Łabandzi Śpiew: 2026

Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys - Teen Tapes (for Performing Your Own Stunts) 2022

środa, 25 marca 2026

LOLOET - Circle of Echoes (2026)

When I listened to this album, I didn't know the story around it. But apparently LOLOET is a project centred around Ayaka Wada, a j-pop singer and an idol known from girlsband Angerme, who decided to create... ambient pop? How cool is that?! What's more important, the effects are fascinating: the slowcore, jazzy and experimental pop feels both artsy and fun to listen to. This February, the band released their debut album and it's definitely worth checking out.

Wada says she wanted to make music "that resembles the paintings of Mark Rothko" (yes, those bright and colourful minimalist and abstract pieces) and I... don't see it. I mean the abstraction is certainly there, but this music is far from minimalism. But it's very, very possible I don't focus on the right thing, I have no idea about paintings. My point is that music here is very, very rich. Yes, it may start as ambient background, but it quickly evolves into jazzy and neoclassical structures that ripple around and change shapes all the time while Wada's soft and airy vocals charm their way into the listeners' hearts.

It's such a fascinating journey this album: you can't guess what's going to happen next. Some compositions are vocalless and they are magical too (I'm looking at you, les yeux) and some become a poetry reading that touches upon important, sociopolitical themes. The thing that makes this music special is also the use of trumpet sounds: Chan keng's doing what he can to add this trumpet charisma to the compositions without overwhelming the listener, which I really appreciate.

Circle of Echoes costs 15 EUR ( ¥2,800).

Check: Le matin

Country: Japan

Genre: slowcore/ambient pop

Label: Kankyo-ON

wtorek, 24 marca 2026

Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys - Pale Bloom (2026)

It's been already almost 10 years since Lucy Kruger started releasing albums with her band as Lucy Kruger & the Lost Boys and she proves that she has innumerable layers of artisticness and pure talent within herself. The albums are released so frequently one can lose track of Kruger's discography, but that's ok. I can assure you, they are only getting better and better.

The characteristic minimalism the artist nurtures evolves with every release, at least that's how I see it: it's not as rough and lone electric guitar-heavy, less of the dark blues vibe and more towards softer, dreamier art pop music. In some places even bordering with ambient pop's soundscape-y unintelligibleness of the backgrounds. It may be softer but it's certainly not much lighter: the darker shade of dreamy is the signature skill of Kruger's music and, first of all, lyrics which play the lead role in every song on this and any other release. And those can be extremely poignant and uneasy.

But the thing I love about this music is how effortlessly it combines the ethereally catchy parts with artsy, slightly less approachable in form, very often within one composition too. That's why Ambient Heat is definitely my favourite here: the short lyrical phrases that create a mosaic of fear and existential uncertainty contrast the beautifully executed chorus that contrasts the ambient pop formless parts. I could hardly not love this one.

Pale Bloom costs 9 EUR.

Check: Ambient Heat

Country: RSA/Germany

Genre: dreamy art rock

Label: Unique Records/Schubert Music

Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys - Transit Tapes (For Women Who Move Furniture Around) (2021)

piątek, 20 marca 2026

Callière - Solar (2026)

Andrew Rose makes his music for ages now! His music alter ego came back in 2021 after a long hiatus and there's already 6 albums released as Callière. Solar, the final one, makes me think of the classic shoegaze artists as it is as dreamy as it could be while being a clearly offstream gazey project. No wonder that Rose has some interesting connections to Nick Noble of 93MillionMilesFromTheSun, one of my favourites within the sub-genre.

Rose's music is based on dreamy and dense backgrounds and very airy vocals. The important parts are the melodies: in fact, everything in this music is about extremely catchy melodies (sometimes drawing from the old pop song-like motifs as in Calling Claire from Clare) submerged in the oneiric atmosphere. The compositions are never loud, it's way more dream pop than shoegaze, especially that the backgrounds seem to be designed to creating the atmosphere rather than than to draw attention to themselves. It's the melodies that matter, even when they drown in the noisy music (in the beautiful cover of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's Anne with an E).

