Soothing Chill

Maps and Diagrams - "Last Train Home" (MP3)
Maps and Diagrams - "Navel" (MP3)
Maps and Diagrams - "Savannakhet" (MP3)

Usually it is hard to put the finger on why an Ambient album is "good". For me, richness, atmosphere and innovative sound design is important. While "The Giant Woods" could have been transmitted in the early 70's (soundwise), the dense and slightly haunting feel of the record got me eventually. The artwork caught that impression very well - a walk through the forest at night, getting lost in a foreign town as the sun is about to settle... The chill comes on soft feet!

Besides, the intense layering and enwinding of different textures creates a sound that allows for aural discoveries on every new listen. Something you can find with Ian Hawgood, Slow or Astrowind as well. Dig yourselves into these nine tracks and escape for 48 gracious minutes.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: The Giant Woods (ZIP)
Artist-Website: Maps and Diagrams (@Discogs)
Release: The Giant Woods
Netlabel: yukiyaki.org

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• Wixel – “An Empty Canvas” (0)
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• Various – “Format” (Fällt) (0)
• V.A. – “Cycles” (Camomille Netlabel) (11)

What is truly remarkable on “Canções da Lua Nova” (in portuguese “Songs of the New Moon”) is that these eleven songs (and an outro) were in kept in a drawer for over thirty years.

Alexandre Bateiras - Porto Largo (MP3)
Alexandre Bateiras - Variações sobre um Tema Melancólico (MP3)
Alexandre Bateiras - Valsa em Fá# Menor (MP3)

Though Alexandre Bateiras has always been a portuguese-guitar player – he plays since he was 15 -, he was never concerned about releasing new songs. Well, it was only due to his son's persistence that the tracks saw daylight.

Please make notice to the fact that you're not listening to music only, you're listening to the stories that were left behind on Alentejo's plain (South of Portugal). Most of the songs names are real places names. And those that are not still have something important to remind us. For instance, “Tributo” is as tribute to a soldier who died during the portuguese colonial war back in the 60's. Alexandre Bateiras was there, whitnessed the moment and was able to show us what happened with a few chords.

This is instumental portuguese folk: real stories told and played with a portuguese guitar. Stories of a man and somehow of an old generation of people who lived in a quiet rural Portugal and stopped their adolescense to be part of a war.

Regardless the history lesson, these melodies are something that anyone hardly forgets. So take your own time to listen, discover and imagine all the tiny bits of existence that this record brings to life.

MP3 Instrumental Music Download

Download: Alexandre Bateiras - "Canções da Lua Nova" (ZIP- Archive)
Artist Website: http://www.myspace.com/bateiras
Release: Alexandre Bateiras - "Canções da Lua Nova"
Netlabel: Merzbau

Game Soundtrack

Julian Winter - "Sewer or Later" (MP3)
Julian Winter - "Godsend" (MP3)
Julian Winter - "Den" (MP3)

Alchemia is a point and click adventure in the tradition of the beautfil Samorost and Samorost 2 games. And it's the visual counter part of Julian Winter's "Rock Art EP" or the other way round. Like the game, you listen to lots of samples, which generate a dense atmosphere along with the melodies. Like the game everything is handmade, no synthies doodling around.

And where could this EP better fit than on the outstanding Pause Netlabel. Even while Pause is a netlabel for 8-Bit Culture its connection to games and the indie games scene is obvious. Often I ask myself why netlabels don't try in general more often to cooperate with indie game programmers.

MP3 Soundtrack Music Download

Download: Julian Winter - "Rock Art EP"  (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: www.julianwinter.de
Release: Julian Winter - "Rock Art EP"
Netlabel: Pause Netlabel

Feldmaus - "Lively Inner Shore" (MP3)
Feldmaus - "The Sky Turned (feat. Imachi Akira)" (MP3)
Feldmaus - "Put On A Magical Hood" (MP3)

Passage Netlabel is an ambient sub-division of Fragment Music netlabel established in 2009. While the russians deliver HiFi-Minimal Techno and similiar tracks on Fragment Music the main course of Passage is to explore the deepest and most charming forms of abstract musical expression. Passage is handling flexible style borders with several main settings - flowing ambience, organic structure and depth.

Feldmaus is a collaboration between Evgeny Shchukin and Alexander Tochilkin both known as Modul. The title of their album describes best what the music is about: spaces where you find musical ambience in each corner.

