øjeRum - Reversed Cathedral (2022)

The Denmark-based artist with mysteriously Polish-sounding name Paw Grabowski, makes his absolutely fantastic visual art as  øjeRum. Additionally, he creates ambient music and his newest LP is called Reversed Cathedral.

The droney soundscapes, the artist creates, feel very complex and artsy at the same time. There's a lot going on, but it's all drowned in the slow-paced, static drone that makes your mind going to various places. It's like a fossil inside an amber: life enchanted in the beautiful stillness. And of course, as it should be expected from a graphic artist, Grabowski's cover art is exceptional. I love his style and I have to say that his cover arts are ALWAYS exceptional.

Reversed Cathedral costs 8 EUR.

Check: The Smile

Country: Denmark

Genre: lively ambient

Label: Cyclic Law

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Dérives - Ferae seves (2022)

It's been almost three months since this album was released, but I couldn't not mention it on this blog. For the French band of Dérives, Ferae seves is the debut release, but I adore it and it's going to be one of my favourite post-rock releases of the year.

In the post-rock genre I especially like piano-led music and the darker version of the genre. And the French artists do both at the same time. Their compositions not only "include" piano sounds, they are built upon them. Yet, it's not only about piano's beauty, it's about the melancholia, sadness and anxiety that it brings to the music. And when the audience is occupied by dark thoughts, the heavy and crushingly overwhelming guitars come to play. What is important is that the band take their time to properly develop the track, as in Mormal, the album's longest track, the instrumental intro gets more and more quiet only to shock the listener with extremely loud and satisfying, piano-infused finish. 

Ferae seves costs 8 EUR.

Check: Mormal

Country: France

Genre: piano-led dark post-rock

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Waterville - Isle of Blue (2022)

The Polish band of Waterville is not the main thing that comes to mind when you think of noisy artists in Poland. But it's a mistake as the Białystok-based outfit's second ever EP shows, once again, top quality dream pop music.

Isle of Blue, brought to you by Shore Dive Records, has already been recognized by some important worldwide players, including DKFM. And it's not a surprise as it's filled with dreamy and noisy songs or, like they advertise themselves, "new apocalyptic dreampop/shoegaze" content.  Their music is more about the moody, atmospheric than it is about the catchy and the melodic. It's not particularly fast-paced but it's very well at keeping the suspense up (so well audible in the album's longest track, War and the closure in Under the Water). In fact, the band is really good at creating the vast, spacious atmosphere, which is especially well-tangible during their live gigs.

Isle of Blue costs 3 USD.

Check: Breathing

Country: Poland

Genre: spacious dream pop

Label: Shore Dive Records

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Tajak - La sombra del agua (2022)

Tajak are from the capital city of Mexico and they have been doing their extremely entertaining psychedelic rock since 2015. Their new album, La sombra del agua (or "The shadow of the water") is already their fifth, although it is my first meeting with their music. Hopefully not the last.

The artists admit that the way they recorded this album was different from the previous, more improvisation-oriented ones. This one was created through a "much more patient, meticulous and intimate process" and I have to say that I dig this creativity-filled, complex playlist. The other thing is the range of various instruments used during recording, including ocarina, sitar, flute and more with a heavy dose of field recordings from the lush, Mexican landscapes. 

One thing that is very special about this album is the huge amount of instrumental ambient passages that create a unique, exotic but also extremely moody atmosphere which can soon enough transform into noisy sections (like in Soñar es despertar). The whole thing feels closer to the subtle, mysterious soundscapes than any kind of rock and the delicate, barely audible vocals add to this feeling too. But the whole album is structured like a post-rock song: it gets louder and louder throughout the whole hour. Still, even if, in my favourite parts, guitars take over, the overall feeling is still slowly mesmerizing and this is something I appreciate a lot at this release. 

La sombra del agua costs 7 EUR (140 MXN).

Check: La puerta

Country: Mexico 

Genre: psychedelic rock soundscape

Label: Látigo

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From Overseas & City of Dawn - Misty Memories (2022)

Kévin Séry (From Overseas) and Damien Duque (City of Dawn) are ambient artists who decided to make some music together and the first instance of their cooperation brought fantastic results. Misty Memories is an album that presents fairy-tale-like, calm soundscapes to smooth the every-day existence of each of us.

