A Closer Listen
After yesterday’s massive article of ambient album announcements there arrives a smaller but no less potent collection of drone. Ironically, despite being a smaller segment of the market, drone recordings tend to find disproportionate success in our Year-End Lists. Two of the artists below have topped our lists in prior years (one twice) while Room40 was our Label of the Year only two years ago. Suffice it to say that the genre is hardy and well.
Closely related to drone – in fact so close that it can be nearly indistinguishable – is the field of dark ambient. While dominated by a few prominent labels, the field continues to produce dark music for dark times, and now that such times have come around again, such music seems all the more relevant.
Our cover image is taken from Jeremy Young’s Cablcar (Halocline Trance), which is covered below.
We begin, as we’ve become accustomed to doing, with the incredible Room40 label, which already has eight spring releases up for pre-order! Their spring roster includes ambient, drone and experimental albums, collected here in one place. The season begins with Celer‘s Germs IV, which is accompanied by a short story that seems part personal journal, part history and part horror: a harrowing trip across the sea to “the last place called Paradise” (March 21). A week later, Pierce Warnecke unveils Music From Airports, a counterpart to Eno’s famous work. The reverberant caverns of airports provide the source material and serve as the starting point for these sonic explorations (March 28). Lea Bertucci + Olivia Brock team up for the first time on I Know the Number of the Sand and the Measure of the Sea, inspired by the Oracle of Delphi and packed with field recordings, reel-to-reel rustle, synth and breath (April 4). Theresa Wong takes a Journey to the Cave of Guanyin, based on the Chinese deity whose name means “the one who perceives all the sounds, or cries, of the world.” All of the sounds are created with multi-tracked acoustic cello (April 11).
David Shea’s An Eastern Western Collected Works is the reissue of a pointillist, percussive set from David Shea, who looks back lovingly on this archival music (April 18). Merzbow offers 18 untitled tracks and one called “B” on The Prosperity of Vice, The Misfortune of Virtue, a remastered version of an abrasive and immersive 1996 recording that sounds like a factory on fire (May 9). On Souvenir, Sadie Powers asks, “How do we grieve alone?” With fretless bass, music box bells, sheet metal, cardboard box and more, she creates a forlorn reflection (May 9). Mike Cooper‘s Eternal Equinox blends pedal steel, synth and birds to present a skewed sort of island record, bringing Room40 full circle, back to the Paradise of Celer (May 23).
Using electric organ, synthesizer and Mellotron, Sarah Davachi constructs Basse Brevis, which was originally part of a festival dedicated to Steve Reich. Her timbral approach results in a city of resonant dreams (Portraits GRM, March 21). Katelyn Clark & Mitch Renaud play organ and synth on Ouroboros, inspired by astronomical and astrological occurrences such as The Eternal Return (Hallow Ground, April 11). Salvaging pieces of pipe organ from across the countryside, Miłosz Kędra created his own pipe emulator, which he puts to good use on their internal diapasons. In so doing, he creates a story midway between the Ship of Theseus and Frankenstein (Pointless Geometry, March 29). Inspired by Erik Satie’s “furniture music,” Nicolás Melmann presents Música Aperta, a three-part suite whose elongated tones border on the transcendent (Umor Rex, April 4). Pitched Variations is just what it sounds like, a series of subtly undulating tones taken from violin and bassoon notes, stretched to the nth degree. Sullivan Johns‘ work is out March 28 on Moving Furniture. mayforest‘s new album may be called antifascist ambient, but it sounds more like drone: the drone of political horror descending on the ambivalent masses. A cold and unfeeling wind can be heard moving through the music (March 21).
Lucy Railton‘s Blue Veil is a solo cello work that was recorded at Église du Saint-Esprit in Paris. The natural resonance is a perfect enhancement to the music, which is both intensely physical and subtly spiritual, presented in seven phases: a number associated with the divine (Ideologic Organ, April 18). Also unfolding in seven movements, François J. Bonnet‘s Banshee is a mysterious set that travels the loch and the moors, searching for adventure and finding only doom. The music incorporates materials from the Isles of Mull, Staffa and Skye (Portraits GRM, March 21). Viola and cello intertwine on Whitney Johnson & Lia Kohl‘s immersive For Translucence, which crackles with energy and sparkles with new life (Drag City, March 28).
