AMBIENT LAYERS VOL. II In their ongoing Layers-series, the 7K! label presents piano-, string-, wind-, ambient-, and duet layers. Some of them already two volumes: the Piano and String layers before, and now there's also a second volume of Ambient Layers, It is a digital-only release presenting 21 previously unreleased tracks (97 minutes) 'that outline and take a picture of the current underground ambient scene'. There are familiar artists that can generate interest (like KMRU, Loscil, Jacaszek, Marconi Union, Skalpel) but the showcase also presents lesser-known artists from all over the worl ..read more

BRÌGHDE CHAIMBEUL (& COLIN STETSON) - CARRY THEM WITH US    Not many of you will probably associate the sound of a bagpipe to 'ambient' music, because of the often rather penetrating sound most people know. But it is probably also the first instrument that comes to mind that produces a distinct 'drone', along with instruments like the tanpoura and the sitar or the hurdy-gurdy. Brìghde Chaimbeul is a Scottish pipe player from the Isle of Skye. She explains: "I’m always led by the drone. To be a piper you must have a natural attraction to drones. That’s the minimalist aspect ..read more

[Video by Dave Michuda / image by midjourney] [audio src="https://www.ambientblog.net/mix/Saddest_Chord.mp3" controls /]   Could this be 'the saddest mix of all time'? I don't think so myself, I would rather call it melancholic - in a pleasant way. But it's a fact that all of these tracks are in D minor (Dm), which is said to be 'the saddest chord': "The D minor chord (often written as Dm) is a chord that evokes a sense of melancholy and contemplation on the negative side of situations. Like many other minor chords, Dm can create a heavy, serious atmosphere -- and sometimes even creates ..read more

"Vini mínum vagga ég í ró En úti biður andlit á glugga" "My little friend I lull to rest But outside, a face looms at the window" Bíum Bíum Bambalo Tracklist: 00:00 DreamScenes - Intro (Susanna) 00:42 Six O'Matic - Attack (Shock and Aww) A Misnomered Pipe's Dream, 2023, Monkey Corner Records 03:04 Alva Noto - Son 03:50 Alva Noto - Kinder Der Sonne - Intro Kinder der Sonne, 2023, Noton 06:57 Isabel Pine - Embers Embers, 2023, Self-released 10:12 Brian Eno - Inclusion (Instrumental) Foreverandevernomore (Forever Voiceless Edition), 2023, Universal UMC 14:21 Brian Eno & Fred Again - Cmon ..read more

ALVA NOTO - KINDER DER SONNE    Alva Noto's music is sometimes associated with an analytical, almost mathematical approach and for that reason also somewhat detached from human emotions. But that is not the complete story, and greatly undervalues his work - as is convincingly demonstrated in this latest album. Carsten Nicolai (which is his real name) 'seeks to overcome the separation of the sensory perceptions of man by making scientific phenomenons like sound and light frequencies perceivable for both eyes and ears'. Kinder der Sonne (Children of the Sun) presents music that ..read more

400 LONELY THINGS - MOTHER MOON    I'm not ashamed to admit that I had never heard of 400 Lonely Things before, even if they have been releasing albums since 2003. In my defense: most of them were released on rather obscure; only in 2020 there appeared a split-release cassette with Fossil Aerosol Mining Project on Helen Scarsdale Agency. Their latest, Mother Moon is released on Cold Spring, and it will probably gain some more attention - especially since it is produced by none other than William Basinski. 400 Lonely Things are Craig Varian and Jonathan McCall. For this album ..read more

MICHAEL BEGG - SOUNDING THE ICE FACTORY Michael Begg has specialized in using all kinds of data as an input source for his music: oceanic details on Light Water Is Black Water, weather data on Witness 2, and the movement of satellites on Witness 1 and Witness 3. The pieces on Sounding The Ice Factory 'assume their structure from observed data and modelling predictions arising from studies of Pine Island Glacier as well as the Ronne-Filchner ice shelf and Weddell Sea in western Antarctica'. And there are many, many data to observe: 'the temperature of water, the concentration of salt, the rat ..read more

TIM HECKER - NO HIGHS    Well, this is quite a statement: No Highs 'serves as a beacon of unease against the deluge of false positive corporate ambient currently in vogue. [...] this is music of austerity and ambiguity, purgatorial and seasick. A jagged anti-relaxant for our medicated age, rough-hewn and undefined.'  I had to re-listen to this album with this statement in mind (I usually listen to albums without reading any background information first), because somehow I felt that No Highs was somewhat less 'in-your-face power ambient' than some of Hecker's earlier album ..read more

MATTHEW FLORIANZ - A BEAUTIFUL BRUTAL BETRAYAL    I'm glad to see that Matthew Florianz has reinstated his former alias Liquid Morphine, since I always thought that was an apt description of his music. I have been following Florianz' music ever since his earliest releases in 2001 (Grijsgebied and Molenstraat), when he was part of the early Dutch ambient music scene, creating his soundscapes with relatively simple means (as I remember, hist first albums were created only using a Korg synth and some effects). A lot has changed since then: Florianz moved to the UK to become a pro ..read more

VARIOUS ARTISTS - MERCURY MISSION DIARIES    If you like your ambient music dark, widescreen cinematic, and sci-fi as possible, this Cryo Chamber release is the place to go. It is a various artist compilation, but one that sounds like a coherent movie soundtrack. It comes with a story outline to trigger your imagination: "The harvester class ship came to life with a low, guttural hum as the crew prepared to activate the propulsion systems [...] With each passing second, the possibility of escape dwindled, leaving the crew with nothing but their fears and a haunting silence." B ..read more