The ambient here is smooth and warm like a thick carpet. But there's also a lot of going on within this dense structure, a lot of lively micro sounds living there. It is all structured with acoustic sounds of guitar and tons of noisy backgrounds. The release breathes with calm and peace, it's a well a listener can draw those from in the form of beautiful music that is complex and simple at the same time.

Misty Memories costs 6 USD.

Check: Weathering

Country: Reunion/Texas, US

Genre: mysterious soundscapes

Label: Past Inside the Present

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Królówczana Smuga - Sport Patriotyzm Militaria (2022)

Adam Piętak systematically builds on his stage persona of Królówczana Smuga, developing the art and music behind it. The proud citizen of the eastern Poland, Piętak creates his freak folk music basing it on rough, industrial sounds - nothing changed here. However, Sport Patriotyzm Militaria is still special in some ways.

The most important one being that the new songs are more... songs than noisy tracks. There's more lyrics, more catchy melodies. The songs are now ready to be performed by the audience during the live gigs, something that wasn't so obvious before. Especially that the artist skillfully plays with the industrial melodies the whole thing is built upon, adding quirky references to traditional music (as in HUHUHA with a Polish children song played in the middle despite the track's gloomy atmosphere). Additionally, Piętak is really good at modulating his sound so there's a multitude of vocals present, often encapsulated in a single song. The music is also more saturated with little decorations like additional samples. 

Besides the curious mashup of the folk and the modern, Piętak is really good at writing lyrics. They are structured like simple folk songs, perhaps sometimes even like nursery rhymes, but the content is much less carefree. The songs handle the current situation in Poland from the social perspective (Sport Patriotyzm Militaria ("Sport Patriotism Military Equipment")) or the approach to environment as presented by the Polish government (To nie jest las dla starych drzew ("No Forest for Old Trees")) for instance. All this is filled with pop culture references - sometimes more obscure, sometimes very straightforward as covering a Polish punk band Siekiera's song that closes the album. 

Sport Patriotyzm Militaria costs 5.5 EUR (25 PLN).

Check: To nie jest las dla starych drzew

Country: Poland

Genre: industrial freak folk

Label: Requiem Records

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Drowse - Wane Into It (2022)

Floating Room's Kyle Bates is better known as Drowse as his ambient shoegaze project is well-established on the off music stage already. It's time for his sixth album already and Wane Into It may well be the best release under this moniker.

This is the subtlest of noise music kinds. Bates is really good at toning everything down to the necessary minimum without losing anything from the dense, murky atmosphere. His warm vocals lead the way here, channeling melodies and enchant the audience. But it is stil all about the music in the backgrounds: the softest of noise, the darkest of ambient, very skillfully put together to create an ambient-pop dreamy set of moody tracks that can feel as cozy as apocalyptic; hopeful and hopeless at the same time. The artist emphasizes how important it is to listen to his music through headphones and given all that happens in the barely audible sequences, it really is a must-do. 

Wane Into It costs 8 USD.

Check: Untrue in Headphones

Country: Oregon, US

Genre: ambient noise pop

Label: The Flenser

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The Haunted Youth - Dawn of the Freak (2022)

Led by Joachim Liebens, the Belgian outfit The Haunted Youth delivers fun and airy indie pop rock that checks all the marks for catchy and easy-to-fell-in-love-with music. Dawn of the Freak is their debut and it feels very fresh and exciting.

The band is already well recognized with both MNE and KXP praising their music. No wonder, the melodies here are mesmerizing, the carefree guitars extremely soothing and the airy vocals very moody. But if this is not enough, the omnipresent synths transform the dreamy music into danceable, psychedelic disco that can be enjoyed by everybody. This is all combined with gloomy, melancholic (and emo) lyrics which makes the whole thing both enjoyable and touching. This all culminates in my favourite track here: Coming Home that is both painfully real and filled with the heaviest melancholia, as well as ridiculously catchy and ready to be hummed from the first listening session.

Dawn of the Freak costs 8 EUR.

Check: Coming Home

Country: Belgium

Genre: psychedelic dream pop

Label: Mayway Records

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the abyss inside us & non somnia - our fears is what we become (2022)

Carlos Herrera, aka Non Somnia, already appeared on this blog last year. But this time he is joining another post-rock solo artist, Greek Nikos Togkaridis on this beautiful instrumental journey recorded on the our fears is what we become album.

