Browsing Tag

Ambient Electronica

Catherine Duc serves synth-crafted ambient nostalgia with, ‘Remember When…’, featuring Jonas Isacsson.

Posted on 16 July 2021

For her latest release, ‘Remember When…’, GRAMMY-nominated composer, multi-instrumentalist and remixer, Catherine Duc, teamed up with guitarist Jonas Isacsson to create a synth-crafted ambient nostalgia hit that will allow you to drift back to the 80s via the soaring guitars and delicately arranged glassy synths.

So far in her career, Catherine Duc has received a GRAMMY award nomination for Best New Age album in 2016, scooped the award for instrumental artist of the year during the Los Angeles Music Awards in 2006, and remixed for the likes of the Corrs and XYLO.

With her intrinsically connectable sound and the emotions she’s able to evoke through instrumentals alone, we’re sure that the accolades won’t end there.

Remember When… is now available to stream via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kattacomb ambiently explores loss in their downtempo single ‘Now You’re Away’

Posted on 30 June 2021
https://soundcloud.com/kattacomb/now-youre-away?in=kattacomb/sets/sleepless-ep

Maryland, US-residing artist and producer Kattacomb has released his ambient EP, Sleepless, capturing the delirium of those sleep-deprived hours that seem to stretch beyond time or reason.

Now You’re Away may not use narrative lyrics or even vocals that still bear any humanistic resemblance. But with those three words in the title paired with the bright melodies, you’re drawn into a soundtrack that compassionately connects with you through the relatability of  loneliness that creeps into bed beside you when your mind refuses to sleep before daylight.

The conceptual use of birdsong around the glitchy, trip-hop minimalist instrumentals was nothing short of ingenious. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, Now You’re Away may just be the most stunning feat of electronica since Apoptygma Berzerk’s ‘Until the End of the World’.

Now You’re Away is now available to stream via Soundcloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jakliu – Frustration, stagnation, isolation, and loneliness with “CATSPIT”

Posted on 25 June 2021
Jakliu

Hot on the heels of his recent remix of Irish electropop artist Ae Mak’s ‘Jamie’ comes this, Jakliu’s debut single ‘CATSPIT’. Gentle, pulled-back vocals mixed with repeating drone notes and electronic drum loops, ‘CATSPIT’ is a mix of ambient, electropop, and electronica, taking in later Radiohead and Thom Yorke’s solo work, bits of the Aphex Twin, Dave Monolith, Caribou, Beatwife, Luke Vibert, and the whole gamut of Warp and Rephlex records stablemates.

It’s chilled and mellow yet challenging and forthright, inspired by themes of stagnation and isolation and Jakliu’s frustration at the mediocrity of everyday life and at the slow decline of creativity and arts in a world fixated on cheap, easy fame and fleeting Social Media celebrity.

You can check out Jakliu on SoundCloud and Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes

Rachael Philip pays ode to continuity in ‘Relics in the Ice’

Posted on 18 June 2021
Rachael Philip

Manchester-based self-taught musician and composer Rachael Philip has taken a break from composing for film to release her debut album, Wax Ephemeral. The influences for the standout single, Relics in the Ice, came through the artist’s intense interest in science and spirituality. You will hear the latter laden in the minimalist, accordant progressions.

Hitting play on the dreamy instrumental landscape, complemented by birdsong, is a sure-fire way to get a potent hit of catharsis. The climbing progressions may be gentle, but Relics in the Ice is as transcendent as electroacoustic ambient neo-classic work gets.

In her own words,

“The album is a tribute to the continuous cycle of life, beauty in death, and regeneration into new forms from microcosmic to macrocosmic view, of a diverse but interconnected network of beings and organisms.”

Relics in the Ice is due for release on July 2nd. In the meantime, you can check out the composer’s other equally as mesmeric scores via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Slip into the choral catharsis of 8udDha bl0od’s ambient single, ‘3ye 0f 7he jAgUAR’

Posted on 24 May 2021

‘3ye 0f 7he jAgUAR’ is just one of the recently released singles from the prolific and unpredictable Brighton-based artist 8udDha bl0od; once again, he’s experimented with his style and instrumentation and achieved in portraying organic expression that benefits the listener just as much as the creator.

4-minutes of unadulterated catharsis may seem like a dream come true in the chaos of our frantic modern world, but that is exactly what you will find in this easy to surrender to surf-rock-inspired ambient track.

Where birdsong would be on your archetypal meditative soundscape, 8udDha bl0od implanted chirping electronic glitches to cut through the choral tones spilling from the dreamy minimalist guitars. It’s mesmerising from the first note to the last, for the sake of my own sanity, I hope to hear plenty more ambient tracks from 8udDha bl0od in the future.

