Päfgens - Westend (2026)

The Slovakian couple who has been releasing their music for some time now as Päfgens already appeared on this blog with two albums. But I couldn't ignore the 6th one in their discography either: a beautiful but also utterly melancholic, hopeful but dark like an autumn day ambient pop for emotional people.

As the artists say, this album was born "when we bought a drum machine with the intention of making pop songs", which can hardly be further from what eventually happen. The slow ambient pop ballads made with acoustic guitar, whispering voice and various field recordings, fill out the air with never-hurried atmosphere of wistfulness. And when I wrote that the album was "born", it's not a coincidence as it is dedicated to the couple's baby, as they summarize it: it "is a memory of those who are no longer with us, but also a celebration of new life".

And you can hear it both in the lo-fi, fuzzy sound that makes the songs so much more intimate, as well as in the lyrics with the poignant "everyone you know will leave" sentiment repeated endlessly in Poprad that for me became the focal point of the whole album already at its beginning.

Westend costs 7 EUR.

Check: Poprad

Country: Slovakia

Genre: lo-fi ambient pop

Päfgens - Der Regen (2022)

Päfgens - Der Sturm (2019)

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Den Der Hale - Larking About (2026)

Den Der Hale is a band that has been very close to this blog for several years now but because of various reasons, never appeared here. This had to finally change cause earlier this spring, the Swedes released an album that shows a) some fantastically atmospheric music and b) what a change a band's sound can undergo in a short time. If I really had to judge, it's a change for good.

As they describe it, the sound of Den Der Hale's music underwent some major changes (also due to the line up changes) and for this album turned from more traditionally rock-based to experimental with "tape loops, resampling, and acoustic instruments" playing the major role here. The results are spectacular. While the previous albums had this kind of psychedelic rock with post-rock elements charm, Larking About is more about the silent parts, the passages that slowly build up to some kind of resolution and that create atmosphere that is as mysterious as it is exciting.

Everything on this album is less in your face and more subtly suggested. The unnerving atmosphere, the whispering vocals, the feeling of anticipation. The heavier parts are scarce but it only makes them more poignant, requiring more attention from the listener to properly experience everything from the instrumental ambient to the airy choirs to the post-metal pinnacles of the compositions. Heavy (even if not very loud on average) and very artsy (but not pretentious) album.

Larking About costs 7 EUR.

Check: Silphium

Country: Sweden

Genre: artsy post-rock

Label: Sound Effect Records

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Hanry - What Came From Silence (2026)

So it happens that two major contenders to the post-rock AOTY are being posted on this blog right after another. But while Kokomo's already recognized powerhouse within the genre, the French Hanry only just debuted with their album What Came From Silence. Not to mention that they could hardly be more different musically while still being more or less within the same music genre. So after the ruthless guitar heaviness yesterday, it's time for sublime and cinematic electronica-based post-rock.

Among their inspirations, the band lists shoegaze and trip-hop and you can really hear it from the first notes of the album. There is at least a perfect balance between the guitar and the electronic sounds with a heavy emphasis on the synth's presence. I feel like this is the French post-rock's specialty but unlike in Dragunov's and, especially, BRUIT ≤'s chaos, Hanry offer mellower, softer approach to the subgenre. More towards Lights and Motion than The Age of Ephemerality if you catch my drift. This doesn't mean that there is no more intense parts on Hanry's album though. The focus is clearly put more on the cinematic than the noisy.

What I love in their music is the flow the compositions offer: the synth-heavy and noisy parts (Remains! Time's Collapsing!) that capture you and leave you no choice but to follow them until a satisfying closure. The more I listen to it the more I feel like it really is BRUIT ≤ minus the weirdness, making it way easier to appreciate the intriguing soundscapes and electronic beauty the band creates, especially in the synths department. One more great reason to travel to this year's Pelagic Fest in the Netherlands. 

What Came From Silence costs 5 EUR.

Check: Remains

Country: France

Genre: electronic post-rock

Label: Pelagic Records

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Kokomo - Whip (2026)

Last month, at dunk!festival I witnessed tons of incredible gigs thrown by fantastic artists, but it was Kokomo and the monument of a show they created that was the biggest positive surprise for me. It's not like I hadn't been expecting it to be a great concert, it was just so much more. And now, when I listen to the Germans' 6th album, I revisit this moment and I'm certain that this is one of the best post-rock gems of the year.

And it's already been a lot of them! But Kokomo's album is somewhat different. The band is for me first of all the "bear album" guys and yes, If Wolves is still one of my highest rated post-rock albums ever, but since 2011 Kokomo are constantly evolving and Whip seems to be the pinnacle of this evolution from atmospheric, but also melodic and more traditional guitar-centred post-rock to pure atmosphere built with guitars. There is a difference, I assure you. At least I can hear it. It's more like a walk through a cathedral than listening to music for me.