This is this kind of post-rock that is infused with neoclassical elements right to the lid. It is opened with piano sounds, later joined by violin strings and it all makes it utterly melancholic. But it is soon empowered by louder, crushingly poignant guitars. If you think post-rock melancholia, it is the sound you think of. The compositions make it even more so: they swell around you, making the whole space filled with the autumn-like, tear-jerking feeling. Especially that it's not always about the loud; more often than not, the artists venture into the neoclassical instrumental ambient regions which only makes the post-rock explosions more impressive.

our fears is what we become costs 8 EUR.

Non Somnia - Stella Meae (2021)

Check: our fears is what we become

Country: Greece, Spain

Genre: melancholic post-rock

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Shaki Tavi - Shaki Tavi (2022)

Leon Mosburg leads the Californian group Shaki Tavi. The Americans have recently released their first LP ever and with this self-titled album, a new and exciting nugaze entity appeared on my personal map of the world.

The band delivers "blistering tones confined to pop song forms to rail against the ennui of daily life". This and the overall vibes coming from their image, made me expect some kind of wild psychedelic rock, but, while still fairly psychedelic, the outfit is very much into fuzzy, modern shoegaze. Their sound is quite close to Nothing: similar clean but delicate and withdrawn vocals, similar heavy pace and entertaining melodies. It all is hidden behind the wall of very loud noise. It's certainly an exciting, almost euphoric blend. The album is not particularly short, but the otherworldly flow it represents make this 30 minutes disappear suddenly in a colourful and deafening bliss.

Shaki Tavi costs 10 USD.

Check: Voices

Country: California, US

Genre: nugaze

Label: Mutation Records

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Florist - Kosket (2022)

I must say, although they have already four albums in their discography, I had never heard of Florist, the band from Finland, before. But it is time to make up for this as their new album called Kosket certainly delivers some brilliant post-rock pieces for the broader audience.

I have a feeling that the Finns draw tons of fun from being in the band. You can hear this kind of artsy enthusiasm in their music with many elements fitting each other somehow chaotically, but creating a coherent, lively whole. There's something from jazzy improvisation here, something from noise rock madness, something from the skillful art rock. I like how it all comes together in 4040, a track that can be especially loud in places, but also very subtle somewhere else. However, the album's longest track Miksi kosket humisevat, kun lähestymme says that the band is fluent in creating more traditional, highly atmospheric kind of post-rock and they are really good at it as well.

Kosket costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: 4040

Country: Finland

Genre: art post-rock

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Vlack Salzo - Saeculum (2022)

The Catalan band (or a solo musician, I'm not entirely sure) make certainly, together with Syberia, the most interesting post-rock outfit in Barcelona. They recently came back with their sophomore album called Saeculum to prove it once again.

The post-rock offered by the Catalan project certainly feels like a heavy (or even heavy-metal-like) kind of the genre: with much of the time devoted to guitar riffs but without forgetting about the massive atmosphere to generate. I feel like the music on the album brings together best of the two worlds: it is crunchy and catchy on one hand and moody and atmospheric on the other. The compositions are prepared in such a way that there's no room for static passages, but rather the music is filled with pace-changing, complex guitar structures - like it is in The Crowd, a track opened with a field recording and finished with a raw guitar solo. Not to mention This Is All We Are which finishes the whole album with an impressive, chaotically loud crescendo.

Also, I have to say that the album cover must be one of my favourite ones this year.

Saeculum costs 7 EUR.

Vlack Salzo - Mareternum (2019)

Check: This Is All We Are

Country: Catalonia/Spain

Genre: heavy post-rock

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Random Forest - Ascension (2022)

Aaron Gilbert and David Walters (the latter known, also to the readers of this blog, as The Echelon Effect) create a post-rock music duo called Random Forest. And while their discography is certainly not short, my interest in their music came with the latest EP called Ascension.

It's a short but very moody release filled with soothing, relaxing instrumental compositions that are based on the sound of acoustic guitar and certainly inspired by the calm of the nature surroundings. Together with hazy synth backgrounds, they create a beautiful, foggy soundscape that makes you feel like tucking in under blankets. This kind of atmosphere changes half the way of the second track, making way to heavier guitar sounds, but the overall feeling is the same: it is cozy, warm music that should make you feel better in no time.