You can check out 8udDha bl0od’s latest single by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jeff Goldsmith – ambient, narrative sounds with ‘Waiting Window’

Posted on 7 May 2021

Jeff Goldsmith is a composer, sound engineer, and producer based out of Minneapolis; ‘Waiting Window’ the first track from his forthcoming album ‘May You Find The Light Before The Devil Knows He’s Right’ – composed and recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic – is a dark, brooding, piece, semi-neo-classical, semi-industrial, and mainly instrumental. All based around field recordings and live samples from Minneapolis, it’s a mix of the avant-garde, elements of alt-rock mixing with a repeating piano motif, sampled ambient noises, and speech, all building slowly throughout the five-and-a-half minutes of the track. At times sounding like Phillip Glass or Mike Oldfield, others with dashes of the softer parts of Nine Inch Nails or Ministry, switching still to the Orb or Ozric Tentacles. It’s an entrancing, evocative mix of alternative, dark ambient, and auditory narrative soundscape.

You can catch the video for ‘Waiting Window’ on YouTube; find out more about Jeff Goldsmith and his work here.

Review by Alex Holmes

Hranrad shows us the pinnacle of alt ambient electro pop with his standout track, ‘Misdemeanor’

Posted on 20 April 2021

Berlin-based artist Hranrad’s standout track, Misdemeanour, taken from his EP, Persona, is ambient aural experimentation at its finest. The self-described ‘genre-curious bedchamber producer’ was just as eccentrically playful with Misdemeanour as he was with his bio.

The delicate tapestry of contrasting and complementary tones is unapologetically authentic, not just in terms of sonic originality, you’ll truly get a sense that the notion of pretences was a million miles away from this tender and expressively honest track. We hope to hear plenty more of his haunting yet comforting melodies in 2021 and beyond.

Misdemeanour is available to stream with the rest of Hranrad’s debut EP, Persona, via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ponder the beauty of chance with Tenseventeen’s ambient electronica track, ‘Sometimes’.

Posted on 12 April 2021

Californian electronica artist and producer, Tenseventeen has released their second EP, ‘The Little Things’. The timely release is an endless source of tonal optimism, especially the lead single, ‘Sometimes’.

The light and organic synth-crafted soundscape plays on the more melodic side of electronica, as the notes meander with purpose through the downtempo hip-hop-inspired 808s that bring plenty of texture to the experimental feat of ambient future house.

With a traversing air to the constantly momentous yet never over-facing single, it’s one that you can easily get lost in.

Tenseventeen’s sophomore EP is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spacecadet Lullabies’ haunting, cross-generational family ‘Heirloom’

Posted on 10 April 2021

Following the death of his parents, Melbourne-based musician, composer, and producer Matt Lewin started the always-difficult task of sorting through possessions; one such item was an old reel-to-reel tape recorder, containing the outlines of 28 previously unheard compositions for voice and piano, made by his grandfather in the late 1960’s. Lewin took these sketches, interpreting them through his own unique compositional trope, avoiding using his father’s voice or reinterpreting the original compositions, adding instead an ambient, minimalist soundscape around the original recordings to create a unique father-and-son collaboration which reaches across the years.

What we’re left with is a hauntingly beautiful, peaceful-yet-uplifting collection of mellow, downtempo electronica, a deeply original, personal musical conversation which feels both timeless and remarkably contemporary. Lewin’s sympathetic approach allows space for the original compositions to breathe and grow, whilst adding up-to-date touches with synthesised and sequenced instrumentals evoking feelings of peace, tranquillity, hope, and solace.

Lewin’s album, ‘The Map Maker’, is released on March 18th; you can hear ‘Heirloom’ via BandCamp, and check out Spacecadet Lullabies here.

Review by Alex Holmes

Escape with Sentry’s lo-fi future bass track, ‘Take Me Away’.

Posted on 4 April 2021
https://soundcloud.com/sentry_uk/take-me-away

UK-based electronica producer Sentry may only be two months on from his debut release, but he’s already racking up streams like there’s no tomorrow with their entrancing feats of lo-fi future bass.

His recently released single, ‘Take Me Away’, is a stunning showcase of his ability to lead listeners away from external chaos and douse them in the serenity of aural euphoria. What starts as an immersion into a tranquil pool of reverb-drenched synth ambience, seamlessly evolves into an ensnaring tidal wave of visceral emotion and harsh snares. Only when you reach the outro, you realise what a profound experience Take Me Away was. Your first hit definitely won’t be your last.

You can escape with Take Me Away by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast