Pan Thorarensen - Ljóstillífun (2025)

Icelandic soundscapes that reflect the country's landscapes just have to be outstanding. It is proven once again on a debut album of Pan Thorarensen, otherwise acclaimed and experienced artist known as a member of the ambient music father-son duo Stereo Hypnosis. 

The album is inspired by Icelandic nature which is really not a surprise. I feel like it's difficult not to get inspired by nature living in such a beautiful place. But it's not just inspiration, Pan used field recordings and made an inspiration into music itself. It's literally giving the voice to the nature. Second thing that draws attention to the album is the guest list. And it is really impressive and including artists like Patricia Wolf and Hoshiko Yamane of Tangerine Dream.

The results are calm and relaxing. There is no place for winter storms, it is more about the peacefulness and emptiness. I can't complaint, especially when some wildly beautiful piano keys appear.

Ljóstillífun costs 6 EUR.

Check: Glitský

Country: Iceland

Genre: instrumental ambient

Label: U Know Me Records

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Tony Anderson - Debris (2022)

A year ago, Tony Anderson appeared on my blog with Nuit, but this time, the Californian artist has something different to offer. Debris is a theme album about the 9/11 attacks and it's structured to feel like a "an experiential and audible documentary".

Apart from the dark and sadness-filled music, the album is filled with fields recordings and samples from news from over a decade ago. We all remember this day, but the album is designed for us to feel as if we were there. As Anderson puts it, "the music isn't supposed to be the focal point - I want you to feel like you're at street level hearing and experiencing these events the way that so many did. If anything, the music is supposed to simply support whatever it is that you need to feel" and it's an absolutely poignant experience. But in the artist's work, it's not only about the difficult topic, the music

that conveys the message is also extremely beautiful, very much thanks to the inclusion of the neoclassical instruments. All of this makes the album both beautiful and airy as well as unnerving and tear-jerking which makes a unique combination indeed.

Debris costs 7 USD.

Tony Anderson - Nuit (2021)

Check: Infinite

Country: California, US

Genre: documentary soundscape

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Wil Bolton - Above the Neon Glow (2021)

Wil Bolton, an ambient musician from London, is known for creating "warm and emotive melodies" of delicate and beautiful electronica. His new album, released with Hidden Vibes label, Above the Neon Glow is a perfect example of his Modus Operandi.

The album is "inspired by moments of shade and tranquility in the blistering heat of a New York summer". I really like music like this: the pace is slow, the music quiet, but when you pay attention, there's so much going on. It's like a peaceful surface of a water body that, when peeped under the waves, reveals so much life and motion. And, what a coincidence, Riverside is a track that's the best example here with its steady movement and a lot of tiny sounds within it. The New York spirit is also depicted in field recordings like the train sounds in Sidewalk Diary that are somehow extremely fitting to the relaxing whole. But maybe I just like trains.

Above the Neon Glow costs 5 GBP.

Check: Riverside

Country: UK

Genre: lively soundscape

Label: Hidden Vibes

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Stijn Hüwels + Tomoyoshi Date - 遠き火、遠き雲’ ​(​A Distant Fire​,​ A Distant Cloud) (2021)

The French LAAPS label is on it again with another great ambient album. This time it's the (second already) result of collaboration between the Dutch Stijn Hüwels and the Brazilian/Japanese artist Tomoyoshi Date, known as part of the Opitope duo formed with Chihei Hatakeyama and a ton of other projects. Basically two hugely influential names on the ambient scene together on the album called 遠き火、遠き雲’ ​(​A Distant Fire​,​ A Distant Cloud). 

The legend says that the musicians met back in 2015 and at the same day recorded what in time turned out to be their first release together, Hochu-Ekki-Tou. The new album is described as "slow and bright", recorded "using field recordings, processed guitar, piano and synth". The title is also the title of a poem by Tadahito Ichinoseko who can be heard reciting it on the album too. The release strikes with calm and peace from the very first moments. It's not extremely quiet though, it's that the pace and ambiance of the processed guitar, synth and electronics sounds create this kind of comfortable trance that is only enriched with the omnipresent nature-based field recordings. There is quite a lot of things going on: the fields recordings, the spoken word, the neoclassical parts, a lot of electronic curiosities. However, the release never looses the best thing about it - the slow and relaxing flow.