On the self-titled album from j.o.y.s., electric guitar, bass pedal and laptop create ambient textures that break into slabs of distorted drone. The duo’s moniker means “jump out of your skin” (Whited Sepulchre, April 4). Devin Sarno uses electric bass to create the atmospheric Low Endings; every note begins small before expanding like foam (Perceived Sound, May 9). Michael Vallera‘s The Other World is murky and malevolent, like a mansion occupied only by spectres. The title implies a gateway between worlds (Torn Light, April 25). The cover of Danse des Larmes looks hot, but the “Angel’s Throat” video is incredibly cold. This is the work of Hungarian Transylvanian vocalist and composer Réka Csiszér, performing as VÍZ. The “body horror soundtrack” began as a theatre production and the DL includes a 26-minute bonus track, “Eternia Now” (Heat Crimes, 28 March).
Normally one would think that an album inspired by the Canary Islands would be happy and carefree. Not so Radar Keroxen Vol. 5, whose fifth installment includes work by Gonçalo F. Cardoso, Eduardo Briganty, Afgan and Resonance: a dark exploration of a bright place (Discrepant, March 21). Also on Discrepant: Hair & Treasure (Gonçalo F Cardoso and Alex Jones with Phil Laney) offer Hair Rot, a dense file sharing nightmare of mingled miscellanea (April 4). Magnetic tape and analog oscillators create an artificial forest of sound on Cablcar, the lo-fi sound of Jeremy Young‘s handmade experiments matched by the 35mm visuals of lead single “Judy” (Halocline Trance, April 5). Laszlo Umbreit, Sirah Foighel Brutmann & Eitan Efrat have composed “a lament for the Al Niqab desert in Palestine.” “Ensemble,” the opening track of Là, is comprised of eleven 16mm projectors simultaneously playing a single pitch (Futura Resistenza, April 7). Rhins creates massive soundscapes that fracture and decay, reflecting “the breakdown of communication.” The Burnout seems particularly timely in today’s fractured society (Dragon’s Eye Recordings, April 25).
Constantine Skourlis returns with the immense HORSES (Original Score), which sounds like dark clouds passing overhead, threatening to let loose, with veins of lightning crackling between their folds (Bedouin, April 4). Bus Gas collaborates with Amulets on Mercy View, tilting on the edge of despair before allowing shards of light to break through (We All Speak In Poems, March 28). Heavy doom drone fills every crevasse of Hollows Made Homes in Their Sunken Cheeks, a cavern of cacophony from Ungraven (Heavy Psych, April 18). Ben Frost‘s Under Certain Light and Atmospheric Conditions is the culmination of the past two years of live performances. The thunder and sirens of the lead single indicate that it’s been a dramatic yet rewarding ride (Mute, May 16).
Cyclic Law already has four dark releases slotted for spring. The first is a remastered edition of Sephriroth‘s Cathedron, now with bonus tracks, a treat for fans of the 1999 release (March 21). Kaverna‘s Un Monolito en llamas quiebra el Horizonte follows a week later, a ritualistic offering with cavernous textures and voice (March 28). Ansiktsløs (Norwegian for “faceless”) is a well-established artist recording under a new moniker, which should begin a dark ambient guessing game. The double concept album chronicles the life of a hermit in the mortal world and the Sideworld (March 28). And Vainio & Vigroux reissue the industrial-strength Peau froide, léger soleil, which is laden with dark beats and probably deserves to be in our Electronic section, but we’re keeping it here for consistency. Iggor Cavalera and Shane Embury split the sides of Neon Gods, their extreme metal sound as dark and uncompromising as ever (Cold Spring, March 21).
Richard Allen
Sun Mar 16 00:01:11 GMT 2025