Ascension costs whatever you want to pay.

The Echelon Effect - Drift Static (2020)

Check: That Bird of Prey Casts a Long Shadow

Country: UK

Genre: easy-listening post-rock

Label: Glidescope Recordings

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Simon McCorry & Andrew Heath - A Is for Autumn (2022)

These gentlemen already appeared together on this blog: Simon McCorry and Andrew Heath are 2/3 of Konstruct, and they are back with some more extremely atmospheric music on their fittingly called new album, A Is for Autumn.

And yes, this is the perfect music for this season. Moody and soft, slow and gloomy. The heavy basses contrast here with delicate and super sad feedback-like noises; the static soundscapes are limitless and the pure melancholia drips out of every note. It gets even better with the sea od synths that appears from time to time, mesmerizing the audience in an instant as it is in my favourite track here, V​ä​ldighet. I can't stress enough how well this album goes with the world out there at this time of the year. If you need to enhance the nostalgic experience autumn offers, you should make this album its soundtrack.

A Is for Autumn costs 8 EUR (7 GBP).

Konstruct - Soundworks (2022)

Simon McCorry - Border Land (2019)

Check: Rain

Country: UK

Genre: melancholic soundscape

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Gonemage - Handheld Demise (2022)

I already know what to expect from Garry Brents, but it doesn't mean I'm always ready for the chaotic attack he serves on each of his albums. Handheld Demise is only a proof for this as from the very first notes, Gonemage's chiptune black metal overwhelms the listener's ears.

Just like his artworks suggest every time, the music here sounds like taken from a particularly unnerving but also entertaining computer game. The pace is always as fast as Sonic's speed runs, the energy must be the result of some sort of life boost while the black metal's aggressive sounds simply overflow the computer-generated tunes. As the artist summarizes it, "Black Metal/Chiptune convergence set in pixelated dream realms". The results are absurdly chaotic, but this is the very best feature of Brents' music. The game references are sometimes even less subtle when the artist reaches for sounds that everybody knows from their favourite oldschool games (as it is in The Suffering and Endurance). 

On the other hand, thematically and lyrics-wise, it is very much the metal gloom that rules on the album. This clash is what makes the project so special, perhaps the most unique one within the black metal community. 

Handheld Demise costs 3 USD.

Gonemage - Mystical Extraction (2021)

Check: Father Time's Grandfather Clock

Country: Texas, US

Genre: chiptune black metal

Label: WereGnome Records/Xenoglossy Productions/Fiadh Productions

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Syupeo Jenjang - LP (2022)

The mysterious artist from South Korea but residing in Germany (I think) is back. He makes his music systematically and it always is a good quality noise rock and shoegaze blend. It's no different on his September album simply called LP.

The sound the artist creates is clearly established: it's noisy in the backgrounds, the guitars sound is clear and loud and the vocals dispersed and mysterious. The compositions are also particularly melodic while not of a standard length in places: Mother Earth is over 20 minutes long but it still easy to hum. I love how spacious the noise he generates feels. Listening to For a Better Life, for example, makes you think the guitar loudness creeps on you from every directions and it's so easy to get drowned in this beautiful and airy loudness.

LP costs 4 EUR.

Syupeo Jenjang - 이런 젠장 (2021)

Syupeo Jenjang - 슈퍼 젠장 (2021)

Check: For a Better Life 

Country: South Korea/Germany

Genre: noise rock

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Orbel - Lur Hezea (2022)

The artists singing in Basque are getting present on this blog. After Arima from the Basque Country, it is time for the band from the northern side of the Pyrenees, Orbel. Coming from Bayonne, the musicians create something from the borders of darkwave and nightmarish dream pop and hey showed it on their second album called Lur Hezea.

The album's title translates to "wet soil" and it only strengthens the overall impression that there's tons from folk culture in the band's music. The ancient, ritualistic nature of their art took form that is close to the dark folk/darkwave blend that is fairly popular i various places in Europe. But the vibes here are certainly more artsy: the music is dark but also far from being simple, the compositions create tones of atmosphere but not in the easiest ways possible. The minimalist background electronica works in a fantastic way in this surroundings too. It's artsy darkness. 

