Ecovillage - The Road Not Taken (2022)

The Emil Holmström - Peter Wikström duo makes their music for a while now. In fact, The Road Not Taken is their 10th album in discography and they decided to celebrate this fact by inviting an impressive team of guests.

The most striking name is of course Fennesz. The Austrian ambient icon played guitars in the opening track called  Spark, a track that sets the tone for the whole release. Its quiet and subtle composition is designed to bring peace to the listener as well as take them into this self-reflecting, thoughtful state that can always be very much appreciated. But Fennesz is not the only exciting face here. And the other guests brought their instruments, making the album a neoclassical-infused, melancholic soundscape. It's filled with cello and viola (Henrik Meierkord and Aaron Martin), vibraphone (Masayoshi Fujita) and harp (Nailah Hunter) sounds which truly makes for a beautiful combo.

The album serves as a summary of a certain part of the duo's music career and probably also as an oportunisty to look back at some of their choices - this would suggest the album's title, taken from Robert Frost's poem. Nevertheless, a really good piece of subtle music.

The Road Not Taken costs 6 EUR.

Check: Living Flame

Country: Sweden

Genre: neoclassical soundscape

Label: laaps

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9-volt velvet - Mirrors (2022)

The American band 9-volt velvet decided to end their career break back in 2019 and came back to making music with this year's EP called  Cathedrals. The members of such projects as The Northern Lights and Viva Voce, don't waste time for adaptation and already showed their second EP recently.

Mirrors is a symphony of very oldschool-feeling shoegaze music. This tribute to the 90s psychedelic music charms the audience with the barely tamed noise that consolidates chaotic but very engaging melodies. The compositions are traditionally calmer where the soft and dispersed vocals are required to get to the listener, and very harsh when it's time for the deafening noise. Their recipe for the most psychedelic music is clear: "washed out fuzzy guitars, hypnotic circular bass lines, pounding beats, and whispery, haunting vocals" - this mix feels lo-fi dirty but that's the point: the noise can never be 100% tamed. And it's fantastic news.

Mirrors costs 7 USD.

Check: The Awe of You

Country: Alabama. US

Genre: traditional shoegaze

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Indoor Voices - Falling (2022)

 

Two years ago, Jonathan Relph appeared on this blog with his project, Indoor Voices', second album, Animal. This year, the Canadian artist is back with a new dose of dreamy and noisy pop music on his album called Falling.

Relph's music is filled with oneiric distractions and dreamy reverbs, the guitars are set to make the noise captivating and trance-inducing. And they are often left alone to do their job, as it is in The Way It Is. But the more pop-like fragments easily charm their way to our hearts with their catchy melodies and the overall swiftness of the music, my favourite song here, I Hide, is a good example of one that stays in your mind long after listening to the album. Even if it dies in a sudden avalanche of harsh noise. Within his music, vocals play an interesting role: they appear from time to time, but the lyrics are sparse, many phrases are repeated over and over again, making short but poignant statements. 

This dance between the noisy and avant-garde-sounding intermezzos and noise pop's beauty lasts throughout the album. Which is not long, but perhaps it makes the whole thing sounding more like one whole.

Falling costs 10 USD.

Indoor Voices - Animal (2020)

Check: I Hide

Country: Canada

Genre: noise pop

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Hegemone - Voyance (2022)

The Polish monumental metal outfit Hegemone is back with their third album called Voyance. They came back two years after their last release called We Disappear, "shaping their already bleak and oppressive sound into something even more grandiose, desperate and terrifying" and it works like a (terrifying) charm.

This is the metal sound I find very alluring. There's no time spent on building up the atmosphere and slowly getting to the higher notes; Hegemone's music is already as monumental as possible, from the very first seconds. This doesn't make it any less atmospheric, quite the opposite, the mood here is simply sweeping the listener out of their feet. I can't comprehend how consistently heavy, blackgaze-like smooth and pitch-black dark the Poznań-based band's music is. It feels overwhelming in the best way, the audience can hardly do anything but soak this heaviness in awe, having their chests crushed and eyes getting wet.

This is the most attractive way of serving such a gloomy music. Even the desperate-sounding, bleak, very black metal-like screams only underline this fact. This dead feeling finds its pinnacle in Sermon, a track that dies towards the end into a poignant, bass-heavy soundscape. But the album goes back to exploding with aggressive sounds very soon and it's something the band is very capable of doing.

