Welsh electronic music artist Kelly Lee Owens’s LP.8 was an intriguing statement, an album that she felt came about five years too soon. While the breakthrough Inner Song harmonised her pop and techno influences to create a singular and unique sonic identity, LP.8 was a stark departure and pivot toward
ambient / baroque pop / chamber pop / Downtempo / experimental / New Age
Last year, Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill went viral after its inclusion on the hit Netflix show Stranger Things, with the public finally giving the pop pioneer her long overdue flowers. The industry largely eschewed Bush in her day, because she dared to play with her food; for her,
James Holden’s hair is so much longer now. In a recent press shot accompanying the announcement of Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities, his first album in five years, it frames his face in wisps and lustrous swoops. It’s almost mystical, hood-like and… shamanic. It’s a
ambient / breaks / experimental / New Age / Psychedelic / Synth
It’s eerie how timeous ANTIDAWN, the dystopian ambient album Burial dropped at the start of the year, was in hindsight. Inspired by playable character POVs in videogames, ANTIDAWN was an experiment that found itself in barren, ghostly, and decaying noise. Not long after the world heard the enigmatic UK producer’s
ambient / Drone / experimental / immersive / New Age / soundscape
Ecuador’s Nicola Cruz has been a pivotal figure in recent electronic music, largely introducing the sounds of Andean music into the lexicon. He’s regarded as a pioneer in evolving the sound of Latin American tradition for the modern world, pulling from its rich instrumentation and rhythmic design to create transportive
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
Last year, Martha Skye Murphy released the triptych Concrete; an EP of three, icy pieces of baroque pop featuring production from FKA Twigs. Gravelly, astral, and ethereal, Concrete was as expansive as it was fleeting. Gone in just over twelve minutes, Concrete gave credence to Murphy’s skill as writer and
Jon Hopkins is making new age wellness music. To be honest, there’s really no better way to describe the sort of music that the English techno producer has specifically formulated to guide the listener through a psychedelic trip. Immersive, amorphous and (sometimes) overwhelming pieces of ambient, perhaps? The concept is