The band decided to switch their sound from post-rock/metal into what they call "oscillating between tribal rhythms and funeral introspections, like an ancient pagan ritual" and I ave to say that it seems to have been a really good decision. Especially when they incorporate some other genres into their tasty blend: like tribal folk in Irentsi or noisy backgrounds in Okerra. 

Lur Hezea costs 10 EUR.

Check: Heriozko Giltza

Country: France

Genre: artsy darkwave

Label: Usopop Diskak

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Glaston - I Am Whole (2022)

They make music since 2014, their debut album appeared in 2017, but it's only now that Glaston released their second album ever. The Swiss band brings post-rock and neoclassical music extremely close together and this makes I Am Whole something to have your ear engaged by for sure.

This is a pretty unique approach to post rock, I must say. Saying that it is led by the piano sounds is definitely not an exaggeration: the very classical piano keys are omnipresent here and decide the pace and the mood the music takes. And more often than not, it is surprisingly chill and relaxed pace and mood: the artists are concerned with the piano's beauty while guitars and drums mostly accompany this main actor. SO perhaps a neoclassical post-rock would be a fitting label for the Swiss band's music. There are cracks on this image that appear from time to time, as in Rotbuch where the guitars create very unnerving soundscape toward the end of the track, but the overall feeling is that the louder guitars still sit in the piano's shadow.

This is the way, a very jazzy way if I can add, the band decided to go to take the audience on a "journey of exploration, tapping deeply into emotions and feelings within". That's why more often than not, the music here feels calmer and more self-reflective than I would assume judging by the singles. It's an interesting surprise and I must say that it takes a while to appreciate this long album, but it's worth it.

I Am Whole costs 9 EUR.

Check: Rotbuch

Country: Switzerland

Genre: piano-led post-rock

Label: A Thousand Arms Music

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VIRUS2020 - SECT ط​ا​ئ​ف​ه (2022)

Rami Harrabir is an artist from Tunisia who creates various kinds of electronic music, but as VIRUS2020 focuses on very dark ambient soundscapes. His album SECT ط​ا​ئ​ف​ه makes it very clear.

His gloomy soundscapes are extremely immersive, one can feel them coming from every direction. Like an incoming night somewhere in the Tunisian desert. Especially that some parts include some obvious references to local, Arab folk which makes it only very unique. But the album is not just an oriental gimmick, Harrabir is really fluent in creating dark and bass-heavy drony ambient and I'm here for it. Interestingly enough, probably the most ear-catching track here, Crucified but ... مصلوب و لكن features Oiseaux-Tempête's Frédéric D. Oberland which only adds to the album's rich sound.

SECT ط​ا​ئ​ف​ه costs 3 USD.

Check: Crucified but ... مصلوب و لكن 

Country: Tunisia

Genre: oriental dark ambient

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Cruel Sister - Girls My Age (2022)

The "lover of big fields and forests" from Dublin, Faith Nico Boyd-Millar makes her music as Cruel Sister. And there's no doubt she is very talented as Girls My Age makes a very tasty noise pop dish.

The dream pop solo projects often rely on the lo-fi atmosphere to boost their oneiric capabilities, but it's not the case here: Boyd-Millar's music feels very well done, also quality-wise, and the noise we can admire comes solely from the quite heavy guitar sounds. The vocals are, of course, fittingly dispersed and, really, barely audible, but this is the point here. It's noisy and ethereal and, honestly, doesn't feel like a solo project. Maybe it's because in some fragments, the artist sings in choir with herself and it feels very authentic. It's always impressive how noisy one person can be and the Irish artist is a fantastic example here.

Girls My Age costs 4.5 EUR.

Check: too much

Country: Ireland

Genre: solo noise pop

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푸른 산 - 님의 침묵 (2022)

Coming from the Korean city of Incheon, 푸른 산 (Puleun San) is a post-rock band who released "an album from the heart" which is supposed to "celebrate beauty, peace and nostalgia". And 님의 침묵 presents an interesting take on instrumental music.