This album is said to be inspired by the artist's "journeys along the Camino in northern Spain, where the landscapes and the quiet rhythm of long days on foot sparked a wave of new songwriting" and I can definitely sense this in the unhurried compositions that take their time to get through start to finish, more interested in the landscapes/soundscapes around. I love it. The album features also a handful of guests, but I don't recognize anyone. Still, the vocals provided feel like a good match for the compositions.

Solar costs 5.75 EUR.

Check: Cephalophore

Country: UK/France

Genre: lo-fi dream pop

Label: Pristine Audio

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sobota, 7 marca 2026

Be Still the Earth & Jacob David - sigh (2026)

It is a tiny album, but Marshall Usinger (a.k.a. Be Still The Earth) and Jacob David make up such a breath-taking duo, I had to post a little note on the EP here. The softest of soundscapes is here, made of warm electronica and beautiful piano notes, making the audience feel like listening to literal clouds.

The ambient producer from Colorado and the Danish pianist made sure to create this souondscapes with the warmest sounds: the very subtle electronica is never too loud, never too present, always just enough to employ the listeners' ears. It is not the background for the piano keys either. Rather both, the electronica and the piano sounds coexist within each other, creating one body of sound that waves a little, but always only a little. And even Benjamin Tatlow (a.k.a. Antarctic Wastelands) is here for a second! Listening to these 10 minutes is such an amazing experience!

sigh costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: fold

Country: Colorado

Genre: piano soundscape

Label: slow echo

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O SAALA SAKRAAL - Heven (2021)

piątek, 6 marca 2026

O SAALA SAKRAAL - Oastar (2025)

If you check the RYM page of the Dutch project O SAALA SAKRAAL, you will find that it consists of four drummers. The drums in this tribal ambient pagan outfit are in the spotlight, indeed, but they are not everything that is going on in this chaotic and eclectic music. It's time to dive into this spiritual experiment for the third time.

The album is said to be an artistic response to an event nobody from outside of the Netherlands heard about: the "destruction of an ancient solar temple by local authorities in the eastern region of Hamaland, a land still shadowed by the enduring influence of the Church". This alone shows the vibes that dominate in O SAALA SAKRAAL's music: the spiritualism is here, but it's spiritualism that is much, much older than what people may think and it involves tons of drumming, humming and whispering. The dark ambient meeting tribal sounds is such a unique experience! I sure would love to see the project performing live one day!

The album is meant to be a response to "a yearning for restoration, for a return to the primordial harmony that once bound all things". The mesmerizing compositions transport the audience in time and not so much in space, but basically to whatever was there, at the location of your home, when it was still the wilderness. Listening to the dark but profound music of the talented artists, you can be sure that they "come cloaked in the guises of the woods".

Oastar costs 8 EUR.

Check: (We Come) Cloaked in the Guises of the Woods

Country: The Netherlands

Genre: dark tribal ambient

Label: Cyclic Law

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czwartek, 5 marca 2026

Los Sara Fontan - Consuelo (2026)

The Spanish duo Sara and Edi (who does look like Taika Waititi in Our Flag Means Death) was part of last year's Pohoda festival's line-up and that's how I got to know them. Their experimental music with unbelievable energy and passion was my personal highlight of the whole event. So when they released an album last month, I knew it needed to be posted about in here.

Like most of their music in general, this album is a them taking a stance against the modern world that makes our lives harder with technocracy, fascination with the right-wing politics and climate change to name just a few terrifying things. The title's "consolation" is found in "small communities that challenge the techno-feudalist logic and propose new hopeful solutions". This album and this music is part of this. The instrumental music made with violin/keyboard sounds that heavily rely on the frantic drums goes from experimental to almost post-rock in matter of seconds and I love it.

The experimental parts are heavily influenced by electronica that is more nerve-shattering than dance-able. But these are mostly introductions to the instrumental passages that are created to make you feel like dancing. It really feels like the human here fights (and wins against) the machine. Even though there are no lyrics, this album works both as a work of music and as an anthem against everything that's wrong around us. To feel it even better, check out the duo live if you have a possibility!

