Juno Recommends Ambient / Drone: Best of 2022

Review: Merrin Karras' 2020 foray into extended compositions combining his Berlin School tendencies and expansive ambient is finally pressed-up on cloudy transparent 12". Remastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri and featuring revisited art by Noah M / Keep Adding.

Review: Despite the title sounding like an archive collection, 1994 is actually the debut album from OKRAA. It has an emphasis on live performance and makes for a gorgeously immersive and even evolving listen from the aways excellent A Strangely Isolated Place label. All four pieces are over with minutes but they are worthy of their playing time for the way so much unfolds in such engaging fashion. Synths are cold and innocent on 'Ola De Luz' while 'Heartless' is more textural, dark, heavy in its mood. The title track is another heavy and introspective one while 'Plasma' has a more optimistic feel that lifts the spirts.

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: The very first live stream on 9128.live broadcast from the studio of Rafael Anton Irisarri, as he and Thomas Meluch (Benoit Pioulard) pieced together a completely live improvisation, christening the newly created 9128 airwaves and setting the bar for many more live takeovers. With one album between them as Gailes, and profound work individually (also together as Orcas), Rafael and Thomas are masters of the ambient craft, combining intricate field recordings, guitar, pedals, vocals and heady reverb across a 40-minute non-stop immersive listen, split into two 20-minute sides for the inaugural 9128 vinyl release. The 9128 label aims to document significant live performances by artists that previously performed on the 9128.live platform. With recordings initially created for a singular collective listening moment, and often as part of a festival or takeover weekend, label recordings will re-present this music for further listening across various formats that best suit each release. Gailes - Session Two, will be available as a digital download and 12", printed in a reverse-board die-cut sleeve, black vinyl.

Review: Skee Mask's run on Ilian Tape shows no sign of slowing down as his Skee Series clocks up volume seven. As always the sheer weight of ideas spilling out of his studio is remarkable, veering from the gorgeous aqueous tones of 'Daytime Gamer (version)' to the barely there drones of 'MDP93'. Beyond the dazzling acrobatics of his albums and EPs, these kinds of releases prove the range of inspiration the Masked one operates with, where intricate and exquisitely sculpted soundworlds can be as engrossing as the fullest, most dynamic beat construction. Skee Mask, with these sublime ambient drops you are really spoiling us.

Review: For fans of downtempo electronica and deep techno, the renewed activity from enigmatic Scottish producer Pub has been a welcome treat in recent years. Seminal releases have been reissued, including 2000's Summer 12", and now we appear to have a logical follow-up in the form of Autumn. It's not clear whether this is an archival dig or something freshly brewed, but it shimmers and dances with the same vitality that has always marked out Pub's music as something truly special. There's a joyous lilt to the melodic composition here, but not without that melancholic undercurrent which has always defined the emotional impact of Pub's considered, elegant take on home-listening electronics.

Review: The inaugural 9128.live label release came from the UK's Jo Johnson and Hilary Robinson, featuring subtle, harmonic drones and manipulated piano, originally aired as part of the duo's set for the CALMA (Madrid) takeover on 9128.live, April 2020. Released digitally in 2020, the set is now available on 12" vinyl, split into two long-form compositions.

Review: In remembrance of Pete Birch, AKA Woosh, AKA The Peaceful Ones and founder of Spirit Wrestlers. Four ambient pieces, three of which were released as part of Pete's 52 Card Trick series on the Spirit Wrestlers Bandcamp site, plus another piece which was a favourite of Pete's but was never finished in time.
Collected together on vinyl for the first time, all profits from the sale of this record will be donated to the Spirit Wrestlers Foundation. Set up after Pete's passing, the Foundation promotes the belief that ""Music is the Healing Force of the Universe"", that ""Love Is the Most Important Thing"" and helps causes that were close to his heart. Nx

Review: The latest release on Jonny Nash's Melody As Truth label sees Los Angeles-based talent Diego Herrera come forth with a new album under his familiar Suzanne Kraft moniker. It is of course just one of several projects the West Coast artist is involved in (Pharoahs, Dude Energy, Blase being several others) but the overall sunkissed, melodically rich sound he brings to them all make him a perfect fit for Melody As Truth. The seven tracks on Talk From Home were recorded over a few weeks in the winter of 2014, and feature Herrera playing guitar alongside more familiar synth tones in a mood that stays resolutely mellow from start to finish. Its three releases deep for Nash's label now and all of them have been sublime.

