Juno Recommends Ambient / Drone September 2021

Review: Of Wave Variations, British producer Dennis Huddleston aka 36 has said that ocean tides inspired his latest album for Indianapolis-based Past Inside The Present. Recalling the sense of longing and wonder when standing on a beach, while staring past the waves and into the endless horizon, he feels the album is one of the most minimal records he has ever made, as he had far less sound sources at his disposal. Huddleston intentionally created the tracks around the three minute mark, as he feels that a lot of ambient creations are unnecessarily long (we agree!) and as the label most succinctly put it 'take you straight to Elysium and then dissolve into the ether.' The moods throughout the album are quite varied, moving from sanguine, melodic affairs, into intoxicating shoegaze-ish soundscapes, haunting and introspective drones and film score-like cues.

Review: REPRESS: Given the respective outputs of committed ambient explorers and sound designers Zake (best known for releasing no less than five fine albums in 2019) and 36 (most recently seen on A Strangely Isolated Place with the superb album "Fade To Grey"), you'd expect this trip into aural deep space to be rather good. It is of course, with the four tracks mixing echoing sonic tones and drifting sound effects with slow-burn electronic melodies and the kind of immersive, sustained chords that were once the preserve of German maestro Pete Namlook. The third track in the suite, appropriately titled "Stage 3", is little less than stunning, in part because of its grandiose, almost classical intent.

Review: Poetic Hovering Synth Tinkerer.

Review: Fresh Hold is a newly formed archival label. It takes its bow here by serving up Singing Dust in collaboration with Efficient Space. This is one of the most mysterious jazz records to have come out of Australia and was originally released in 1986 on Melbourne label Cleopatra Records. It is a sophisticated sound with elements of exotic, lounge, new age and ambient all detailing the escapist tunes. The gentle patter of drums, hippie overtones of a flute, 80s keyboards and Indian devotional vocals are exquisite in their authenticity and make for a record full of charm. One of the musos out there.

Review: With the literal translation of this album title being Retiring to the Forest, the third stage of the Varnashrama system of Hinduism, you should probably be able to guess where Alex Smalley - AKA Olan Mill, AKA Ilm - is coming from. It feels almost like you step into Vanaprastha in the same way you would a world unto itself. Through the wormhole, down the rabbit hole we go. Fear not, though, what's waiting for us is really rather nice.

Understatement of the century, this is ambient at its organic and most endearing, painting textured tapestries of sound that float on a soft and inviting mood. It's hard not to feel yourself sinking ever-deeper into the refrains, which themselves are pure melodic bliss without necessarily presenting themselves as such in any obvious way.

Review: According to the artist himself, zake's first solo album of 2020 was recorded and produced during "a four-day excursion in several secluded areas" in South Carolina. As a result, listeners can expect to hear babbling brooks, birdsong and the gentle rustling of leaves beneath Zake's alluring mixture of enveloping ambient chords, unearthly drone tones, opaque electronics and slowly-shifting, heavily processed neo-classical movements. The results are hugely immersive and undeniably enjoyable, with each of the four tracks delivering a head-in-the-clouds journey that ripples with becalmed, atmospheric intent. In other words, it's the kind of ambient music you can get lost in. More please!

Review: Somewhat surprisingly, Beliefsystems marks the first musical collaboration between Past Inside The Present co-founders Zake and Isaac Helsen. It's undeniably an album worth waiting for though, with the three meditative, enveloping tracks offering a perfect blend of the Zake's droning, densely layered "drone-scapes" and Helsen's glistening and fluid processed guitar sounds. For proof, check 19-minute opener 'Northern Cross', where starry, slow-burn electronics, distant guitars and yearning, unfurling melodies gently ebb and flow across the sound space, and the becalmed, field recording-sporting haziness of 'Knowledge Rooms Parts I & II'. In a word: sublime..

