Kranky US Vinyl & CDs

Review: Scott Morgan's latest immersive ambient deep dive as Loscil has its origins in a three-minute composition performed by a 22-piece orchestra from Budapest. Morgan pressed this recording to vinyl, then scratched and sampled it within an inch of its life. Each of these samples was then used (and abused) in a variety of ways, before being shaped into a suite of brand-new tracks. The process certainly worked, because Clara is simply superb: a collection of alternately melancholic, gently uplifting and becalmed soundscapes whose simmering orchestral origins are only noticeable if you know the back story. It's a stunning set all told and a genuinely involving and immersive ambient excursion.

Review: Adam Wiltzie is an American-born, Belgium-based ambient composer, sound designer, film soundtracker and one half of A Winged Victory For The Sullen. His latest album-length suite was inspired by two things: a recurring dream in which people die after listening to his music, and a fascination with sodium pentathol, a barbiturate routinely used as a general anaesthetic. It's a kind of musical exploration of - to paraphrase his label's accompanying press release - tiptoeing between beauty and oblivion, or sleepiness and wakefulness. Mixed by Loop man Robert Hampson and featuring strings recorded in Budapest, the album ebbs and flows majestically, with billowing orchestral moments nestling side by side with creepy ambience, immersive and dream-like soundscapes, simmering melodic motifs and the kind of arty but enveloping fare that reminded us a little of the Orb and Robert Fripp's mid-90s FFWD project.