Voyance costs 6 EUR.

Check: Odium

Country: Poland

Genre: post-black metal

Label: Brucia Records

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Jolanda Moletta - Nine Spells (2022)

The leader of She Owl, the Berlin-based dream pop duo, Jolanda Moletta recently showed what seems to be her first solo album, and what an intriguing gem it is! Nine Spells are magical incantations that are clearly gates to a different, fantastic and pretty moody world.

What's most impressive about this album is that the only instrument Moletta uses is her voice. Distorted and experimented on, yes, but still, just the voice. And its various natures are collected together to create the eerie soundscapes. As she explains, "singing beyond words is a way to express an entire lifeline in one single breath, a way to represent and move emotional mountains, clouds full of tears and winds of laughter, infinite gardens where memories and desires intertwine and work together". This unique way of the abstract storytelling is used by Moletta to explore her ancestry, the history of her female predecessors on this Earth. One thing is certain, it's a magical tribute.

Nine Spells costs 7 EUR.

Check: Spell V: Like Honey in a Hidden Cave

Country: Germany

Genre: soundscape a capella

Label: Ambientologist

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Grazer - Melancholics Anonymous (2022)

Two years ago, Matt and Mollie, two artists from Australia, showed their first EP to the world and so debuted also on this blog. This summer, they released their first long play and it's as much sunny fun as ever, although the album is actually titled Melancholics Anonymous.

Grazer is a perfect choice for anyone who is interested in unassuming melodies, minimal arrangements and warm and beautiful vocals. It's this kind of indie pop that is delivered through the dreamy and very subtly noisy filters; it feels very authentic and intimate, also thanks to the bedroom pop-like approach: it's simple and engaging. Besides the lazily uplifting music, the duo turns into more melancholic way in the lyrics: there's a lot of loneliness and existential fears, doubts and absurdity of life, everything so universal and relatable for all of us. This melancholical-indie pop balance goes on for the whole album, except for I Want Control where, with the change of the vocals, it suddenly gets more indie rock-like guitar-oriented and catchy - but really, it's just a wink to the audience, everything gets back to Grazer's normal very soon.

Melancholics Anonymous costs 9 USD.

Grazer - Grazer (2020)

Check: These Days (Pass Me By)

Country: Australia

Genre: dreamy indie pop

Label: Cascine

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Slowly - Distance (2022)

It's Charlie Berger's third album already; three years after Reveal (and a year since his fantastic EP Reverse), the Canadian artist showed his new work called Distance and it's as noisy and delicate as you can imagine.

The album is obviously impacted by the social distance issues we had to globally deal with for some years now.  Berger, being clearly a very nice guy, says: "I hope these songs might somehow help bring me a little closer to everyone who hears them, even if just for a few moments. I like that idea. It gives me some nice, warm feelies". And this is exactly what we get from his music: the vocals and the unassuming but very fitting music combined feel simply intimate and warm. This is the dream pop we needed for the incoming autumn moths.

But the lyrics are not always very uplifting. More like there's always a certain dose of sadness and melancholia, as if there's no way of coming back to what we had before the pandemics. As in A Ghost: "Heard your voice/ From a distance/ Was it the wind/ Or just my memory?" But, to be honest, is there really any true answer to how to live now?

Distance costs 4.5 EUR (6 CAD).

Slowly - Reverse (2021)

Check: A Ghost

Country: Canada

Genre: dark dream pop

Label: Lossleader Records

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The Ever Living - Artificial Devices (2022)

Four years after their debut album Herephemine and its instrumental version, the British artists The Ever Living are at it again. And "it" translates into "retro-futuristic metal from outer space" as the band themselves state, and that's what reigns on their new album Artificial Devices.

Their heavy music oscillates around the super-well flowing post-metal backgrounds and angry-sounding, very metal-like vocals. The "space" part of heir description is certainly referring to the electronica- and synth-heavy base of their music, it's the key ingredient for the smooth and utterly engaging kind of metal sound. It feels very modern and can be easily compared to what Deafheaven or Violet Cold offer in their works, but slightly less extravagant. It's very well audible all over the place, like in the album's most popular De-Emulate with its slightly oldschool electronica samples or very much electronic You've Come to the Right Place.

And the British make it work in various ways. It is mostly this kind of faster post-metal the heaviness of which is ready to crush the audience while the vocals keep the dark energy going. But in some places, like in a beautiful Ruminance, it is more into the slower, melancholically painful kind of metal and I love it and I cry with it.

