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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Timelapse Aurora - In Defeat, I See the Future (2023)

Timelapse Aurora are from Italy and they create heavily guitar post-rock music with a story to tell. This sci-fi-sounding instrumental music is shown on their first ever album called In Defeat, I See the Future.

The album is described as a "wonderment of space that is both haunting and hypnotic". While their premise suggests a heavy use of electronica in their compositions, the post-rock here is still very guitar-oriented. But the artists prove that they don't have to resort to the sci-fi electronica to make sci-fi music. The very first sounds of the album prove that sci-fi is its important piece with a sampled voice saying about living in 2355 AD, not to mention the interesting, retro-futuristic cover art or track titles that show the artist interest in space exploration. But also the music itself is very often slower, more spacial thanks to the synth sounds and samples, making it a story from somewhere in the vast universe written with very solid post-rock music.

In Defeat, I See the Future costs 5 EUR.

Check: From Mars to Jupiter

Country: Italy

Genre: sci-fi post-rock

Label: Eternal Colossus Records

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A Canyon in the Sea - Lost Landscapes (2022)

Lost Landscapes makes a debut album not only for A Canyon in the Sea but also for the label Polawa Records. However, the Austrian artist made sure to create work that one would not associate with the word "debuting" - it's fantastic both quality- and idea-wise and should be recommended to all the fans of post-rock music.

The compositions here have an interesting trip-hop-like electronica flavour to the backgrounds while still being an absolute bliss of guitar-heavy noise (which in the final track transforms into glitchy kind of neoclassical piano backgrounds and I'm here for it!). This slow and unorthodox way of developing the compositions is actually outstanding; it's not so surprising then that the longest track such as Glass seem to have this unstoppable but never-hasty might like an incoming storm or a moving glacier.  But this is also present in the shorter ones and this is something that rarely happens. It's heavy and loud but is also more focused on generating this eery atmosphere than crushing the audience with energy. 

What should be also pointed out, this is a solo project but while many solo projects like this sound very much like a lonely guy in a bedroom with a guitar, A Canyon in the Sea managed to create a blizzard of sound that could as well be a work of a full-sized band and I appreciate it a lot.

Lost Landscapes costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: We've Met Before Haven't We

Country: Austria

Genre: atmospheric post-rock

Label: Polawa Records

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The Glass Pavilion - When the Blazing Sun Is Gone (2022)

The first album released in 2022 on my blog is a debut album by Ashley Owens. The English artist makes music as The Glass Pavilion and he filled his first ever album When the Blazing Sun Is Gone with subtle solo post-rock pieces that often are closer to instrumental ambient than guitar-raging compositions.

Owens was forced to give up on his "bedroom indie" way of playing music so he chose to continue pursuing music career in the electronica post-rock field. He merges synths and electronic sounds with sampled guitars to create moody and slow soundscapes of pure atmosphere. The compositions are long and quiet, delicate noise makes a background for non-invasive guitar sounds while in many places, the soundscapes are made more beautiful with synthy melodies (so great in Open to the Sky). They are very well developed and it's only more amazing knowing that the artist created them "at [his] kitchen table (mostly), with studio equipment consisting of a laptop, a small MIDI keyboard, a smartphone and a pair of headphones".

As the title and cover art suggest, the album has the winter's dark vibes all over. it But the darkness here is not dangerous nor unsettling - quite the opposite, the music feels cozy and making the audience feel at peace. Perhaps that was the tool the artist used to settle after the difficult time in his life. As he states, "it’s not a despairing, ‘share my pain’ album, or at least I hope it’s not. I hope it’s music people might be happy to escape into" - and this plan of escaping works, especially when, in the impressive finish of the album in The Most Glorious Birds, the organ-like synths lead your way.

When the Blazing Sun Is Gone costs 6 EUR (5 GBP).

Check: The Most Glorious Birds

Country: UK

Genre: synth instrumental ambient

Label: Little Lights Recordings

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In/Animate - Portals (2021)

The Wisconsin-based In/Animate is a solo project that started in 2018. After several singles, it's resulting now in a long-play debut with a moody and modern cover art signalling the moody and modern content of Portals.