I feel it may be the Korean specialty as 푸른 산is not the first artist here who makes post-rock music as if it was supposed to be a shoegaze background, just waiting for some airy vocals. The overall structure of the fast and not that long compositions as well as their effect-heavy and dense nature, suggest some kind of influence coming from the shoegaze icons of the 90s. Still, I can't say that the band's music feels deficient without the vocals, I'm saying that this post-rock's flavour hits different than usually and I must say it is a compliment. 

The interesting fact is that the album's title translates to "silence" while its content is everything but quiet music. The most impressive example of the loud music the Koreans create is the album's longest track 님의 침묵 that uses its whole length to overwhelm the audience in the best possible way.

님의 침묵 costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: 님의 침묵

Country: South Korea

Genre: shoegaze-like post-rock

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The Stargazer Lilies - Cosmic Tidal Wave (2022)

For me, The Stargazer Lilies are synonymous with dense and moody shoegaze. A real shoegaze, if you will. The Californian band released their fifth album recently and, while there's no hit like Golden Key was, it represents the high quality oneiric psychedelia.

It's worth noting that, despite their name, the band is really into metaphors that involve the Sun as the new album is opened with Lit Like the Sun. Or maybe not really "despite" as the Sun is also a star. Anyway, the opening song introduces the album's psychedelic, heavy and slightly lo-fi atmosphere. This all results in a captivating experience, bringing together the psychedelia's trance and shoegaze's deafening abilities. And the raw excitement coming from the noise is especially well audible in Distant Space. And it's just a start as from this point, the dam breaks and the pure oneiric enthusiasm drowns the audience until the end of the record.

Yet another Sun-related track, Purple Sunshine, may be one of the album's highlights with the melodic and even glitchy, at one point, vibes. Those references to light are really very much in tune with the music itself as its overwhelming noise feels more luminous than dark, making the whole release hopeful and euphoric.

Cosmic Tidal Wave costs 9 USD.

The Stargazer Lilies - Lost (2017)

Check: Purple Sunshine

Country: California, US

Genre: luminous shoegaze

Label: Floravinyl Records

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Ef - We salute you, you and you! (2022)

The fifth album in the Swedish band's discography came after a long, almost a decade-long hiatus. But it was worth waiting for as We salute you, you and you! brings what best in the Nordic way of approaching post-rock music.

In their music the lively guitars and beautiful strings coexist with the Immanu El-like atmospheric vocals. The single's Moments of Momentum is the perfect example of this brilliant way of building compositions, the best way to end up with an instant post-rock hit in my opinion. There's a healthy dose of the music mystery and atmosphere without being too bland. And while the opening track is mostly focused on the mood, the Swedish prove that it's also possible to use guitars and string in more energetic, louder way.

I can't say if what strikes in their music the most is the airiness or the energy. Even the most ethereal tracks like Hymn of... can very quickly transform into almost post-hardcore passage of gloomy aggression (which is a nod to the artists' past in hardcore music). The whole album is a bag filled with various moods with an ambient Leuven added for a good measure, and this is what makes it a spectacular comeback. It is such a bliss that, also thanks to the uneventful life in the times of the pandemics, the band decided to come back together.

We salute you, you and you! costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Moments of Momentum

Country: Sweden

Genre: atmospheric post-rock

Label: Pelagic Records

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Rjania - 2001 (2022)

Coming from a "bedroom in Northwestern England" is this moody music by the artist known as Rjania. Her music gathered on this August's album 2001 is all about getting piano sounds into dreamy and ambient-like form.

They are certainly slow-paced and skilfully manipulated into sounding almost like a drone made of piano keys. The results are soothing but also very sad, making me think of the time just before the spring, when it's still cold and static but there's already the hope of bringing back the life present in the air. And it's not like in this lot of noisy effects, the artist forgets about the beauty the piano can bring, just get to Open Door and hear for yourself.

2001 costs 6 EUR (5 GBP).

Check: Open Door

Country: UK

Genre: piano ambient

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Julia Sabra and Fadi Tabbal - Snakeskin (2022)

This blog knows Julia Sabra as the vocalist of the Lebanese dream pop outfit Postcards. But she makes music under her own name too. Recently she joined forces with her compatriot, electronic/ambient music creator, Fadi Tabbal, in order to create a unique record called Snakeskin.

