A Closer Listen
Today our exciting journey kicks into high gear, as the staff votes are tallied and we present the first of seven genre lists, leading up to this year’s overall top twenty! The ambient category is our most competitive, as we receive an average of five ambient albums every day, which is only the tip of the ambient iceberg! To make this year-end chart, one really has to stand out, which seems counter-intuitive for an otherwise unassuming genre. Some artists do so with unified themes; others use field recordings or uncommon sounds; and others simply make memorable music that demands repeat listens. All of this proves that there is great power in the right amount of calm: not music for sleeping, but music to soothe the savage breast. We hope that you are inspired by this year’s inaugural staff list!
Coco Francavilla ~ re-oceaning (Music and the Sea)
While much ambient music views oceanic music as peaceful, Coco Francavilla takes this a step further. re-oceaning is part of a larger project that hopes to challenge and inspire. Like a womb, the ocean gave life to civilization, and now civilization is called upon to protect and preserve this primordial resource. It’s one thing to hear and enjoy the sound of seagrass; it’s another to realize that it is endangered. Proceeds benefit marine conservation and acoustic research via the artist-founded Music for the Sea; Francavilla’s TED Talk reveals even deeper layers. (Richard Allen)
Original Review
Hammock ~ Nevertheless (Hammockmusic)
This is a truly ambient work from Hammock, who have historically strayed into heavier post-rock on past albums. In comparison, their latest is floatier and more delicate. Nevertheless, it is thickly laden with the same emotional intensity fans of the artist are familiar with. Perfect for contemplative solo listening sessions, Hammock makes music about sorrow and grief– though always with an undercurrent of hope. (Maya Merberg)
Original Review
Harbors (Hollie Kenniff & Goldmund) ~ When We Are Free (Nettwerk)
Hollie Kenniff and her husband Keith Kenniff (aka Goldmund) are certainly not new to the ambient scene. The two have been releasing music under various monikers, both separately and together, for years. Harbors is their latest project. When We Are Free layers fuzzy piano chords over airy instrumentals that morph and fade in slow motion. The result is a cozy haven from life’s pressures and challenges whatever they may be, where listeners can– if only for 33 minutes and 12 seconds– be free. (Maya Merberg)
Original Review
Kieran Hebden + William Tyler ~ 41 Longfield Street Late 80s (Eat Your Own Ears/Temporary Residence)
Those who know Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) know that he is not afraid to collaborate, remix, and bend genres in weird and wild ways. Those who’ve listened to the other William Tyler album on this list will have noticed that this artist, too– though a Nashville based Americana guitarist– has a penchant for exploring new musical territory. That said, the pairing of these two is wholly unexpected. The two are from drastically different musical backgrounds, and the end product highlights each of their strengths in a unique and seamless way. 41 Longfield Street Late 80s is the best of both worlds, where ambient electronic meets folk/country guitar. (Maya Merberg)
Original Review
Okkyung Lee ~ just like any other day (어느날): background music for your mundane activities (Shelter Press)
We thought Yeo-Neun (2020) was a departure, yet here Okkyung Lee radically reconfigures her experimental practice even further, into a work of profound gentleness and utility. Crafted at home without her signature cello, the album offers ten short pieces of looping melodies that occupy a graceful space between ambient minimalism and baroque. This is music designed for passive listening—an intimate companion for cooking, walking, or resting that imbues the everyday with quiet wonder. In foregrounding emotion and accessibility, Lee creates a subtly revolutionary statement on where experimental sound can belong in our lives. (Joseph Sannicandro)
Original Review
Olivia Font ~ Invictam (Modern Obscure Music)
Invictam may be an album of grief, but it is also an album of strength. The title means invincible or unconquered. Track by track, the artist kneads her losses until they become like bread. The album unfolds like a suite; guest appearances by soprano Ana San Martín, cellist Oliver Coates and others enhance the emotional impact. By the end, artist and listener are standing upright, not defined by their losses, but refined. (Richard Allen)
Original Review
Sontag Shogun x Lau Nau ~ Päiväkahvit (Beacon Sound)
An instinctive collaboration continues on this sublime record, whose title means afternoon coffee. Culled from the same sessions as Valo Siroutuu, these tracks have always deserved to see the light of day, while the reworks enhance the original material like pleasant reminiscences of a vacation on a tropical island. “Can you stay with a memory too long?” the artists asked in the initial press release. Not if the memory is idyllic, filled with laughing children and the sounds of the sea. (Richard Allen)
Original Review
unitrΔ_Δudio ~ summer somewhere (Onionwave)
summer somewhere was released right around the summer solstice earlier this year. There’s no better time than now, six months later, to revisit it, because this album is all about remembering the fact that summer is a feeling one can evoke no matter what month it is or where one is in the world. unitrΔ_Δudio translates that summer feeling to sound. The album is subtle and ethereal at first before splintering into a sparkly and invigorating energy, like the sun finally breaking through after an overcast morning. (Maya Merberg)
Original Review
Valotihkuu ~ Drifting Between Seasons
Seasons are not static things; they arrive and depart in fits and starts. Drifting Between Seasons recognizes the liminal days in which two seasons swirl about, content to co-exist. While most of the album takes place in winter, “Winter’s Last Whisper” breaks the boundaries of spring. Field recordings are sprinkled throughout, a reminder that the weather too is always changing, offering an ephemeral form of grace. (Richard Allen)
Original Review
William Tyler ~ Time Indefinite (Psychic Hotline)
The first of two releases from William Tyler this year (the second, the above collaboration with Kieran Hebden), which saw the guitarist push into more experimental territory. The guitar remains the central focus, but on Time Indefinite, he embraces uncertainty, tape loops, drones and ghosts in the machine. This is music out of time, haunted by people and places from decades – probably centuries – previous. It’s not as straightforward or accessible as most of his other work, but that is its strength. This is an artist who is pushing at the boundaries, both at the edge of his familiar finger-picking sound but also seemingly between the living and the dead. (Jeremy Bye)
Original Review
Fri Dec 12 00:01:39 GMT 2025