Mary Lattimore & Julianna Barwick - Tragic Magic (2026)

What can you get when you have an acclaimed harpist (Mary Lattimore) and equally acclaimed ambient pop artist Julianna Barwick in one room (I assume (EDIT: it was a whole philharmonie!) )creating music? Well, exactly what you've expected: pure magic (even if tragic). The two American musicians created one of the highlights of the dawn of this year and filled it with the perfect soundscape.

While I know some projects with harp music (LEYA!), it is still pretty exotic to me. I've seen Lattimore performing live already and harp sounds and subtle electronica make an interesting blend, but I feel like only now, with the addition of ethereal vocals, it is complete. I can't get rid of the picture of tall tree-stacked forest while listening to this album (curse you, fantasy movies!) so it's no wonder this is exactly what the album's cover art features. But there is also a certain amount of ethereal mist and omnipresent melancholia in the air present.

Naturally (sic!), this brings up the hippie, New Age vibes o the picture as well. But, according to the album's description, it is mostly focused on the human nature and inter-human relations. And nature. And the cosmic. I guess you can't escape these. Nevertheless, the combination of ambient pop with the sound of harp is something I did not have on my bingo card for 2026 music, but I'm glad I found it.

Tragic Magic costs 10 EUR.

Check: Perpetual Adoration

Country: US

Genre: harp-based ambient pop

Label: InFiné

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Syberia - Quan tot s'apagui (2026)

When I'm asked about the loudest concert I've ever been to, I mention MBV at OFF Festival and Syberia's gig in a tiny cellar in Kraków, where five guys barely fitting the small stage filled the space with extreme atmospheric noise. I'm ecstatic to listen to their new album that is all about the same glorious experience: the guitar noise that makes you fly.

Quan tot s'apagui (that translates roughly to "When everything goes out") is another album in recent months that is filled with dark and heavy post-rock. Yes, this is the band's signature sound (with Ain't.Care.About.Bullets as one of my very favourite post-rock tracks ever), but it's also a trend that must be fueled with whatever is going on with the world right now. But this darkness is also filled with energy (which usually is not a good sign, but this time it really is). The guitars gallop furiously most of the time, the walls of noise come at you one by one and I just loooove how the drums work here. This music is extreme, doesn't let you breathe even for a second, but it doesn't matter. You only want to breathe the sound.

Coming back to the Kraków concert: some enthusiastic but not very good at geopolitical matters bloke shouted "Viva España!" at the band (with good intentions) to which the artists politely corrected him that they are from Catalonia. And this brings me to the last point about the album: it is their first work in their own language which I respect extremely!

Quan tot s'apagui costs 9.99 EUR.

Check: naixença d'una mort tranquil·la

Country: Catalonia/Spain

Genre: dark post-rock

Label: Moment of Collapse Records

Syberia - Statement on Death (2022)

Syberia - Seeds of Change (2019)

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Tethered Hands - How We Live Is How We Die (2026)

I've covered their debut album exactly a year ago, but these guys have a great ability to create new music fast! And here we are, the transatlantic project is now five people in a band (they don't have a picture together though from obvious reasons) and two albums in their discography. Their piano and guitar kind of post-rock is as beautiful as ever and so the project band is one to have your eyes on as this time next year they will probably surprise us with even more great music.

As I mentioned before, pianist Joseph D. E. Phillips (US) (hi, Joseph!) and guitarist Daniel Rickards (UK) created ANOTHER transatlantic pact, but their aim is to create instrumental music despite of the obvious geographical barriers. Like a lot of water between them. Together with three new members (Pascal Normand, Sam Wallis and Joshua Cook), they can now fulfill the dream of becoming a real post-rock band, not just a project. And I think it's noticeable in their music: the complex compositions gained more dimensions while still having the same core values: piano keys as the structure that is complimented by guitar noise.

The artists translate their emotions into instrumental music, making it affect the audience in turn. As Joseph mentions: "We want [the fans] to feel something. We want the hairs to raise on their arms and their eyes to go wide". With the beauty of piano sounds, the ethereal, tear-jerking passages (so well done in Your Mind Is Going (I Can Feel It) and the guitars that ultimately add heaviness to the compositions, I feel like this goal has been reached. Make ŁŚ feel something? Check!

How We Live Is How We Die costs 5 USD.

Check: Ghost of Rochelbel

Country: US/UK/Canada

Genre: piano post-rock

Tethered Hands - Tethered Hands (2025)

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Smote - Songs from the Free House (2025)

I'm so surprised that I have just found Daniel Foggin aka Smote's new album in Tethered Hand's summary of the best post-rock albums of 2025! I'm surprised because by pure coincidence I will be covering Tethered Hand's release... tomorrow! It's also interesting because it shows how diverse post-rock music can be as Smote's music is just on the border of the genre, yet impresses with similar elements as more traditional post-rock projects.

