Łabandzi Śpiew: 2026

Mike Lazarev - Sacred Tonalities (2023)

piątek, 10 lipca 2026

Mike Lazarev - Gradiscence (2026)

Born in Ukraine, living in UK, this ambient producer with the looks of a hermit and the music sensibility of a poet made some more magic and enchanted it onto a short EP entitled Gradiscence. His unhurried piano-based soundscapes create this kind of atmosphere that is as cozy as it is beautiful.

Not everything he makes gets to me, but this year's EP is another release after 2023's Sacred Tonalities that touched my spiritual side. There is something in the quality of those key sounds accompanied by next to nothing else that strikes me throughout the album. Every one of them feels like a finger touch on my spine, bringing an overwhelming feeling of warm if nostalgic embrace. The minimalism of the compositions really brings the piano sounds out so that they can charm the audience freely. Still, my favourite part of the EP is the one where the piano finally gives up and submerges into the moody, omnipresent electronic drone. Love it.

Gradiscence costs 6 EUR (5 GBP).

Check: Gradiscent

Country: Ukraine/UK

Genre: piano soundscape

Label: Bigo and Twigetti

The Haunted Youth - Dawn of the Freak (2022)

czwartek, 9 lipca 2026

The Haunted Youth - Boys Cry Too (2026)

The Haunted Youth from Belgium may be one of the most interesting bands making a tasty, modern blend of various gazey genres that can't be directly connected to any of them, but works fantastically as a whole. The dream poppy synthwavey shoegazey emo rock or whatnot outfit released their second album and it's as good as their debut from 2022.

What is great about their music is the sheer catchiness of each and every song on the album. You can go through the list of tracks and tick every position in the Am I going to Sing it With the Band column. The short and sweet one-liner chorus in In My Head or the chanting-like vocals in Deathwish or the almost r'n'b electronica in Wake Up. But when the music deepens and swallows, when the synths are layered until they fill out all the available space and when the compositions reach the euphoric optimum, this is where I feel the album the most. No wonder that Emo Song seems to be the most popular out of the whole release, it does the perfect job of drawing the audience in blissful noise. And so does the ballad-like Falling to Pieces.

It seems that Joachim Liebens' outfit gains a lot of recognition in Western Europe, I'd love to see them live one day. My only hope is that they won't decide to change their music to please the broader audience and will stay true to the dreamy/shoegazey music that made me notice them in the first place.

Boys Cry Too costs 11 EUR (8.99 GBP).

Check: Emo Song

Country: Belgium

Genre: shoegazey indie rock

Label: Anti-Pop/PIAS

środa, 8 lipca 2026

Tokyo Shoegazer - Remains (2026)

I love how certain Japanese projects use their names to clearly state what to expect from their music. Tokyo Shoegazer play shoegaze. And are from Tokyo. 'nuff said. This makes it all about music and the classic noisy but airy gaze here proves it can work so well on its own. Also, somehow this is another Japanese band with a song about flowers, but unlike MONO, they stick to one track only.

Founded by Hiroshi Sasabuchi in 2010, the band has a rich history that includes a hiatus period and a comeback, 6 albums with two critically acclaimed at RateYourMusic database and many live gigs in Asia. The sound of their music is something most of us would call a "classic shoegaze": the noisy and the fuzzy are indeed noisy and fuzzy, the sound quality is not as important as the loudness and, finally, Kyoko Sahara's vocals are extremely, soothingly airy. What else do you want from a shoegaze album?

Well, I guess you could expect some catchy melodies, but the Japanese deliver here as well: the ear-catching riffs in Wisteria are cool but my favourite track has to be Vega with its dreamy melodies meeting the heaviest guitars of the album at the end and this kind of contrast is what does it for me. What a beauty.

Remains costs 12 USD.

Check: Vega

Country: Japan

Genre: classic shoegaze

Label: HigherHell Records

Kielichy - Punkty płonące (2026)

wtorek, 23 czerwca 2026

Kielichy - SAWANT (2026)

Kielichy were featured on the blog already this year, but it was BEFORE. Back then, the Punkty płonące EP heralded a change and now we can already witness where the artist's discovery voyage landed them. SAWANT, called after the French for "scholar", but also a medical condition which is basically how autistic people are presented in media, album makes a huge impression from the beautiful cover art up to the lyrical and musical parts of the compositions.

I can see some similarities with one of my favourite albums of the recent times: Pothamus' Abur with similar weight put on the atmosphere and spirituality that comes from some kind of religion but ultimately is more than that. And when the psychedelic and sacral atmosphere is set up, here with the unhurried pace, dense guitars and characteristic vocals, the post-rock wall of sound appears out of nowhere to make the compositions' gravity even more emphasized. I have already said it a couple of times this year, but this is a good time for Polish dark psychedelic projects and this album is another prove to support the claim.