Artificial Devices costs 9.5 EUR (7.99 GBP).

Check: Total Impasse

Country: UK

Genre: modern post-metal

Label: Chronism Records

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Ascending Divers - Watery Domain (2022)

Hugo Champion, known as the half of the Lisieux duo, makes his solo music under the moniker of Ascending Divers. The French producer has released several albums already, the newest oh which, Watery Domain, was shown to us this August.

His ambient music is dark and monumental, industrial and epic, no wonder that his new album is released by Cyclic Law. The label house describes him as a man providing us with "massively deep atmospherics and drone Sonorites". When his music is not reigned by mountain-reaching electronica, it is wrecked by deep and heavy basses that can make you cry. It's the kind of music that involves so many emotions; even if most of them are dark or darkish, they are definitely worth going through.

Watery Domain costs 8 EUR.

Check: Daybreak in Waves

Country: France

Genre: monumental dark ambient

Label: Cyclic Law

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Motte - Cold + Liquid (2022)

Anita Clark, a violinist and composer from the New Zealand's town of Ōhinehou (known also as Lyttelton), is an artist with impressive CV that includes playing together with various kiwi projects (like Lawrance Arabia, The Phoenix Foundation or Nadia Reid) and making music for movies and dance performances. She also releases her solo albums, the newest of which is called Cold + Liquid.

She "borrows from an array of sound sources to create an immense entity, with each piece situated precisely along the path" as her Bandcamp website states. This eclectic approach to music results in an experimenting, highly artsy pop that is way closer to neoclassical and instrumental ambient genres than to anything else. Especially since Clark makes a good use of her main instrument - violin. Its sound is rarely melancholic as it's often the case, in here its sound is taken as far as possible into the experiment while still remaining extremely appealing for the audience. And very much towards the theatrical music/performance, it's very clear that the artist knows what this environment is all about.

Her FB doesn't lie, she's a real violin witch.

Cold + Liquid costs 7 USD.

Check: Cold + Liquid

Country: New Zealand

Genre: neoclassical art pop

Label: Ba Da Bing!

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HOLY FAWN - Dimensional Bleed (2022)

It's safe to say that the Arizona's Holy Fawn is one of the hottest names in the blackgaze/modern post-metal genre since their absolutely mind-blowing debut release Death Spells. It's been four years and they are finally back (although not in Europe as their tour got canceled which is my biggest music regrets of this year) with another fantastic album called Dimensional Bleed.

It seems that they decided not to change much since their debut. The music of the band oscillates around heavy but very modern-feeling sounds and delicate, Nothing-like vocals. Honestly, in some places, the album sounds like Domenic Palermo's journey into the new metal or even trap-like land of wonder. It sounds familiar but also extremely fresh, with changes of pace, metal music ornaments in the background (so well-done in Death Is a Relief) and electronic special effects. It's not very illuminating to say that this contrast between the metal and the dream pop in their music is what compels me so much here. And although many artists do so (and the whole blackgaze genre is all about it), Holy Fawn reinvented this approach, making the dreamy vocals extremely dreamy and being able to make them still very clear in the metal mayhem.

It's especially true when the delicate turns into total chaos, as it is the case in Sightless' loud and mad finish. No wonder that they are advertised as a "physically tethered to this reality, yet creatively unmoored from any earthly restraints" band who is free to do whatever they please. But it's always within this unreal, intimidating but also very satisfying atmosphere.

Dimensional Bleed costs 8 USD.

Holy Fawn - The Black Moon (2020)

Holy Fawn - Death Spells (2018)

Check: Death Is a Relief

Country: Arizona, US

Genre: modern blackgaze

Label: Triple Crown Records

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In2Elements - It's Always Darkest Before the Dawn (2022)

What began its existence as a solo project by Adam Szopa, a few years ago became one of the best Polish post-rock outfits out there. This position has been recently proved again by Tides from Nebula, the Polish post-rock powerhouse, who invited the Silesian/Kraków trio for their European tour. And by the band themselves as they released a brand new album called It's Always Darkest Before the Dawn.

