In 2016, vocalist ANOHNI and composer J. Ralph found themselves with an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. The song in question, Manta Ray, written for the documentary Racing Extinction, is easily one of ANOHNI’s most haunting works. A gentle ballad, the gravitas of ANOHNI’s incredibly rich timbre is
It seems that Vancouver ambient producer and composer Loscil is making a habit of starting each new year with a new, and breathtaking, body of work. Last year gave us The Sails, a collection of sound pieces designed specifically for dance, and the year before saw the tranquil and triumphant
ambient / Chillwave / Downtempo / Drone / experimental / neo-classic
Thomas Bangalter, one half of French house duo Daft Punk, is releasing a solo album. Mythologies, which arrives April 17 on Erato/Warner Classics, is Bangalter’s first independent orchestral work. The album arrives after the artist was commissioned in 2021 to create the score for a ballet of the same name.
Julius Eastman’s seminal work Feminine is receiving a vinyl pressing for the first time from Helsinki based label Frozen Reeds. The pressing is a remaster of a 1974 performance of the piece by the S.E.M Ensemble, featuring Eastman on piano. Eastman, a Black queer composer active in New York from
Avant-Garde / Classical / Minimal / neo-classic / New Music / new reissue / Vinyl
The life and work of American composer Julius Eastman is both a tragedy and enigma. A Black gay classical composer active in the late 70’s, Eastman’s work was alarmingly ahead of its time though widely unknown today. Incomprehensible to his contemporaries, there’s a genius to Eastman which is only now
ambient / drill / experimental / footwork / Minimal / neo-classic
When Björk began the process of creating Fossora, she decided that her tenth studio album would be her “mushroom album.” In recent interviews preceding the album’s release, the Icelandic singer-songwriter and composer kept pushing this concept forward, insisting that Fossora (the made up feminine form of the Latin word for
Alt-Pop / dembow / experimental / gabber / Industrial / neo-classic / reggaeton / Techno
Last year, Canadian composer and sound designer Loscil released the triumphant Clara. It was an album that explored depth and vastness. Meditative and spiritual in quality, Clara presented gorgeously imagined pieces of ambient soundscape and orchestral string experimentations. With his latest work, the Sails series, Loscil turns toward the physical.
ambient / Drone / experimental / neo-classic / Sound art
Claire Rousay is one of the most intriguing artists in electronic music today. The San Antonio native’s music is more like sonic still lifes, collages of the mise-en-scene of everyday life, sequenced into strange, endless passages of ambience and noise. She’s also entirely unafraid to experiment. In the past year
ambient / Drone / experimental / field recording / neo-classic / New Age
“How’s the weather?” is one of those questions that’s become a means toward trivial banter, an autopilot prompt for small talk in the ranks of “where are you working now?” or “how’s the family?” No one seems to be taking the question too seriously, except maybe for Loraine James. Following