The clue of this music now is the atmosphere generated by a unified wall of guitar sound in which you can hardly hear particular elements but you focus on the heaviness of the whole instead. This is introduced very early in the single track A Torinói Ló and doesn't really stop until the end of the release. Of course this, together with frequent additions of metal-like vocals that do not constitute the focal points of the compositions but rather signal the highest-tempo, most ecstatic moments of the music, this puts Whip probably closer to post-metal , but who cares about labels? What is important is that the music here is spectacular.

Whip costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: 1758 Times of Weird Sadness

Country: Germany

Genre: heavy post-rock/post-metal

Label: dunk!records

Kokomo - Totem Youth (2019)

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Dalot & Sound Awakener - IANOS (2026)

Two artists from very different parts of the world: Nhung Nguyen and Maria Papadomanolaki or Sound Awakener and Dalot joined forces to create an album that is as moody as it is artsy and complicated. The third collaboration between the two creates this kind of soundscape that makes people think and it's not something that happens frequently.

The album is written around the "concept of duality as it is expressed through life and death, endings and beginnings", but, as the description of the release goes on, this is only a starting point to further analysis of the current world, its wars, suffering and the dawn of AI. It's interesting to think how those themes, so far away from being light and happy, are reflected in the music. Which is... not dark, but also definitely not easily approachable. It requires attention and focus, a lack of distraction and a correct mood. Especially towards the very poignant end in Body of Shells. But don't get me wrong, it's definitely a beautiful album, especially when it gets as dreamy as it does on Tone in A Minor, but still, requires some effort from the audience too. And I can only respect that.

IANOS costs 9 EUR.

Check: Tone in A Minor

Country: Greece/Vietnam

Genre: neoclassical soundscape

Label: DERDE (Dronarivm)

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Sagor Som Leder Mot Slutet - IV (2026)

Friends and foes (although they seem to have stopped saying that), the new album from Sagor Som Leder Mot Slutet just dropped. And it did drop to the very bottom of the planet chasms as it is "inspired by the core of the earth" with music heavy as our world and just as beautiful. This is one of the albums that effortlessly mixes the melodic and the overwhelming kinds of post-rock to create a one of a kind experience.

The heavy and poignant post-rock sub-genre has already made a mark on this year with Syberia's new release. But it seems that the relentless, never-giving-up guitar music is in great shape as the Swede's *checks notes* fourth album is most certainly just as good. Dark as basalt, heavy as granite but also hot as molten lava and filled with the same strange, forbidden beauty. The way the surprisingly frequent melodic parts are paired here with powerful, overwhelming sound avalanches is truly inspiring. It works very well especially in the longest tracks (like Strävan that finishes with the airy, folk-like sequence or Karg's mining-like mesmerizing riffs). 

The inspirations for the album are pretty obvious. The Scandinavian landscape and atmosphere even exaggerated with the notion of the unfathomable weight of the Earth's rock core. And you can feel it in your bones, but most probably it's only a trial version compared to what the live performance of this album will.

IV costs 11 EUR (120 SEK).

Check: Rot

Country: Sweden

Genre: heavy post-rock

Sagor Som Leder Mot Slutet - III (2022)

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Foghazer - He Left The Temple (2026)

Take the artist's image, song titles, label and even the name, Foghazer, and try not to be surprised when you hear the music behind it, I dare you. The black-metal-facade meeting the trip-hop core sound of the Berlin-based artist is really just something else. And yes, the trippy beats and scratches are followed by metal guitar backgrounds, but the effect is still peculiar. In the best possible way.

This also means that Foghazer's debut album is one of very few trip-hop-adjacent releases that don't bore me. Unfortunately, I struggle to enjoy the genre I once thought might become my favourite. Something clicked in my mind in the wrong way. But it seems that what I need it a dose of originality. And yes, I recognize that this is probably a very amateur project, the quality of the guitar parts is not great, but I value the complexity and diversity of compositions a lot, enough to give the project an OK with a note "keep an eye on". 

According to Foghazer, the album is filled with the so-called "sound of low visibility", "slow beats, distorted memory and fog as both space and emotion" in his words mesmerize the audience with ease while the addition of surprising but so well-fitted elements (like the fantastic, Igorrr-like opera vocals in He) add up to the originality of this music even more.

He Left The Temple costs what you want to pay.

Check: He

Country: Germany

Genre: death trip-hop

Label: Hypnotic Dirge Records

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