Foggin blends so many things in his musical cauldron, man! The album starts like a perfect drone release, but then it shifts from desert rock into post-rock passages into space rock psychedelia. And then there is this thing with the flute music whatever you can call it. Listening to this album is genuinely like a road trip with new things to appreciate in every minute of the passing soundscape. And in reality the trip takes place on a desert in outer space and you are in a heavy tank, rocking on the uneven surface of the planet.

The album feels extremely heavy with the heaviness of doom and sludge, even if, quite frequently, it becomes calm and almost soothing. How is it possible? The quiet fragments are designed to emphasize everything else, like the ethereal choral chants in Chamber or the slow guitar riffs everywhere else. It's difficult to imagine an album so diverse and at the same time so coherent: the form changes but the mood stays the same til the end. Ah, yes, and Lankum's Ian Lynch is here too!

Songs from the Free House costs 8 EUR (6.99 GBP).

Check: Wynne

Country: UK

Genre: heavy space rock

Label: Rocket Recordings

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Tsarewitch - Yer (2025)

Drones and pipe organ sounds sounds like a perfect combination to me. So I had to take a closer look at this EP. Released by Alexander Yordaki, an artist from Moldova who wanted to draw people's attention to the situation in his homeland, the elusive Gaugazia in the southern part of Moldova.

Thematically speaking, it's worth taking a look at the artist's description of this album where he briefly talks about who the Gaugaz people are and what is the danger for them right now (spoiler alert, like in most cases in our part of the world, the answer is "Russia"). So go to his Bandcamp and read it. And then maybe Wikipedia to have a better idea of the complexity of this case. (and yes, I'm happy to say that it's my first Moldavian artist on the blog, not to mention a Gaugaz one!)

Musically speaking, the EP is one composition made of sloooow and deeeep sound of pipe organs with some subtle additions in the form of "recordings from Yalpug, a steppe valley in Comrat where a dry riverbed divides the suburb from the town" and a bit of spoken word samples towards the end. The whole thing feels extremely nostalgic and it's not a coincidence as it is a piece of very personal music about what one person sees as a home.

Yer costs 1 EUR.

Check: Yer

Country: Moldova

Genre: pipe organ drone

Label: Reflection Nebula

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adele dazeem - Metanoia (2025)

They are named after actress and singer Idina Menzel (whose first name was famously mispronounced by John Travolta, resulting in her using "Adele" in multiple occasions afterwards), they come from London and they released their first EP last autumn. This blend of shoegazey atmosphere and post-punk vibes caught my attention immediately.

The EP is short, but still it's clearly well done: there are parts that are noisy, there are parts filled with darker, coldwave approach to music, there are some curious instrumental parts too. Their compositions are designed to go on and on, mesmerizing the audience with the harsh trance-inducing passages and overwhelming with noisy guitars. I'm very happy that the musicians don't consider the end of lyrics as the end of their songs: I'd say that in this case, the songs really start after the post-punk vocals disappear. But it's only my instrumental-noise bias probably.

Metanoia costs 6 EUR (5 GBP).

Check: Misère

Country: UK

Genre: noisy coldwave

Label: Sonic Cathedral

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L.O.E. - Chiaroscuro (2025)

So the post-rock gods decided that at the end of 2025, two British bands released some particularly dark-sounding and awe-inspiring albums. I've covered Civil Service here and now I NEED to drop something about Last of Eden aka L.O.E. Maybe it's the zeitgeist, but if it means that we're going to get so good and poignant albums then... Well, then there is at least one bright side of what's going on.

Another common feature with Civil Service is the main theme of the album, as it is a "cinematic exploration of duality—the contrasts between light and dark, despair and hope". What is so striking about this quotation is that it is all clearly audible in music. The dark-sounding guitars, overwhelming and touching, tell the story that inspired the band, the personal struggles of their bassist who has serious problems with his health, but still makes everything to go on and win against all odds with sheer determination. The heaviness of this music with occasional samples and slower moments is a perfect illustration for what a human existence feels like more often than not. 

The band is coming for this year's Dunk!Festival and I'm more than happy to witness this music live. Oh and the aforementioned music gods also decided to have two post-rock albums last year that included the same quotation from Alan Watts (writer, researcher of the Eastern philosophies) with All Is Violent being first in July. So that's fun, isn't it?

Chiaroscuro costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: I Was Not Magnificent

Country: UK

Genre: dark post-rock

Label: Hopeful Tragedy Records/Fontana North

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