遠き火、遠き雲’ ​(​A Distant Fire​,​ A Distant Cloud) costs 6 EUR.

Check: 遠き火、遠き雲’ ​(​A Distant Fire​,​ A Distant Cloud)

Country: Belgium, Brazil/Japan

Genre: complex soundscape

Label: LAAPS

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Innesti - Filament and Place (2021)

Innesti, the Illinois-based ambient artist creates some particular kind of extremely ethereal  soundscapes. The almost an hour of which is included on the new album entitled Filament and Place, is filled with field recordings that make it depict the reality around us so well.

This is that kind of music that forces you to get quieter facing the dreamy wave of peaceful music, as the artist describes it, "ethereal, minimal ambient soundscapes created with field recordings, organic synthesis, fading light, and experiments in dreaming". This oneiric feel of the whole album, the way of stretching the compositions to make it sleepy-like while filling them with extremely airy sounds everywhere, makes it the dreamiest ambient I've heard recently. 

Porya Hatami and Valotihkuu, ambient artists I respect a lot, were also involved in creating this album and it only makes me like it more.

Filament and Place costs 5 EUR.

Check: Filament and Place

Country: Illinois, US

Genre: dream ambient

Label: DRONARIVM

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Enrico Coniglio & Giulio Aldinucci - Stalking the Elusive (2020) EN

Two Italians, Enrico Coniglio and Giulio Aldinucci, are experienced artists really keen on ambient and slow, dark electronics. So there was no way their duo wouldn't be at least good. With the DRONARIVM label, in June they released one and called it Stalking the Elusive.

The album from the two artists is a result of a live gig organized two years ago in Moscow and the many musician's mingling and experience sharing supported by one of my favourite labels. It includes both field recordings (as Coniglio seems to be known for loving them) and sounds that are extremely ethereal (in my favourite track With an Encrypted Travel Guide). In Until the End of Remembrances, the sacral nature of the duo's music is only strengthen by almost church-like organs and the diversity of their music is emphasized with the next song, It Will Not Snow Again presenting utterly apocalyptic mood while the whole thing is finished with the most droning piece At the Airport Cathedral. A beautiful album.

Stalking the Elusive costs 5 EUR.

Check: With an Encrypted Travel Guide

Country: Italy

Genre: complex ambient
Label: DRONARIVM

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Enrico Coniglio & Giulio Aldinucci - Stalking the Elusive (2020) PL

Dwaj Włosi, Enrico Coniglio i Giulio Aldinucci to doświadczeni artyści lubujący się w ambiencie i mrocznej, powolnej elektronice. Siłą rzeczy więc album tego duetu musi być co najmniej udany. W czerwcu wydali taki nakładem DRONARIVM i zatytułowali go Stalking the Elusive.

Płyta dwóch artystów to pokłosie koncertu zorganizowanego w Moskwie przed dwoma laty i wymiany doświadczeń między wieloma muzykami w ramach imprezy wspieranej przez przez jeden z moich lubionych labeli. Słychać na niej zarówno nastrojowe field recordings (bo Coniglio jest z nich znany) jak i dźwięki niezwykle eteryczne (w moim ulubionym kawałku With an Encrypted Travel Guide). W Until the End of Remembrances, sakralności muzyce duetu dodają niemal kościelne organy natomiast o zróżnicowaniu muzyki Włochów niech świadczy fakt, ze zaraz po nim nadchodzi istnie apokaliptyczny It Will Not Snow Again, a całość kończy najbardziej dronujące At the Airport Cathedral. Piękny krążek.

Stalking the Elusive kosztuje 22 złote (5 EUR).