I've seen their music being described as "gothic post-rock" now and I can see why: it's not only the slow and moody music, it's also the themes. The band's name being the Polish word for "chalices" (which I read now in a very religious, perhaps ironic way) is one thing, but the lyrics all over SAWANT are very strongly leaning towards the mysterious and the religious with references to the importance of blood (Pieśń robaków), heavens (Puste niebo) or an entity hanging from a tree (Wisielec). But, judging from tracks like Puste niebo (which means "empty skies" but also could mean "Empty Heaven"), the religious here is just a decor, but if you employ it, you become part of it. Hence "gothic post-rock".

SAWANT costs 5 EUR (20 PLN).

Check: Puste niebo

Country: Poland

Genre: gothic post-rock

Band photo by Daria Izworska.

piątek, 19 czerwca 2026

Martyna Basta - Winged in Collapse (2026)

When you are called a "sonic alchemist", you know there is something special in your music. Martyna Basta, Polish composer and singer/songwriter based in the city of Kraków (my neighbour I presume) released her third album (but first under the acclaimed 7k records) filled with ambitious electronica turned ambient pop music.

The signature sound of this album focuses on the artful electronic samples sewn together into a sonic canvas on which beautiful though enigmatic vocals are displayed. This is not an easy kind of neoclassical electronica, it requires attention and brain power to process everything that is happening around you. But it's satisfying if enjoyed properly. I love the vocals, even if they are used sparingly, they show the range of the artist's voice and add to the mysterious atmosphere of the release.

I love that Basta invited some interesting guests, especially the harp-electronic duo LEYA (which, coincidentally, has also some Polish roots) in Laid and the British experimental rapper Rainy Miller in 2674. This is a beautiful, airy and ambitious electronic soundscape with elements of chamber pop appearing here and there that only make it more engaging to listen to.

Winged in Collapse costs 11 EUR.

Check: Laid

Country: Poland

Genre: experimental ambient pop

Label: 7k

czwartek, 18 czerwca 2026

Lune - Into Eternal Sleep (2026)

A mysterious project from the mountains of Austria (or the Danube's valley of Austria possibly, but I wanted to be as epic as the music here). The artist known only as M with no social media as far as I know, released what seems to be his 4th album and filled it with very, very very cinematic, if not pompous metal music.

I have little idea on the divisions between metal genres and, frankly, I rarely care. I usually listen only to the atmospheric ones that border post-metal as close as possible. You can safely say that Lune's two-track album is one of those exceptions. Atmospheric to the core, sounding like a soundtrack to an epic, possible viking-themed (probably because of the title) cinematic production, even if slightly lacking on the quality front, Into Eternal Sleep sounds more like a movie score than a metal album which I count as a big plus. The compositions are interestingly complicated and beautifully unhurried, the more metal passages really seem to underline something important, a pinnacle point that really matters.

The rest of the compositions are more ethereal than heavy, more like a dream played with guitars and keys. The valleys. But when the cinematic ecstasy kicks in, you certainly know it.

Into Eternal Sleep costs 8 EUR.

Check: The Silent Departure

Country: Austria

Genre: cinematic black metal

środa, 17 czerwca 2026

LYR - Dark Sky Reservation (2026)

The combination of spoken word poetry and alternative music is something that appeals to me a lot: so this year's BIG SPECIAL will be LYR - similarly hailing from UK but besides that, extremely different: instead of the post-punk spirit, LYR combines the unique vocals with artsy and pretty minimalist electronica and neoclassical music. This is LYR's fourth album and I'm very excited to discover the rest of their discography.

The lyrics here are, of course, the clue. And I already love some of the phrases/sentences coined for the album (especially the chorus in Blah! Blah! Blah! with the actual medical condition choice blindness embraced and used in a lyrical way) as well as particularly clever and sometimes hilarious word craftsmanship. Again, Blah! Blah! Blah! is a great example here: a song I'm genuinely as invested in the "plot" of the song as in the song as a musical entity in general. As could be expected (I knew, there is a post-punky element to this music), the album is very much a commentary about the world we live in as the artists describe themselves as "navigating towards sightings of hopefulness and constancy in an increasingly bewildering and storm-battered world".

The album title as well as a number of songs on it reference also the changing climate which is a) as interesting a topic as it is terrifying and b) not that much touch upon in music. Yet. But it has to be said that the band create a perfectly catchy songs as well. And with ease too. Eclipse is a perfect example of a song that steals the chorus from some kind of radio hit and repurposes it to accompany another brillant sheet of lyrics.