While the release starts on a particularly dark and heavy note in, nomen omen, Darkest Hour, the band skillfully uses lighter and more peaceful tones when it suits the compositions best. Nevertheless, this is a heavy album, the guitars sometimes go so far towards post-metal vibes that it gets pretty dangerous. The darkness here is the leitmotif and I must say, it's the kind of post-rock I like the most. I do, however, feel like it could be longer, especially that all the best seems to be presented at the start of the album and afterwards, it slows down. Still, the peaks here (Darkest Hour, From Ashes Rise, Dystopia) make it definitely worth catching up to, getting mooded up for the incoming autumn.

It's Always Darkest Before the Dawn costs 6.5 EUR (30 PLN).

In2Elements - Cycles (2020)

Check: From Ashes Rise

Country: Poland

Genre: dark post-rock

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Melting Palms - Noise Between the Shades (2022)

Melting Palms debuted two years ago with Abyss, but they hadn't caught my attention until this year's second release ever, Noise Between the Shades. And as the title of the album suggests, it is filled with many shades of pop music that are glued together by the noisy elements.

It is further confirmed by the band themselves, who say that "what unites us all is reverb". Baptized as "loudest group in Hamburg", they embrace the noise pop genre, and everything it includes, with fantastic enthusiasm. The lively and energetic melodies are what drives the album together with the very catchy guitar work. The two vocals go together with these vibes but there is some of the dreamy nostalgia in them as well. And everything is drown in subtle but omnipresent noisy atmosphere that makes it so attractive to the fans. But it doesn't mean that everything here is fast and pop-ish: in tracks like Ark, the artists give themselves some time to play around instrumental, appealing and extremely moody music (those violins here!).

The lyrics about "hope and misfortune, about melancholy and promise" bring the so appreciated contrast against the upbeat (most of the time) music with examples like the gloomy Crimson Eye: "Stuffed my chest/ with harsh regret/ Clouds drop rain upon the bed/ My mouth runs dry, all has been said". Sad and beautiful, like the whole album.

Noise Between the Shades costs 12 EUR.

Check: Ark

Country: Germany

Genre: noise pop

Label: La Pochette Surprise Records

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Justin Wright - A Really Good Spot (2022)

The Quebec-based cellist and composer, Justin Wright, is here to "to push the boundaries of new classical and experimental indie music, and erase the lines between synthetic and acoustic sounds". While very ambitious goal, his music certainly is located on the border between the old and the new, and it's "A Really Good Spot".

The cello sounds here are the driving force of the lively soundscapes where there's tons of things going on: the piano keys, the strings, the electronica backgrounds. It works together in harmony, although more often than not, it is close to this kind of artistic chaos that  always brings something touching to life. Especially when Wright is joined by Thanya Iyer: together with her vocals, We're Still Here sounds especially free form-like and experimental. This all shows the artist's unique view on making music, the process of which ends up with this album being "a surrealist spectrum of methodology, where the techniques showcased may or may not be real, where the orchestration confidently reinforces the most haphazard nonsense elements, and where the playfulness occasionally steps aside for moments of somber clarity:.

A Really Good Spot costs 8.5 EUR (7 GBP).

Check: Hellbrunn Automatons

Country: Canada

Genre: cello-based 

Label: First Terrace Records/Beacon Sound

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VLMV - Sing With Abandon (2022)

The Pete Lambrou-Ciaran Morahan duo appeared on this blog four years ago with their fantastically artsy album Stranded, Not Lost. I can safely say that their discography is one of the most consistently well-written music I know. And Sing With Abandon only proves this point. 

The album starts like something Jónsi would do: heavy organ-like keys and high-pitched but very moody vocals on top of that. And just like him (and other artists of the higher music sensibility), the duo positions their moody ballads nest to ambient soundscapes that add to the album's magic. The piano keys and their beauty, the strings and their melancholic nature and finally the tear-jerking vocals blend into this dreamy art pop that generates sadness in the souls of everyone who tastes it. It's actually pretty surprising that this kind of music was written in London, not in Reykjavik or any other Icelandic magical town.

Also the fact that the album's main theme revolves around sea and ships, together with their dangerous and melancholic metaphorical capacity brings it thematically closer to the Far North. It has to be said that VLMV are so good at bringing everything that's breathtaking and tear-jerking from the concept of the sea and transform it into lyrics, like in The Navigator: "I came to map the sun and stars/ But I can't find them in the dark/ To navigate the ocean floor/ I can't hold my breath much more".

Sing With Abandon costs 12 EUR (10 GBP).

VLMV - Stranded, Not Lost (2018)

Check: The Navigator

Country: UK

Genre: neoclassical dreamy art pop

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