Sprawdź: With an Encrypted Travel Guide

Kraj: Włochy

Szufladka: complex ambient
Label: DRONARIVM

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cosmologists - Learning (Grandma's Piano) (2018) EN

In March this year, Singapore based artist, known as comsologists' Grandmother died. He created this tribute album using truly lo-fi recordings from a few moments he played with her old piano. The effect of this experiment is this lovely album filled with fantastic atmosphere of delicate neoclassical music.

Besides the uncanny atmosphere of the piano keys, he album offers also a great way to sneak-peak the everyday life of the artist's family. The muffled voices in the background, the normal sounds of life. This alone would be a great symbol and tribute for the Grandmother. The tracks played by the artist don't sound improvised, quite on the contrary, the delicacy of him touching the keys and the hum of life in the background seem as if they were carefully planned and absolutely in tune with each other.

Learning was absolutely not in vain.

"Learning" can be yours for whatever you want to pay.

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cosmologists - Learning (Grandma's Piano) (2018) PL

W marcu tego roku umarła babcia singapurskiego artysty tworzącego jako cosmologist. Tworząc ten upamiętniający ją album, wykorzystał on całkiem lo-fi'owe sample z kilku momentów, gdy bawił się grając na jej starym pianinie. W efekcie otrzymaliśmy fantastycznie klimatyczny album pełen delikatnej neoklasyki.

Oprócz nadzwyczajnie atmosferycznych klawiszy, album oferuje kilka zerknięć w codzienne życie rodziny artysty, z przytłumionymi rozmowami w tle, z normalnymi odgłosami życia. To samo w sobie jest pięknym symbolem i hołdem dla seniorki rodu. Kawałki zagrane przez artystę nie brzmią na improwizowane, wręcz przeciwnie, delikatność, z jaką dotyka klawiszy i szum życia w tle wyglądają na doskonale zaplanowane i zgrane.

Nauka zdecydowanie nie poszła w las.

"Learning" można mieć za ile się chce.

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Bartosz Szturgiewicz - Metal Underbelly (Field Recordings from Kraków's bridges) (2018) EN

Bartosz Szturgiewicz, musician from Kraków, created a unique concept album full of field recordings captured under various bridges of the city. Those metal beasts provided him with a range of sounds - from the rumbling of incoming trams and the sounds of birds flying by, up to chatting of people walking on the boulevards. An extraordinary portrait of the city I also live in.

Composing also as Wound, Szturgiewicz did a good job. It's hard to believe that all the sounds were created by the reality around us - with the captivating noise in "Kotlarski" where even a bicycle bell sounds extremely piercing, solo made of birds' screams in "Powstańców Śląskich" and tribal-like sounding rhythm performed by trams in "Marszałka Józefa Piłsudzkiego".

"Metal Underbelly" makes up the most honest tribute to the city you could imagine.

"Metal Underbelly" costs whatever you want to pay.

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Bartosz Szturgiewicz - Metal Underbelly (Field Recordings from Kraków's bridges) (2018) PL

Bartosz Szturgiewicz to muzyk z Krakowa, który stworzył oryginalny concept album wypełniony po brzegi field recordings spod krakowskich mostów. Te metalowe bestie zagwarantowały całą gamę dźwięków - od łoskotu przejeżdżających tramwajów, przez przelatujące ptaki aż po spacerowiczów przechadzających się bulwarami. Nadzwyczajny portret miasta, w którym również ja mieszkam.

Tworzący również jako Wound artysta wykonał kawał dobrej roboty. Trudno uwierzyć, że wszystkie te dźwięki stworzyła otaczająca nas rzeczywistość - od wciągającego noise'u w "Kotlarskim", gdzie niesamowicie przejmująco brzmi nawet dzwonek rowerowy, przez solo z drących się ptaków w "Powstańców Śląskich" po tribalowo brzmiący rytm wykonywany przez tramwaje w "Marszałka Józefa Piłsudzkiego".

"Metal Underbelly" tworzy najbardziej szczery hołd dla miasta, jaki można sobie wyobrazić.

"Metal Underbelly" kosztuje ile zdecydujesz się zapłacić.

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