Consuelo costs 9 EUR.

Check: Zapatos, Selfie, Genocidio, Makeup

Country: Spain

Genre: experimental instrumental

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Softcult - See You in the Dark (2023)

środa, 4 marca 2026

Softcult - When a Flower Doesn't Grow (2026)

Whenever the Arn-Horn sisters release an album, it makes a storm in the less mainstream music world. The Canadian duo and their skillfully crafted songs (and very coherent image) charm the audience with the blend of dreaminess and punk's attitude, making the artists call their music "riotgaze".

And I feel like this riotgaze gets better and better with every release so it's only apt that the debut album (so far the band has only EPs in their discography) is their best work yet. As things should be. Short album with short songs the range of whose stretches from delicate, dreamy compositions to high-paced shoegaze indie rock of the best quality. The latter is represented by my favourite in here: 16/25. Incredible flow, the backgrounds that burst with energy and quality melody make it feel like a breeze, wishing it was longer than two minutes, thirty seconds. But that's the thing about this music: it's short and beautiful. Hurry loving the music.

But there is more! She Said, He Said is a hit banger, Hurt Me is the sisters embracing their punk side while When a Flower Doesn't Grow closes the album with delicate, airy sounds that turns into the most rock sounds on the release. Oh and very punkish of them is also that...

When a Flower Doesn't Grow costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: 16/25

Country: Canada

Genre: riotgaze

Label: Easy Life Records

Shentov, Simitchiev, Lukanov - Pain and Power (2024)

piątek, 20 lutego 2026

Born Erased - Birds Drink My Blood (2025)

Angel Simitchiev has appeared on this blog twice already but never under the moniker of Born Erased. His dark ambient soundscapes are of the best quality and now this is further certified by the fact that the December album was released by Cyclic Law.

If you wonder what's the deal with the surprising and gory title of the album, its description explains it: the album is inspired by the brutal yet impressive nature of... nature. If you (metaphorically) squint a little, you can hear the album as a distorted soundtrack to documentary movie on the wonders and dangers of [insert any place that is not yet entirely tamed by humans]. Especially the moments where Simitchiev's dark ambient reveals some more ethereal sides (as in Voider). This probably means that, although still in the realm of ambient soundscapes, the tracks here are structured in a cinematic way, making them way more approachable to fans of other kinds of music.

Until, of course, this facade is completely destroyed by the industrial anxiety in Throne of Cages, but I guess it also fits the topic quite well. The nature is brutal, but the humans canbe even more so.

Birds Drink My Blood costs 8 EUR.

Check: Voider

Country: Bulgaria

Genre: cinematic dark ambient

Label: Cyclic Law

Angel Simitchiev & Linus Schrab - Airborne (2021)

czwartek, 19 lutego 2026

Eveleen - falling rain and the light will take you there (2025)

Seta Respati creates his music as Eveleen and he has been doing it for over ten years now. Still, released last December album is his long-play debut so it's worth celebrating. He says that he "make[s] some noise, some people called it art" and I would be one of those "some people" since the single From Me To You I mentioned in here back in 2018.

I love it when I listen to one-person post-rock projects and am unable to say if it's really done by only one artist. This is the case with the Indonesian artist. His post-rock is delicate and skillfully crafted, it's definitely more about creating small gems of melodies than overwhelming with sound. The relaxing sounds feel like lying down on grass and experiencing the world around you from the safe and content position. The inclusion of piano keys that sound like glockenspiel in my ears, only adds to this feeling, making me think of the most relaxed tracks from Sigur Rós (yes, that's why I like dawn: an ascension the most).

So sit back, relax and get transported to the beautiful soundscapes provided by the talented artist from the far away land of Indonesia.

falling rain and the light will take you there costs 10 USD.

Check: dawn: an ascension

Country: Indonesia

Genre: solo post-rock

środa, 18 lutego 2026

Bloed - Tranen (2025)

So I have this little tradition that before every edition of Dunk!Festival, I listen to the whole discographies of all of the announced bands. I listen to the artists I know to start celebrating this fantastic event and to the artists I don't know to assess if I want to see them live or choose eating something instead. And it's a great thing I do that as this made me discover Bloed, the Belgian band that combines everything I like in aggressive metal sounds.