Review: At this stage in his career, Jon Hopkins should be able to do whatever the hell he likes. After proving his synaesthetic abilities throughout the 2010s - with masterpieces like 'Light Through The Veins' and his last album 'Singularity'- it's clear this climactic electronica artist knows no bounds. Now he debuts a new full guided meditation-style LP documenting his ketamine-fulled revelations realised in a remote Ecuadorian cave. Relinquishing beats and drum sounds, this is a fully ambient affair from Hopkins, and routinely features soothing, sampled vocal snippets from the late yogi and guru Baba Ram Daas, as well as collabs with producer and psychedelic ceremony guide East Forest.

Review: Polish composer Olga Wojciechowska and veteran electronic producer Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner, combine on A Strangely Isolated Place to revisit a beloved Strie album - Olga's more electronic and experimental alias. With previous releases on Serein and Time Released Sound as Strie, Olga Wojciechowska's 'Struktura' was released in 2015 to a limited audience due to its physical-only format. As Olga's work becomes increasingly more coveted, through her more recent releases on A Strangely Isolated Place (Unseen Traces & Infinite Distances), and with Struktura praised as one of her finest albums to date, the discussion to breathe new life into the album resulted in a unique pairing with Scanner, an electronic music producer and multimedia artist responsible for some of the most defining works of the genre since the early 1990s.

Blurring the line between harmony and dissonance, Struktura's original recordings paint an eerie, haunting and beautiful picture, conceptualized around abstract art, with intricacies and mystery abound. Here, Strie's original recordings remain untouched, albeit lovingly remastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri, and it is left to Scanner to provide further interpretations of Olga's original recordings. Scanner productions can typically traverse a myriad of styles, but here, Robin took a primarily live-hardware approach to the remixes, allowing the rawness of his recordings to add story and depth. Recorded in one take, with no overdubs, the reinterpretations strip the melodies and textures to their original essence, bringing an entirely analog element to Olga's intrinsically detailed originals. Featuring artwork by Rep Ringel and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri, Struktura Revisited will be available on Gatefold 2LP in a black/grey half-and-half vinyl, with 6x6" soft-touch heavy art card.

Review: After a run of reissues and a boundary-blurring fusion of classical music and electronica (January 2021's Angel's Flight), Norwegian ambient veteran Geir Jennsen AKA Biosphere has gone back to basics on Shortwave Memories. Ditching software and computers for analogue synths, drum machines and effects units, Jennsen has delivered album that he claims was inspired by the post-punk era electronics of Daniel Miller and Matin Hannett, but instead sounds like a new, less dancefloor-conscious take on the hybrid ambient/techno sound he was famous for in the early 1990s. The results are uniformly brilliant, making this one of the Norwegian trailblazer's most alluring and sonically comforting albums for decades.

Review: 'Symmetry Systems' is the new LP by Dennis Huddleston AKA 36. Inspired by Warp's 'Artificial Intelligence' releases from the early 90's, it's a melodic, synthesiser-driven record, with a wink to the past and a nod towards the future. "I have a deep love for those early Warp albums, particularly the Artificial Intelligence compilations. It was a wonderful time for UK electronic music. That beautiful, warm machine sound, with an optimistic (if somewhat naive) vision for the future. I found the whole thing incredibly inspiring and wanted to revisit those memories, albeit with a 36 twist" Like 'Wave Variations' before it, this record explores various approaches to the theme, with each track directly inspiring the next one. All tracks are sequenced in the order they were made. 'Symmetry Systems' is a collection of hypnotic machine music, made with a delicate human touch.