Dark Sky Reservation costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: Blah! Blah! Blah!

Country: UK

Genre: spoken word art rock

Label: Real World Records

VLMV - Sing With Abandon (2022)

wtorek, 16 czerwca 2026

VLMV - There Will Come Soft Rains (2026)

Pete Lambrou is now the whole VLMV and he just released his new album with Pelagic Records. The "ambient-ish post-something" of his is as spiritual and tasteful as ever with a very heavy focus on the "singer/songwriter" part of the music, making me think of Raised by Swans a lot, not only because of how beautiful his vocals are.

This is this kind of post music that should be closer to post-pop or post-singer/songwriter than anything else: the core of the compositions here IS the lyrics and the vocals combo and the song's gravity is built by their presence. The sensible, lyrical songs don't care about the melodies that much, their role is to catch the listener and guide them from the chaotic reality of today's world into a safe place of beauty and calm. Even if in a very bitter fashion: "Robins will wear their feathery fire/Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire/And not one will know of the war, not one/Will care at last when it is done" reminds me very much of the post-war songwriting in Poland with a modern, pessimistic twist.

And this highly artistic sensibility of VLMV is noticeable also in the visual side of the project with one of the most striking cover art examples I know. Musically speaking, the artist's cheeky self-description is exactly spot on: the music here certainly feels ambientish with soundscapes made of soft electronica, moody violins and delicate guitars as well post-something-ish as the whole thing took off from the Scandinavia-esque dark pop and landed somewhere else.

There Will Come Soft Rains costs 7 EUR.

Check: Bodies Grown, Pt.2

Country: UK

Genre: ambient singer/songwriter

Label: Pelagic Records

VLMV - Stranded, Not Lost (2018)

Päfgens - Der Regen (2022)

sobota, 6 czerwca 2026

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 Sturm (2019)

:soundcloud:

Kokomo - Totem Youth (2019)

piątek, 5 czerwca 2026

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

czwartek, 4 czerwca 2026

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

środa, 3 czerwca 2026

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

sobota, 30 maja 2026

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)

:soundcloud:

Sagor Som Leder Mot Slutet - III (2022)

piątek, 29 maja 2026

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

czwartek, 28 maja 2026

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

Richard Neale - EVES (2017)

środa, 27 maja 2026

Richard Neale - The Walls Fell (2026)

It's quite a story, while getting to write this piece, I thought of starting with saying that I hadn't heard such delicate vocals and music in a while but I checked my post on Richard Neale's 2017 album EVES and realized that it's EXACTLY what I wrote back then. And it's been almost a decade (sic!). This year, the dreamy and folky singer/songwriter from UK came back with his first longer album since... exactly 2017.

"Delicate" is an adjective you need to repeat over and over again when writing about The Walls Fell. I can hear this music as singer/songwriter acoustic guitar lyrical solo venture or a folky, nature-centred, forest-longing cry for escape, but ultimately it is all overshadowed by the utterly oneiric atmosphere that rules single-handedly on the album from the start to the final notes. The piano-based but very often built over with a range of other instruments compositions sound like coming from a dense fog in an English countryside in an early morning. And the vocals that join them are just... yes, delicate of course. Always but sometimes even more than that (King Blue!).

The album certainly feels like work of one man, although there are vocals by Karen Stally in some tracks too. But while usually I prefer a team effort in creating music, this time, it's just perfect. It gives me David Bramwell's Oddfellow's Casino (also south of England!) vibes, but even more foggy and sleepy. Love it.

The Walls Fell costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: King Blue

Country: UK

Genre: folky ambient pop

sobota, 23 maja 2026

Marielle V Jakobsons - The Patterns Lost to Air (2026)

California-based artist Marielle V Jakobsons has never been posted about on this blog, even though I highly value her previous album, 2016's Star Core. It makes it extremely interesting as what finally brought her here is an album marked by the notion of change and leaving one's comfort zone, which includes the change of the music itself.

The Patterns Lost to Air is a collection of lively soundscapes filled with glimmering electronica and wild, ellusive sounds. When I listen to this kind of ambient, I always picture a meadow on a warm, summer day. Life everywhere, even if not visible at first. It's hard to believe that Jakobsons' best works so far have been droney and dark neoclassical/electronic pieces. It's like the same place seen at night: both beautiful, both showing similar shapes, but inherently very different. And perhaps this is what I like about this album so much: it's a proof that change can be good, especially when you change from beautiful to beautiful.

The Patterns Lost to Air costs 10 USD.

Check: Warm Spring

Country: California, US

Genre: lively soundscape

Label: Thrill Jockey Records