A sister and two brothers make up the line up of this fresh outfit for whom this is the long distance debut. And saying they play metal is an extreme understatement. It's more like aggressive electronic music (sometimes makes me think of Crystal Castles) with aggressive vocals (the metal part here) and great bass lines-drums framework. Last year I was amazed how much I loved Igorrr's single track called Headbutt where truly impressive metal anger was combined with whatever Igorrr does to maintain their image of true weirdoes. So, in short, Bloed's music sounds like Headbutt without the weird. Electronica very rarely compliments the metal vocals so well so I give kudos to the rookies from the depth of my heart.

I believe Bloed's walls of noise will make many of Dunk!'s regulars blush while the exciting, modern compositions filled with ever-changing pace and surprising bursts of noise will force the audience to reach their limits in front of the stage. I, personally, can't wait.

Tranen costs 9 EUR.

Check: Druk

Country: Belgium

Genre: electronica-based modern metal

wtorek, 17 lutego 2026

Sunset Images - Oscilador (2026)

Back in 2018 I attended one of the best discontinued festivals in Poland. And that edition of SpaceFest was brilliant, it featured SPOIWO (one of two best post-rock bands in here, together with Ciśnienie, as we know), Medicine Boy and this unlikely hero: a psychedelic band from Mexico. And as most of SpaceFest artists, it took the whole audience far from Earth. Now, Samuel Osorio and the team come back with their third release and it's filled with the same vibes I remember.

In many places I can notice that Sunset Images is tagged as shoegaze project. While there certainly are some clear inspiration drawn from the genre, to me it's really the psychedelic rock that makes it so special about the Mexicans. Yes, there are fuzzy, ethereal vocals that add the airiness to the whole stuff, but they are accompanied by the roughest-sounding, desert-like guitars ever with a little trace of electronica. It is an invitation to the trance induced by the guitar noise that takes us to the hot and sun-kissed desolations of Central America so everyone can appreciate the psychedelic sunsets on their own.

The album, mixed by Alberto González (of Lorelle Meets the Obsolete) and mastered by Oliver Ackermann (A Place to Bury Strangers), revolves (!) around the way our world revolves all the time. "Our world is cyclical; everything repeats itself: our history, our customs, our trends, our way of communicating", the band says and, furthermore, they illustrate it with their repetition-rich music that goes on and on, bringing the audience a message of criticism of everything wrong about the reality around (!) us.

Oscilador costs 8 EUR (150 MXN).

Check: El tiempo oscila y muere al inicio (Tommy)

Country: Mexico

Genre: shoegazey psychedelic rock

Label: Dedstrange

Sunset Images - Traumatismo Nacional (2021)

sobota, 14 lutego 2026

Tristan Perich & James McVinnie - Infinity Gradient (2025)

I dig pipe organ sound in anything. Give me Anna von Hausswolff's early releases anytime of day. But when I heard about this album where this instrument meets post-minimalism and "1-bit music", I had no idea what to expect.

Tristan Perich is well-known for his minimalist electronica (not by me cause that is, simply speaking, not my kind of music), James McVinnie is an acclaimed organist from NY and together they've created something they call "an hour-long symphony in seven movements for organ and 100 speakers in 1-bit audio". It sounds extremely impressive, probably more from the realm of modern art than music, but it doesn't matter to me much. What matters is that the album itself is so satisfying to listen to. Probably because all I hear is the organs i various compositions I have no ability to describe as I lack music knowledge. What I know is that the hour passed so quickly when I was submerged in the massive sound of the king of the instruments.

Infinity Gradient costs 9 EUR (8 GBP).

