Azure Vista Denmark Vinyl & CDs

Review: Transatlantic twosome Billow Observatory (AKA Detroit-based Jason Kolb and Copenhagen resident Jonas Munk) tend to take their time over albums, but more often than not the results are worth the wait. "III: Chroma/Contour" definitely fits into this category. The result of two years of work, it bristles with effervescent soundscapes, delay-laden instrumentation, shape-shifting aural textures and gently unfurling compositions. Their particular brand of luxurious ambient music makes great use of Jonny Nash style glistening guitar sounds, the fluid chord progressions of Gigi Masin, the emotion-rich movements of Brian Eno collaborator Mark Shreeve and the synthesizer-fired dreaminess of 1980s new age composers. It's a stylistic blend that not only guarantees great results, but also some of the most beguiling and becalmed ambient music you'll hear all year.

Review: Zake and City of Dawn are the aliases of Zach Frizzell and Damien Duque respectively, two Texan ambient explorers with plenty of sizeable lineage in the field. Frizzell in particular runs the highly regarded Past Inside The Present label, and he also has a staggering amount of recorded work to his name. The pair have worked together a lot over the past two years, and now they make the move to Danish label Azure Vista for this blissed out excursion into purest drone abandon, with all the soothing harmonic tones your restless mind could ever wish for.