Starting off slowly and subtle with "Sunbeams In High Grass" and "Lively Inner Shore" you will listen to ambient music with a subtle 4-to-the-floor kickdrum like a pulsating heart. In one of those tracks Japanese guitarist Imachi Akira joined with Feldmaus to build a fantastic trip through space and time in track called "The Sky Turned (feat. Imachi Akira)".

A beautiful, relaxed and cinematic adventure.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: Feldmaus - "Spaces" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: Feldmaus
Release: Feldmaus - "Spaces"
Netlabel: www.passagemusic.net

Roland from Machtdose - "Aqual(o)unge 4" (MP3)

Without no doubt: Roland from Machtdose has a wonderful taste when it comes to music. More fascinating are his skills to find those wonderful nuggets in the huge pond of creative commons music. Even though he says about himself not being a dj, this blend of dubby techno, lush electronica and bright ambient speaks different.

Simply a wonderful selection while swimming through the reefes of netaudio.

MP3 Dubby Ambient Music Download

Download: "Aqual(o)unge 4" (ZIP-Archive)
Release: DJ Mix - "Aqual(o)unge 4"

"Aqual(o)unge 4" Playlist

1. Beyond Absence - Heavy Breath [Webbed Hand 117]
2. Vertical67 - Blue [Acroplane 027]
3. Grids/Units/Planes - Flickering Fluros (This Brittle Night) [IDM Forums 002]
4. Umbrellas in the Rain - Unbroken Surface [test tube 142]
5. Ingredient - Striations [Zenapolae 051]
6. Foam - Trouble [Archipel 056]
7. Fatiq - Race to Love [MonoKraK 24]
8. Pesina Siller - Miss Kittin [Konfort 023]
9. Yagya - Coconut Rice [Sutemos 023]
10. freund der familie - 000 [broque 046]
11. hoax - Regis [insectorama 031]
12. Matthias Springer - Realm of Minds [Rumpfunk 018]
13. Echonoise - Telonius Trak [This Side Music 007]
14. Phillip Wilkerson - Sun Up [Bypass 038]
15. Zzzzra - Mutation [bio-mechanics 004]
16. Dev - Mirror Error [parastate 001]
17. Mr. Zu - In the Distance [deepindub 030]
18. Optic - Untitled [schall 025]
19. deep source project - drifting under [white in music 08]
20. Ryko - Swimming Places [auflegware 028]
21. Marsmellows - oh my dear [insectorama 030]
22. glander - untiten [Yuki Yaki 010]
23. Waveform - Dub Inside Of Us (re-edit) [deeplimit 10]
24. Roman Slavka - Paste [Pincet 004]
25. EugeneKha - Moonshine [bypass 019]
26. Pirata - Fotones en la oscuridad [Pueblo Nuevo 043]
27. Braun - Finalizer [dreiton 016]
28. Dino Dumandan - Refraction Rarefaction [Deep Lever]
29. Winterstrand - Seawater Mountain [laridae 040]
30. Lokua - Water Rock [Soft Phase 03]
31. Audiodump - May [Electronica 03]
32. Background Noise - Neptune [Ruidemos 012]

August Ambient Bliss

Wonderful we get such music for free! Even more as it's Fall in Middle Europe and it does not take much imagination to syncronize to contemplative songs of Slow to the sound of rain on the other side of the window.

Behind the telling moniker is young Sergey Suokas, hailing from Karelia, Russia, close to Finland. Sergey released a lot of music under different names, including a set of 12"s for his Techno outfit Suokas. The US-American record label Self Storage published the first full-length Slow album just recently ("Sealand"), and "Dual Box" is Sergey's second EP for Resting Bell already. His engagement with experimental Ambient duo Feldmaus is worth a note as well. Boy... he's a maniac!

It always feels a bit stupid to connect geographical ancestry and sound identity.  However, with all Slow release so far I had the strong impression that Sergey Soukas combines something somehow Scandinavian with something somehow Russian. Quixotic, naive melodies on the one hand, clear and focussed song writing on the other. His sound design is lush and playful.