Check: Infinity Gradient: Section 7

Country: New York, US

Genre: organ-based orchestral neoclassical

Label: Erased Tapes Records

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Theory of Ghosts - EP1 (2023)

piątek, 13 lutego 2026

Theory of Ghosts - The Sulphur and the Grey (2026)

For many reasons, Closure by Piano Magic was an album as important as it was devastating to listen to for me. It also crowned the band's discography in near perfect way, but still meant that there was a musical presence I would sorely miss. Fortunately, on Piano Magic's ashes, Theory of Ghosts rose and it shares a lot of common things with its predecessor. And the artists behind it have just released their debut album!

Theory of Ghosts is Glen Johnson and Franck Alba (of Piano Magic) who, together with Robert Hervais-Adelman, create something I would call minimal ghost rock. All the PM fans out there will quickly recognize the vocals (obviously) but also the lyrical flavour that, to me, a person from Central Europe, is so strikingly British. I love it and I love when they sing about UK and London (places I've never been to, let alone have any relationship with) but also about more universal aspects of life. "When nobody knows who you are, you can do whatever you want" being probably the sentence I will take with me from this one.

Music-wise, it's a minimal (but still very artistic) electronica that has a hint of this autumnal sadness I associate these vocals with. Especially when it's joined by subtle guitar sounds and strings. Sometimes the electronic part is even more... beepy. I know it's not a word, but listening to Blame makes me think of this word. Theory of Ghosts is a great name as it's like listening to a ghost of something that used to be, but also to something that is completely new in form.

The Sulphur and the Grey costs 9 EUR (7.99 GBP).

Check: When Nobody Knows Who You Are

Country: UK

Genre: minimal ghost rock

Label: Second Language Music

Monotheism - Reveal (2019)

czwartek, 12 lutego 2026

monotheism - Mantra (2025)

Three masked individuals from a far away country of South Korea bring another near-divine (and very short) album to my speakers. 7 years (!) after their last EP (also mentioned in here), they come back with this trance-inducing, spiritual and mind-blowingly noisy release that is entitled Mantra but also IS a mantra at the same time.

"We play the resonance of the divine. Three waves become one mantra", they state and they follow by explaining the role of each of the three tracks on the EP. The noisy guitar sounds first let us connect with the divine resonance, then find the origins of all sounds and finally get lost within the sound itself. The aggressive-sounding guitars are most certainly NOT what one would imagine when reading a description like this, but I can assure you that the flow is there and it can take anyone with it towards the sonic awakening.

Mantra costs 5 USD.

Check: Cycle

Country: South Korea

Genre: noisssssy post-rock

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środa, 11 lutego 2026

The Burning Paris - Last Leaves (2025)

When the American Post. Festival announced another batch of artists set to join this year's edition, one addition to the list caught my attention and reminded me that I used to listen to Coral City Ruin a lot when I was much younger. So I checked them (again) and I'm blown away and their 2025's third ever album is just exactly what I love in music.

They call it a combination of shoegaze, dream pop, neoclassical and post-rock, but I just call it "what if Piano Magic played post-rock today" and I can't think of a better compliment in my mind. I reckon it's the combination of the slowcore, extremely melancholic atmosphere, poetic lyrics and violins-heavy, but also very much multidimensional compositions that makes me think of the British band (R.I.P.). According to their own words, the music here "swells between serenity and intensity" and I have to say that the balance between the weight of the guitars and the beauty of piano and violin music (as well as the ethereal vocals) is perfectly struck.

So it seems that during the hiatus of my attention in their music, the Americans managed to disband, get back together, albeit with substantial changes to the line-up, release their first album in years and now top it with a second release. And I'm more than glad to say that they keep doing what I remember from over 20 years ago.

Last Leaves costs 10 USD.

Check: August Fires

Country: Massachusetts, US

Genre: post-ghost rock

Label: A Thousand Arms Music

piątek, 6 lutego 2026

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 - Statement on Death (2022)

czwartek, 5 lutego 2026

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 - Seeds of Change (2019)

środa, 4 lutego 2026

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)

wtorek, 3 lutego 2026

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

piątek, 30 stycznia 2026

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

Cicada - 走入有霧的森林 Hiking in the Mist (2019)

czwartek, 29 stycznia 2026

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

środa, 28 stycznia 2026

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

wtorek, 27 stycznia 2026

The Lions Constellation - New Moon Rising (2025)

This year I already posted about ARIMA, melodic and noisy guitar rock music from Spain, but not really as they are from the Basque Country. Now I have The Lions Constellation, melodic and noisy guitar music from Spain, but not really as they are from Catalonia. It took 15 years (!) for the band to release their second album, but I'm gonna call it: it was really worth it.