The sound here is defined as "synthesizers and a mix of acoustic and electronic percussion to create music with influences of post-rock and IDM" which basically means the marriage of the electronic and the post-rock into one, extremely attractive and homogeneous entity. You can hardly say it's one of them with traces of the other, it's both at the same time. The post-rock-originating compositions are very complex and overwhelmingly monumental, just like the best works of the genre.

On the other hand, it is accompanied by heavy electronica that is very much responsible for the melodies and "riffs" but also often breaks the composition, a trace of what dub steps does on much larger scale. Also the overall theme of the album is set in the sci-fi and space exploration tones. This whole thing results in outbursts of dark energy that can power up your lives with ease, as well as in "fresh sounds to transport you to different dimensions" as the musician states when talking about his artistic goals.

Portals costs 7 USD.

Check: Through the Fold

Country: Wisconsin, US

Genre: IDM post-rock

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Sijosai - Rire Seul (2021)

Sijosai is a French band that combines traditional post-rock sound with various electronica-originating influences to create instrumental music that is lively and mould-breaking all the way through. It seems that they started making music back in 2014, but for their first longer release we had to wait until this year's album entitled Rire Seul.

They call their sound a hybrid of "sound and visual textures, creating an aspirating atmosphere, refined and dense at the same time". To achieve that, the post-rock compositions are filled with electronic music or even ambient's bits and pieces to such a degree that the whole thing doesn't resemble post-rock at all. It's more of an experiment that balances the mood and the weirdness, reminding me very much of le-mol's music. For the most part, it is relatively slow and not very loud, it's more focused on the experiment itself than generating monumental atmosphere. It doesn't mean it's not enjoyable though, quite the opposite. There are some parts I especially love, like the glitchy and synth-heavy backgrounds in Xtzy, Pt. 4 or the heavy ambient vibes of the tracks towards the end of the album. Really interesting stuff.

Rire Seul costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Xtzy, Pt. 4 

Country: France

Genre: experimental electronic post-rock

Label: TeKoop Records / Tandori Records

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Spoiwo - Martial Hearts (2021)

Two post-rock bands from Poland that were recently (and rightfully) hyped the most are Tides from Nebula and Besides, two very different approaches to the genre, the former focusing on electro-shoegaze and the latter on the atmospheric side of the music. And now there's the third one as Spoiwo are finally back with their second album on which they marry the two approaches in such a cool way.

Martial Hearts is a follow up to their debut from 2015, such a long time without any new music from them (and I mean ANY, there's nothing I know of besides the two albums). They changes their style a lot, and they are happy to admit it: "it is a huge amount of time – an era in our lives. The world is a difference place now, so are we, and so is our new album". Their new sound is very, very electronic. However, unlike Tides from Nebula, they use this synthetic sound to generate atmosphere that is heavy but also uplifting at the same time rather than shocking with heavy pace and loudness.

They can be extremely moody, as in the epic Two Mountains, a song that develops for a long time and reaches an unbelievably dense moment at the end, also thanks to the organ-like keys (and also containing beautiful vocals, very sad but also very much appealing to a listener's humanity core within). Afterwards, their music is strictly instrumental / electronic which the musicians are able to use in a monumental way (Riot Sons) or crushingly powerful (Verge) while the vocals come back for the heavy ballad of Wounds. I love every second of this album.

Martial Hearts costs 6 EUR.

Check: Two Mountains

Country: Poland

Genre: dark electronic post-rock

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Aesthesys - Alignments (2020) PL

Aesthesys, post-rockowy kwartet ze wschodu, nie jest specjalnie znany reszcie świata, a tymczasem ukazała się niedawno ich już siódma płyta. W dodatku wypełniona jest ona naprawdę przednią muzyką z unikalnym brzmieniem. Sprawdźmy więc Alignments.

Post-rock plus neoklasyka, ta kombinacja łatwo może wpaść w pułapkę kiczowatej podniosłości. Na szczęście Rosjanom udało się tego uniknąć, mimo że smyczki, klawisze jak i subtelna elektronika to zdecydowanie nie tylko dodatki, a fundamenty ich muzyki. Co ciekawe właśnie tę elektroniczną, bardzo nowoczesną stronę swojego instrumentalnego grania artyści podkreślając barwnie je opisując słowami "robotów i sieci neuronowych ulubiony progresywny zespół, wkrótce będący oficjalną ścieżką dźwiękową dla rebelii sztucznej inteligencji".