I only have a very few timeless favourites in Ambient music, among these probably Nest and Direwires & Freder, but "Dual Box" by Slow has a realistic chance become classic as well.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "Dual Box" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: sergeysuokas.ru
Release: Slow - "Dual Box"
Netlabel: restingbell.net

Iky Que - "10msec" (MP3)
Frunk29 - "Alenkin Home" (MP3)
Feldmaus - "Put On A Magical Hood (Passage Version)" (MP3)
Vadim Lankov - "Impudence" (MP3)

On both "NetAudio Russia Compilations" you find in general three music genres: breakbeat-driven tracks, melodic techno and ambient tunes.

At first I thought, the compilators would have separated four to the floor-tracks from IDM from Ambient, but that's not the case.

The main idea of both compilations is to let the listeners explore the variety of electronic music done by musicians performing on the festival. And I have to say, both trips are just wonderful and fit well together.

You dive into dreamish IDM like "Rosolam (Novomix)" from moroza_knozova or breakbeats with vocals like "10msec" from Iky Que or more straight elektro like "Liquid Fur" from Stud.

On the more upfront side I adore especially two tracks which would best be described as poetic minimal techhouse. Give "Put On A Magical Hood (Passage Version)" by Feldmaus and "Alenkin Home" by Frunk29 a listen. Wonderful tunes, to dance in the morning hours to with your eyes shut of course. Truly extraordinay how Frunk29 weaves some jazzy flavor into his track.

But also DJs with a heart for more pushy grooves get something for their sets. Vadim Lankov knows how to give the bassdrum that adequate kick. He hands us two excellent tracks over. With "Lankov - secondsun" he explores minimal techno with some tricky shuffling and experimental sounds and "Impudence" is that rave tune, you need to heat up the dancefloor.

A really fantastic double-feature from Russia. Don't miss it!

MP3 Electronic Music Download

Release: Various - "NetAudio Russia Compilation Volume 1 & 2"
Download: Various - "NetAudio Russia Compilation Volume 1 & 2" (ZIP)

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Psychon - "Blinddayton" (MP3)
Psychon - "Nanamissouri" (MP3)
Psychon - "Cancelwashington" (MP3)

It is good to notice how the words “new” and “discover” can easily merge into what we usually call “evolution”. So basically this means Lars Meijer, Coen Polack and Jantijn Prins bring us this new release as the result of the progressive change on their musical tastes. The complexity and density of their tracks remain intact, but the several layers of sound are now refined.

“Field recordings, electronic minimalism and acoustic maximalism” were blent with such various styles, redefining the band's bounderies in a studio. They reconstructed their own patterns of what music production might be, allowing the existence of new sonorities, where there is no space for inconsistency. Everything plays a specific role in the track as a whole, letting harmony breath there. The long tracks counteract the short ones and give the record a certain dynamic.

Ultimately, fluidity is the key-word.

MP3 Downbeat Music Download

Download: Psychon – "Slow Country for Old Men" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: Psychon
Release: Psychon – "Slow Country for Old Men"
Netlabel: www.narrominded.com

Astrowind - "Lost And Found On The Moon" (MP3)
Astrowind - "Mute Pilot" (MP3)

Astrowind are Kriipis Tulo and Mahi Bukimi. I follow them since their first releases at long-gone ElektroSound Netlabel and their retro-style synthesizer Ambient always made a little bell ring in my head. After two record that did not get me too much, this one is just right again. "Fresh Wind in the Valley of Dreams" is released on the young Moldavian Netlabel Silent Flow.

Astrowind play old Russian synthesizer, record their jams live on tape (!) to carefully rework them at home (I love the idea they do it with a cutting knife and Scotch tape but I guess on this account they do NOT do analogue). Outcome is multicoloured streams of dense synthesizer Ambient, enhanced by extensive pedal processing and vocal samples from Soviet cosmonautics (In particular, "Fresh Wind in the Valley of Dreams" is dedicated to A. A. Leonov).

Astrowind music flows like water. And like water can vary from runlet to tsunami, Tulo and Bukimi play with dynamics as well. Modus operandi changes from lovely to destructive, from contemplative to rude health - but the overall mood is august mellifluence. The cosmonautics reference works beautifully as well and given this, the link to 70's German Kosmische Musik ain't too far-fetched. Lovin' it.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "Fresh Wind In The Valley Of Dreams" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: astrowind.net
Release: Astrowind - "Fresh Wind In The Valley Of Dreams"
Netlabel: Silent Flow

Brian Grainger - "Summer's Parting Ways" (MP3)

Recently, my focus shifted a bit from the Ambient and post structuralist music I have been reviewing for Phlow since the beginning. This is quite a natural process. But every once a while, a record hits me like a slingshot and throws me back in time. This happened for Tiago Sousa's debut LP (available via Humming Conch soon). And it happend for "Sawdust Aromatics" by the likes of David Tagg and Brian Grainger.