Review: A Strangely Isolated Place presents a collection of tracks made by longtime friends and frequent collaborators Luke Entelis (Viul) and Thomas Meluch (Benoît Pioulard), combining their enchanting soundscapes for maximum effect. The album is inspired by the isolation and uncertainty the Covid lockdown caused - "Konec" is Czech word for "end," and refers to the devastating transformation that Luke and Thomas' home city of New York underwent during the pandemic. The finished tracks began as short synth sketches by Luke, with the two friends developing them into fully fledged ambient masterpieces while reflecting on a time spent in lockdown, collaborating to create a series of strangely beautiful interludes and "a sense of vitality breaking through the immediate surrounding dread." Judge for yourself, but in our eyes, it's a job well done.

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: Zake and City of Dawn return to their longstanding collaboration for a new album, 'Agape', delivering a slow-droning album that bucks the trend of ambient's original purpose as background music. The Texas-Indiana duo steadily eases into great time-dilated deluges of sound, slowing everything down, yet not giving into pure depth, spanning both high and low frequencies. A natural theme is unearthed across the six pieces, producing a sublime soundscape reminiscent of Steve Roach, Bvdub or GAS meeting the thematic motifs of Shelley or Wordsworth.

Review: 12k is very happy to welcome Uwe Zahn, aka Arovane, to the roster. Arovane, a well-respected artist in the field, hailing from within the German countryside, has been active since the early 2000s beginning with releases on City Centre Offices and DIN in the heyday of the IDM and microsound years. He has since gone on to release work with n5MD, Pure Magnetik, and Strangely Isolated Place, among others. With Reihen he takes his characteristic pointillist synthetic structures and impeccable sound design and lays them in a web of fagility, decay and etherealism that feels like new a new direction for Zahn.

Review: With the re-emergence of trance as a cool and contemporary dancefloor sound it should be no surprise that it has been finding a way back into the ambient and downtempo worlds, too, and as a cornerstone of many tracks no less. Greek academic and producer Tzoukmanis, who holds a PhD in Mathematics(specialising in Functional Analysis and Calculus of Variations), certainly seems to understand the power of those arpeggiated melodies.

Having made music since 1995, you can also bet your bottom, top or any other dollar that his aural work is thoroughly accomplished, as this 2013 collection of tracks goes to show - here presented on vinyl for the first time. From subtly soaring harmonies and broken beats of 'Green Belt' to the plink-plonk, acid house infused beatless wonder, 'Free Hugs', everything resonates as much as it impresses.

Review: Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto dropped this one first back in 2006. It was the third collaborative album between the ambient maestros and the third installment of V.I.R.U.S.'s five albums series. It was remastered last year and now gets served up as a reissue alongside three all-new pieces, namely 'City Radieuse', 'Veru 1', and 'Veru 2'. The first of those was written for a short cinematic essay in 2012. The album centres around the pano with padded bass and electronic frequencies adding extra depth and texture. It is another classic in their oeuvre.

Review: Anyone who's cast even the most casual eye over their ever expanding catalogue will have realised that one thing Past Inside The Present do best is bring artists together for unexpected and inspired collaborations. Departing in Descent is the first collaboration between James Bernard and Bvdub but their creative conversation effectively started as far back as 1994 when the latter bought Bernard's Atmospherics album in 1994 when it was "mistakenly stocked" in his local house music store. He says it was and remains his favourite ambient album, so when the pair found themselves crossing paths for one night in LA years later, a collaboration was the only logical conclusion. The results are more organic and friendly on the ear than some ambient offerings, with real instrumentation meshed with walls of woozy synths and delays, but no less fantastical and ambitious for it.

Review: The result of two creative brains formerly engrossed in other projects (Jonas Munk and Jason Kolb), Billow Observatory is a project fitted for every epic classicist and spaced-out dreamer - two categories of music listener we're always happy to cater to. Loosely touching on themes of rapture, gazing and cosmic amazement, 'Stareside' is a time-upending LP that "thread the needle between hope and hopelessness", via a purging, ambient wash of sound born from twin-flame guitar feedback and soaring synths.