In their music, the artists combine Sabra's ultimately dreamy vocals and Tabbal's experimental electronica into non-obvious compositions. Already the first song here, Still Life, surprises the audience with crunchy samples that are everything but soothing to ears but yet, sounding very well together with Sabra's angelic voice. Later, the compositions get much more flow with the industrial flavours planted all around them. But really, this album is very difficult to attempt any kind of labeling with neoclassical ambient pieces like Past Tense, the unnervingly dark In Our Garden or the hazy dream of One by One. Practically speaking, each song is a different story with different vibes and emotions. And everything makes one whole glued together by the vocals and the melancholic aftertaste.

Snakeskin costs 8 USD.

Postcards - After the Fire, Before the End (2021)

Postcards - The Good Soldier (2020)

Check: One by One

Country: Lebanon

Genre: dreamy experimental pop

Label: Ruptured Records/Beacon Sound

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She Sees - Sakernas tillst​å​nd (2022)

The post-rockers of Shee Sees released their second (or third, depending on the source) album called Sakernas tillst​å​nd and I must say, although I haven't heard of the band before, they have everything that I love in post-rock music.

The most unique thing about the band is the use of the violin sound - not the bombastic and cinematic kind but more artsy and truer to the folk roots. And this alone makes me think of Godspeed You! Black Emperor in some, more atmospheric parts of the album. But violin, although a very important part of the Swedes' music, is not all there is. I can't help but love the overall vibes of this kind of post-rock: it's heavy and guitar-oriented but not overwhelming, it's fast and providing distinct melodies but not too pop-like, it's melancholic but not in the depressing way. Häxmässa is the faster track with the incredible flow that kidnaps the audience, Andakt is the moodier instrumental ballad but the real violin-guitar-drums madness comes in the album's finisher in 44 dagar. And not only once as the track feels like it's reaching its crescendos at least several times.

Sakernas tillst​å​nd costs 5 EUR (56 SEK).

Check: 44 dagar

Country: Sweden 

Genre: violin post-rock

Label: Hypnagogia Records

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cash - deluged (2022)

As far as I know, Cash debuted as an artist focused mostly on piano compositions. And while he was really good at this, those times are long gone. The India-born musician is now way more interested in the electronic sounds ranging freely from trip-hop to ambient and he proves it on his third album called deluged.

The synthy ambient soundscapes (a world of difference) are presented against the very trip-hop songs like submerged, creating together a unique experience that brings everything electronic music can be liked for. But it doesn't mean that Cash lost interest in the beauty of keys either: you can easily hear how good they sound in the bass-heavy asphyxia and the calmer plumeria. And the further the album goes, the more neoclassical it gets. The pace gets down, the subtle beauty of piano keys goes up. The airiness and the nostalgia-inducing ability of the album's finish is really something to go back to.

deluged costs 7 USD.

c a s h, 4lienetic - Abstract (2019)

c a s h - collision course (2019)

Cash - The Sounds My Heart Makes EP (2018)

Check: deluged (rework)

Country: Massachusetts, US

Genre: moody electronica

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Anna Arrobas - Made to Touch (2022)

Anna Arrobas, a Montreal-based artist, creates some hauntingly beautiful ballads that reside somewhere within the experimental art pop genre. Together with her band, the Canadian released her first album last month and it's a real deal of the moody, 

The Opener in Heart of Stone makes a beautiful promise for this album to be as moody as it is emotional and, simply, beautiful. However, from my experience, many artists like opening their albums this way, as a sort of an ornament, and then proceed with more mainstream pop content. Not this time though, as Arrobas continues with her atmospheric, nearly ambient pop. She uses her soft voice, additionally dispersed in a very dream pop manner, to lead us through this nostalgic and gloomy art realm. There's no doubt that her slow-paced compositions are meant to be very much of the experimental nature. The accents are put on creating the eerie but also enchanting atmosphere, rather than being particularly catchy or melodic. 

In this way, it is very ambient pop-like, there's, however, more to the instrumental side of the project. There's both guitar and synthesizer sounds, not to mention a guest accordion from time to time, but the music is still far from being overwhelming. The subtle backgrounds make it clear that in this art pop, art is more important than pop. And no song is a better example of this than the spoken word-filled Vœu that closes the album.

Made to Touch costs 7.5 EUR (10 CAD).

Check: Vœu

Country: Canada

Genre: dreamy art pop

Label: Éditions Appærent

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