Links, discussion, commentary, and reviews of Ambient music.
To get you excited about the upcoming release of Slow Dancing Society’s album Priest Lake Circa ’88, Hidden Shoal Recordings is offering a track from the album as a free download.
Download A Warm Glow (.zip)
The new Sigur Rós album með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust can be streamed in its entirety via last.fm.
Paris, Texas musician Allan Hubbard has a nice set of guitar-based instrumental work available for free download on his site through June. Well worth looking into.
The site is frames-based, so I’ll link straight through to the mp3’s right here.
Mist
Twilight
Moon
Fog
Startled
Slumber
Zeke
And, if you like what you hear, Allan says he’s got some new work coming out this month.
I stumbled across Swedish band Tape, who play quiet, spooky instrumental stuff with a bit of found sound added in as texture. Luminarium is their latest release from Häpna Records. They’ve got another couple records, all worth your time, but I think this latest release is likely their best.
The Coachlight Woods is a new record from Portland’s Glowworm. It’s mostly stuff of the post-rock variety, but with some interesting instrumentation. It’s a bit more quiet and introspective than your standard slow-build-into-kaboom post-rock. Been listening to it over the last few days quite a bit.
Related
Official Glowworm Web site
Glowworm MySpace Profile
Glowworm on Virb.com
Christopher Bissonnette has a really nice new release available titled In Between Words. It’s six tracks of stretched out, quiet drones and fuzz. Really delicate and well done. Highly recommended for those of you interested in the more subtle side of ambient music.
In Between Words is a collection of works, that continue Christopher Bissonnette’s explorations into orchestral and spatial acoustics. Cultivating an increasing interest in field recording and found sounds, Bissonnette has woven spatial ambience into these new compositions, while still concentrating on moments of near empty space between ‘instruments’
Keiichi Sugimotos’ work as Fourcolor on Air Curtain is a great listen while finishing up some work before the weekend on a cold January Friday afternoon. The record was put out by the Apestaartje label based in Brooklyn. They say:
Focusing predominately on the guitar ‘water mirror’ blends acoustic resonance with subtle precision to create an extremely detailed and restrained listening experience. Sugimoto focuses on the smallest of elements using electronics to accentuate every facit of an already tactile sound pallete. Sugimoto seamlessly blends various threads of kinetic listening in this ever-shifting composition of gradual movement.
I agree. It’s a nice, quiet, and slowly building record of tones. Good stuff for forgetting you’re actually listening to anything at all.
Related
Ambient Music Blog: Air Curtain, Fourcolor
Fourcolor Profile at 12k records
Cubicmusic.com
Speaking of Taylor Deupree, Term is an interesting “Sublabel” from 12k featuring an “online series of MP3 releases made available for free downloads.”
Artists include Sawako, Off the Sky, Sogar, and many more. I’ve had this bookmarked for quite some time and just hadn’t gotten around to listening to any of it. Really nice stuff, and: Free!
I picked up an older release from Taylor Deupree this weekend, this one Stil.. It’s 4 tracks of nice, long, quiet pulsing drones and hums. There are a few clicks and hisses of course, it is Taylor Deupree after all, but in all it’s nice stuff to stick on in the background and go about your business.
If you’re looking for nice ambient work on the electronic end of the spectrum, you could do worse than just picking up anything Deupree’s excellent 12k records produces. They don’t disappoint.
Related
12k records
12k records at Emusic.com
From the fine folks in Australia at Hidden Shoal Recordings comes the latest release from Ambient Music Blog favorite Slow Dancing Society titled The Slow and Steady Winter.
It’s quite nice stuff. Long, stretched out tracks with a lot of breathing room. Some towards the beginning of the record are rather dark, in a nice way. The tracks are generally atmospheric electric guitar ramblings with nice texture added throughout.
It’s not a huge departure from 2006’s The Sound of Lights When Dim, but if you liked that record, this one is definitely worth your time.