Review: Monolake's 'Gobi' is a cult classic that has never actually be available on vinyl before. It was first put out on CD only in 1999 but now Astral Industries present it on wax, licensed from Imbalance Computer Music.It features just two long pieces that are "set to the backdrop of the Gobi desert in eastern Asia." The music captures that milieu with synths skittering over the moonlit dunes, murmuring tectonic plates down low and vivid textures and masterful minimalism all taking your mind on a real trip.

Review: After recent releases on Past Inside the Present, Dronarivm and Shimmering Moods, Tapes and Topographies returns to Simulacra with their third release this year "Monomials." Monomials finds Tapes and Topographies expanding their atmospheric, dreamy palette with more analog synths this time, with some tracks stripped down to their cloudy, drifting melodies.

Review: Belgian artist Bernard Zwijzen might be best known for recording as Sonmi451, which he has done for over a decade. But this new album Seven Signals In The Sky is another gorgeous work of subtle and seductive tone poems. Each tune is painstakingly crafted with rich layers of strings, gentle synths, sci-fi motifs, found sounds, acoustic riffs and tender spoken word whispers. It makes for a widescreen, deeply meditative album of thoughtful ambient and electronica that is the perfect tonic for calming overthinking minds living over busy lives.

Review: French producer Malibu released his One Life record in 2019 and it finally makes it on to vinyl. The five track mini album further explores the quiet rapture of his unique ambient style. He is an artist not afraid to explore beauty and prettiness in favour of the more usually critically valued notions of seriousness and complexity. In his hands, it works. Lush strings, endless amounts of reverb and vast empty space define most tunes while gently rolling surf and soundtrack cues add the vital details which make these tracks so alluring and absorbing.

Review: Yann Tiersen seems to inhabit a musical space of his own, where Satie and Chopin-inspired piano movements are the base for subtle, emotionally moving musical flights of fancy that are neither straight classical-style compositions, nor grandiose soundtrack works. He's taken this one step further on Kerber, his latest album, by embellishing his dazzling and hugely enjoyable piano motifs with subtle electronic instrumentation (much based around processed, manipulated recordings of harpsichord and Mellotron) and even occasional beats. It's a formula that results in some hugely enjoyable material that genuinely takes Tiersen's trademark sound in new directions, whilst retaining his core musical values.

Review: The Spaciousness series looks to "explore the connections, the overlaps, the roots and the future" of overlapping genres of music that include new age, downtempo, ambient, world and post-classical. The first volume was exceptionally well done and this second one is too. Plenty of heavy hitters feature including new age legends Laraaji and Iasos, Coil member Michael J York, Ulrich Schnauss and modern mainstays like Andras Fox and Seahawks. Between them, they help make for a widescreen selection of sounds that will uplift, bring a tear and soothe, sometimes all at once.

Review: Ambient aficionados are well attuned to the American blog and label Past Inside the Present. It has been turning out some of the genres best sounds for time, and this month is putting out two different projects by label co-founder Zake. One is 'Unfailing Love' with Marine Eyes, and this is the other with fellow label co-founder Isaac Helsen. It is a long overdue work that is made up of three arrangements. They are excellent ambient soundscapes awash with drone-laden guitar work, field recordings, tape machines and great samples. Patiently designed, slow release in its pleasure, this is modern ambient at its finest.

Review: Take it from us - you want to get to know Denovali Germany on an intimate level. The label has been putting out tearjerking contemporary classical and far-reaching electronic compositions since 2005, lays claim to its own festival of forward thinking music and generally doesn't put a foot wrong. Home to the likes of Electro Guzzi and Les Fragments De La Nuit, it's an imprint and then some, to put it mildly.

Dalhous' The Composite Moods Collection is another one for the ages - the kind of album that you're bound to come back to for years because each play through seems to reveal new layers and elements that may not have presented themselves immediately. While for the most part this is all ambient, there are elements here that take us into much more muscular and ferocious ends, from 'Everything Is Bleeding' to the cinematic tension of 'Open As A Glade Unfolding'.

Review: Recorded between Sevilla and Cadiz, Andalucia, south of Spain.