I love shoegaze music that can impress with the noisy side and the catchy side as well. When listen to this album, released last autumn (I still haven't caught up with the new year releases!), I can hear exactly this. Take Allison for example: obviously the first thing I checked was if it was a cover, but no: and instead of focusing on the other Allison's hazy atmosphere, it presents a fantastic melody and catchy flow that makes it closer to the third Allison, the one from The Kills. It's a banger and still isn't my favourite one here.

The very shoegaze-like atmosphere is, on the other, the main focus in some spaces too, especially in When You Dream, which HAS TO be a reference to When You Sleep, right? Same vibes. But the melodic, hit-heavy shoegaze generally overshadows anything else on the album with A Long Life Is Not a Real Life being my favourite song here as it features my beloved way of using guitars in noisy music genres.

New Moon Rising costs 9 USD.

Check: A Long Life Is Not a Real Life

Country: Catalonia/Spain

Genre: catchy shoegaze

Label: Shelflife

piątek, 23 stycznia 2026

Cicada - 凝視白色的邊界 Gazing the Shades of White (2025)

Ah, yes, some high-brow entertainment! The Taiwanese small orchestra that features violin, cello, piano keys and an acoustic guitar, came back with another brillant release (there's too many for me to count, really) that transforms geography into music and feels as artistic as mysterious.

The band is around for over 15 years now. In this time, the band "has woven Taiwan’s mountains, seas, and landscapes into sound". This time, the geographical inspirations are broader as the artists draw inspiration from the wintery sceneries of Iceland, Greenland or New Zealand. The cold, the ice, the whiteness, it's all enchanted into classical music notes. However, it's not like we are served with droney white noise, quite the opposite, there is a lot going on. Perhaps not something I'd associate with the winter stillness, but maybe the inspirations were rather subtle.

"Through delicate sound and moments gathered on the road, Cicada turns the disappearance of eternal landscapes into intimate encounters between music and listener". And the music in questions is particularly magical.

凝視白色的邊界 Gazing the Shades of White costs 15 USD.

Check: 凝視白色的邊界 Gazing the Shades of White

Country: Taiwan

Genre: orchestral neoclassical

Label: WINDIE Music

Cicada - 不在的你們都去了哪裡 White Forest (2017)

czwartek, 22 stycznia 2026

Civil Service - DARK /// (2025)

They released their debut album in 2024 and now are following it with the sophomore album or maybe a continuation of the first one. They are from UK, but are not Public Service Broadcasting side project (even if some of the samples suggest so). Civil Service is a band I did not have on my radar, but my post-rock society turned my attention to.

And it's such a good thing they did. The new album begins in the best way possible: with a collaboration with Overhead, the Albatross' Luke Daly on vocals. But even when he leaves the track list, some parallels to my favourite British post-rockers are still audible (the child speaking in Black Giraffes for examples), although this is more classic post-rock than the one featured on I Leave You This. But it's not *THAT* traditional. The beautiful violin soundscapes complimenting the heavy guitars work like charm, the inclusion of samples and vocals enriches the composition while the subtle electronica provides the final touch.

As mentioned already, DARK /// is a continuation of the themes from /// LIGHT, but while the debut album was focused on the humankind's main quest in life: finding something that could be seen as a meaning of existence, the second album "shifts focus to the immovable obstacles in our way". The way the guitars sound feels so dark (Every Beam Of Light Is An Invitation To Death!!!) to me and dark post-rock is what I want. I love this album, if I have found it earlier, it'd certainly make my AOTY charts.

DARK /// costs 8 EUR (7 GBP).

Check: Black Giraffes

Country: UK

Genre: complex post-rock

Label: A Cheery Wave/Ripcord Records