Ambient

  • Various Artists – Emergence

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    Nhung Nguyen has assembled a collection of Vietnamese avant-garde artists to document her country’s remarkable music scene. But unlike a lot of compilations focused on a particular geography, Emergence is less a travel showcase than it is a polished and enjoyable 67 minutes of new music. The 10 artists showcased here are at various stages…

  • Matawan – We Lingered in the Chambers of the Sea

    That title is a reference to T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, a celebrated poem that remains a source of debate more than a century after its publication. Prufrock is a middle-aged man with something important to say. But he is hesitant. Much of the poem is open to interpretation. Is Prufrock…

  • Matthew Swiezynski – the one who modifies Time and Light

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    Matthew Swiezynski’s stark new disc is a collaborative project that features contributions from Tarrl Lightowler, Johannes D’église, Arthur de Eriomém “plus other artists on invisible birds.” That last reference is to the terrific 10-year-old New York City label behind this release and Adrian Dziewanski’s hypnotic The Trail Looks Back. Both titles are co-released with The…

  • Goldmund – Occasus

    I wrote a piece about Harold Budd over the weekend for exclaim.ca. The ambient music legend (whose not altogether fond of that label by the way) left behind minimalism early in his career to devote himself to music that was uncompromisingly “pretty.” It was a move that would earn him international acclaim. Pennsylvania’s Keith Kenniff…

  • Carlo Giustini – Sant’Angelo

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    The Castel Sant’Angelo is revered by Roman Catholics around the world. Built on the bank of the Tiber River in Rome about 135 A.D., it was later the site of a key event in early Catholicism. Pope Gregory the Great, hoping to end a catastrophic plague by leading a procession in the area, reported a…

  • Dirk Serries – Epitaph

    Known more recently as an improvisational jazz guitarist, Dirk Serries built an extensive catalogue of ambient recordings between 1984 and 2007. Recording under the name vidnaObmana (Serbian for optical illusion), Serries produced more than 50 releases. The list includes some two dozen solo efforts and collaborations with Klinik, PBK, Steve Roach and others. The inexhaustible…