these corners the sense of adventure, or breaking out from the world we've created and coming face to face with nature's design can be hard to ignore.
Richard Skelton has never bothered trying - his works have long-since celebrated the unfettered, wild and remote feeling of escaping to somewhere up there, out past that last pub on the right. On Selenodesy, he takes the organic, textured soundscape idea that has defined so much of his work and adds in electronic synthesis to create something human, earthly, but also subtly alien in sound.

Review: Uwe Zahn might have been active under his real name more recently, but his longtime Arovane project has always remained steady apace. That being said, there's also a great impetus to reissue his music going at the minute: Lilies is the ambient musician's fourth album, and was originally released in 2004 by City Centre Offices, a label run between Berlin and Manchester. Inspired by a trip to Japan, there is an unmistakable eco-ambient undercurrent to this album. Out of print for almost two decades, Kepler do the good work of reissuing it now: Lilies is exquisite, with its laboured rhythmatics and lush synthetic plucks providing a blueprint for generations of Western ambient (techno) artists to come.

Review: To date Wata Igarashi has released most of his work as singles. The Japanese techno producer has steadily risen in profile thanks to releases for the likes of The Bunker New York, Nidgar, Bitta and Delsin, but now his trajectory shifts into a different gear as he offers up his first fully-fledged artist album outside of Japan for the mighty Kompakt. It's clear from the offset he's relished the opportunity to stretch out on an album and we're treated to some stunningly rendered ambient and downtempo soundscapes - just listen to the slow rise and fall of 'Searching' and you'll be instantly sold. There's space for drama and accomplished composition as on 'Ceremony Of The Dead', jazzy exploits on 'Burning' and much more besides, showcasing the unbridled imagination of one of Japan's brightest talents.

Review: Raising Earthly Spirits was conceived by its parent Rapoon as a ritualistic, shamanistic album centred around the concept of transcending this level of consciousness and existing mindfully in multidimensional space and time. It draws heavily upon the sacred ideas and practices of indigenous peoples; how they communicate and interact with their ancestors and how they see themselves in relation to this world. It was made with respect towards these beliefs.

Review: Florida-based ambient artist Wave Temples has spent the last decade slowly developing a trademark sound that draws on the heat and humidity of his home state. Of course, there's a bit more to it than that - he has previously recorded albums inspired by trips to Peru, frequently draws on ritualistic rhythms, and paints aural pictures that are undeniably tropical in tone - but the wider point remains. Panama Shift, his latest full length, is the producer's most expansive exploration of this sound to date - and a hugely enjoyable one at that. Sticky field recordings and gaseous ambient textures jostle for position with twinkling melodies, slow-burn instrumental refrains and occasional blasts of indigenous percussion. Combined with his flair for immersive sound design, the results are undeniably magical.

Review: Dutchman Tom Trago has somehow been away from what was once his home label for a full decade now. He makes a welcome return like a long-lost son on new album Deco, a superbly accomplished record that takes its name from a sauna he frequented when he needed to decompress. Eventually, he put his musical career on hold and went to speed time with his young family and so this album was recorded after a long time away from club dance floors. It is delightfully whimsical with airy melodies, curious chords and majestic synth craft all drifting over barely-there rhythms. It's an album that provided musical therapy for Trago, and now us.