Arvid Holst - Fjer (2026)

Arvid Holst comes from Denmark and brings with him the most beautiful soundscapes. His new EP called Fjer is built on the slow and calm sounds of piano keys. But there is something more in those compositions, something just barely audible, yet quite profound.

I love when a good neoclassical work has some electronica hidden somewhere in the backgrounds. Holst chose the extreme version: the electronic additions are really barely audible, sitting somewhere in the background but still influencing the listeners like some sort of subliminal messages aimed at the audience to make their lives slightly more special. The 6 short compositions are subtle and calm, there is no place for hurry or releasing an overflow of energy. This is music for quiet relaxations, but one with a hint of mystery and darkness. 

Fjer costs 4 EUR (6 CAD).

Check: Frigear

Country: Denmark

Genre: piano soundscapes

Label: Moderna Records

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Arches - 4 (2026)

So it seems that this blog can hardly exist without some fantastic discovery from Hong Kong these days. After David Boring and Lucid Express, it's time for the debut album (of course titled 4, duh!) album from the young people of Arches. Dream pop, shoegaze and some very East Asian vibes make some great work here.

The band plays with the whispering vocals and noisy guitars balance so well, I can't believe this is only their first LP. And by writing whispering, I really mean it. It's not a slightly dreamy pop vocal, it's very dream pop-like... yeah, whispering. I love it. And somehow the vocals don't get overwhelmed by the energetic guitars (even if they are not particularly wall-of-sound-esque, they can be pretty loud). But coming back to the silence/noise juxtaposition, I love when a band stops the guitar machine suddenly so the silence sounds more poignantly and, in a very Nothing-esque way, Arches do that a lot, Drowning or Hate are great examples on 4.

4 costs 9 USD.

Check: Drowning

Country: Hong Kong

Genre: dreamy shoegaze

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Blueneck - Moonlighting (2026)

"10 years in the making, forged through chaos, illness and persistence", yes, Blueneck's new album is gonna be the second of the comebacks after a decade since the last album was released this week. Possible one of the albums I'd waited the most this year as The Outpost was really a highlight of 2016. The now-duo overcame the challenges and finally gave us their 8th album and I can safely say that it lived up to the hype.

Heavier dependency on the electronic sounds, come back after years, changes in the line-up. Some time ago Piano Magic came back as Theory of Ghosts and I can hear some similarities in what is happening to Blueneck right now. The sound is slightly different, but the core is there: just as it was on The Outpost and before, the British artist are capable of creating phenomenal atmosphere sitting somewhere between slowcore, post-rock and art pop styles. Based on the beautiful vocals and sad lyrics, formed with synthetic beats and electronica and finally underlined with the guitar noise finishes, most of the compositions on Moonlighting follow the pattern and it works like a gem.

Return to Cadiz ends with hypnotic guitar-focused section that makes you transcendent yourself for a while, Goliath charms with its melodies, but my favourite piece here has to be the title song, Moonlighting. The vocals and the piano keys lead through the first part of the track and its cosy ambiance only to be slowly transformed into a beautifully chaotic mix of sounds and back into an atmospheric ballad. This is going to be one of the most important albums of the year for me.

Moonlighting costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: Moonlighting 

Country: UK

Genre: electronic slowcore

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Downfall of Nur - And the Firmament will Burn to Quench the Pain of this Earth (2026)

There's been some meaningful comebacks recently and so it happens that all of them came back after a decade of hiatus. And Antonio Sanna's project is no different here. It'd been already 10 years since the last album signed by Downfall of Nur, EP with Selvans was released. The Italian artist currently living in Argentina brought back his music that is located somewhere between instrumental ambient and black metal and made it worth waiting for.

If you take the notion of atmospheric (black) metal and concentrate it over and over again, you'll get Downfall of Nur's soundscapes. Because this is music that may have came from the realm of angry guitars and powerful screams but there's little that reminds us of the genre's origins at the moment. It's a soundscape. Almost ambient music in a way. The album is long which makes the tracks long, almost all of them being their own wholes, their own albums. Slowly developing, reaching unbelievable places, coming back and again, like a nice evening stroll. It happens that the stroll brings you around hell that our world is turning into, but nevertheless, it's a stroll.

The atmosphere on thsi album is phenomenal. No wonder, as this album treats about the way the suffering and the grief of women shaped the history of humankind. This and the undoubted ties to the Mediterranean culture must bring the recent cinematic mega-production to one's mind, especially that the album "is not a linear or conclusive narrative, but a fragmented ritual space that opens the way to multiple layers of interpretation, where history, mythology, and human mourning converge". Non-linear, huh? Just like a certain American director likes doing stuff. I'm happy to say that And the Firmament will Burn to Quench the Pain of this Earth is my favourite piece of non-linear storytelling set in the Mediterranean world this summer.

And the Firmament will Burn to Quench the Pain of this Earth costs 7 EUR.

Check: Underground Halls of the Oldest Goddess’s Stronghold

Country: Italy/Argentina

Genre: black metal soundscape

Label: Avantgarde Music

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