Natomiast o tym że zespół wie co robi się z gitarami świadczy choćby Transcendants, w którym surowe dźwięki gitar połączone są w niezły sposób ze smyczkami. Prawdziwy pazur pokazują jednak w Hello World, kawałku o tak charakterystycznych epickich momentach brzmiących jak inspirowane dub stepem. A po nim zespół wciąż ma kilka niespodzianek w zanadrzu, tak jak ksylofon w Better Stranger chociażby. 

Alignments kosztuje 38 złotych (10 USD).

Sprawdź: Hello World

Kraj: Rosja

Szufladka: modern post-rock

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Aesthesys - Alignments (2020) EN

Aesthesys, a post-rock quartet from the East, are not very well-known for the rest of the world but they just released their seventh (!) album. What's more important, it's filled with some absolutely top shelf music with unique sound. Let's then check Alignments.

Post-rock plus neoclassicism, this is a combination that makes it easy to fall into a trap of the kitschy epicness. Fortunately, the Russians managed to espace that and that's even though strings, keys and subtle electronics are not only ornaments but the core of their music. This electronic, very modern face is what they point out to in their music describing it in a picturesque way as "Robots' and neural networks' most favourite progressive rock band, soon to be the official soundtrack of the AI uprising".

That having said, the band really knows what to do with guitars as well and it's proved by, for example, Transcendants in which the coarse guitar sounds correspond well with strings. But the real pugnacious face is shown in Hello World, a track with so characteristic epic moments sounding like inspired by dub step. And afterwards, the band still have some aces in the sleeves, like for instance the xylophone in Better Stranger. 

Alignments costs 10 USD.

Check: Hello World

Country: Russia

Genre: modern post-rock

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Antethic - Mythographer (2020) EN

Antethic, a Petersburh-based trio, have already two good albums in their career and now they're adding the third one - filled with spectacular post-rock release called Mythographer.

The album starts in the best way possible. The first sounds of the opening I Glow make an exciting blend of traditional post-rock with unorthodox ideas, frightening mood and electronic shenanigans. These vibes of modernized post-rock are clear throughout the whole work be it in synth keys (as in Frontier) or more experimental sounds (Haoma). One To Move a Mountain is on one hand a tribute to guitar-based drone, on the other - a celebration of experimental composing and unique instrumental-electronic music.

After the great last year, one could worry that this one could be worse post-rock-wise. Meanwhile it's quite the opposite and the Russians' album is a great prove of this. Especially as not every band would decide to so bravely marry electronics and guitars. Take it and enjoy.

Mythographer costs 7.99 GBP.

Check: I Glow

Country: Russia

Genre: modern post-rock
Label: Holy Roar Records

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Antethic - Mythographer (2020) PL

Antethic, trio z Petersburga, ma za sobą już dwie udane płyty, a teraz dodaje trzecią - wypełnione widowiskowym post-rockiem wydawnictwo Mythographer.

Płyta fantastycznie się zaczyna. Pierwsze dźwięki otwierającego ją I Glow to ekscytująca mieszanka tradycyjnego post-rocka z nietuzinkowymi pomysłami, przerażającą atmosferą i elektronicznymi wstawkami. Ten duch unowocześnionego post-rocka unosi się nad całą płytą, czy to w postaci syntetycznych klawiszy (jak w Frontier) czy bardziej eksperymentalnych dźwięków (Haoma). Takie To Move a Mountain z jednej strony jest pochwałą gitarowego drone'y, z drugiej celebrą eksperymentalnej kompozycji i nieoczywistej muzyki instrumentalno-elektronicznej.

Po znakomitym zeszłym roku można było się obawiać, że w tym post-rock przeżyje lekki kryzys. Tymczasem jest zupełnie inaczej, a płyta Rosjan jest na to kolejnym dowodem. A cenna jest również dlatego, ze rzadko kiedy zespoły decydują się na tak odważne ożenienie ze sobą elektroniki i gitar. Brać i słuchać.

Mythographer kosztuje 40 złotych (7,99 GBP).

Sprawdź: I Glow

Kraj: Rosja

Szufladka: modern post-rock
Label: Holy Roar Records

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