Allow for a brief historical abstract. David Tagg was behind the wheel at Expanding Electronic Diversity. In 2006, David and Brian Grainger of Milieu Music met to first found a band and subsequently launch the experimental music imprints Install Sound and Second Sun Recordings, the later of which is an exclusive market place for their own collaborative music. "The Future of  Modern Guitar", as we can learn at the SSR info site.

For "Sawdust Aromatics", Rope Swing Cities (another key player in US experimental music) compiles two songs of each Tagg and Grainger, giving a total running time of +50 minutes. Brian Graingers pieces are intensively harmonic mediations on simple guitar motives. The epic "Summer Parting Ways" exactly feels like late Summer paralysis, with a wonderful synth texture beneath delayed guitar. The howling and otherworldly processings in the later half of the song are mesmerizing.

David Tagg, in contrast, focuses less on harmonics but the Gordian entanglements of field-recordings and processed guitar. Rather sound design than song, Grainger's composition are more easily to get into. Still, beyond the crackling textures of David Tagg's music, a lot of goodness can be found.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "Sawdust Aromatics" (ZIP)
Artist-Website: David Tagg | Brian Grainger
Release: "Sawdust Aromatics"
Netlabel: ropeswingcities.com

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• Wo0 – “With the Flowered Minds” (Phantom Channel) (1)
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• To4ka.Dna – “ZVUK” (Constanta) (2)
• Slow – “Dual Box” (Resting Bell) (3)

"Reintroduction" by Huw Roberts (MP3)
Daniel Maze - "Steampunk" (MP3)
Neuf Meuf - "Zul" (MP3)
Herzog - "Perhaps She'd Like To See Me Fall Apart" (MP3)

Huw Roberts, the face behind Serein, is a critical mind that shaped the label's identity for the last three years, choosing artists and artwork with greatest care. Roberts starts Serein 4.0 with a mesmerizing mix of favourites and unreleased material. Highly recommended if you are digging rich and analogue-ish Ambient music.

For the future, Huw Roberts promises new release by The Inventors of Aircraft, 1000 Hours of Staring (sooo looking forward!) and the Phlow Mag darlings Nest. Website looks clean and beautiful, only the loss of all previously released material is a miss - still, via archive.org, everything remains accessible. Watch this place!

Reintroduction by Huw Roberts

01 Marcel Türkowsky - Kuro Sawa
02 Herzog - Perhaps She'd Like To See Me Fall Apart
03 Nest - Kyoto
04 1000 Hours of Staring - Deliverance (unreleased)
05 The Inventors of Aircraft - All, Nothing
06 Stephane Leonard - Words in Progress (unreleased)
07 The Inventors of Aircraft - The Black Dog
08 Michael Trommer - Long Line Building (unreleased)
09 Nest - Wheatstone (unreleased)
10 Segue - Half Way (unreleased)
11 Marcel Türkowsky - De Dodu
12 Huw Roberts - Atlas Oryx (unreleased)
13 Pine - Flume (unreleased)
14 1000 Hours of Staring - Wintincubator

Release Page

Bettina's favourites from the back catalogue

1000 Hours of Staring - Co-operative Thread (ser006)
Neuf Meuf - It's Cold in Space (ser009)
Nest - Nest (ser013) @Phlow
Daniel Maze - Red After Image (ser016) @Phlow

2% - "Leeward" (MP3)
2% - "Glory" (MP3)

Californian Trenton McElhinney is a tech-savvy kid. For his second EP "Nowcast" he is using Max/ MSP, the Monome controller and his acoustic guitar. While the pattern-based programmings of the Monome do not easily allow for crazy breakbeat frenzy, it suits the 2% music perfectly well: monochrome, rich textures and crunchy Hip Hop beats.

"Stop", you might want to object, "All music at Archaic Horizon sounds like this!" - fairly true, but somehow 2% does better than most. Microloops dream in concentric stagger, textures intensively fill the room with warm noise and canny harmonies. A certain feel for what is necessary is manifest in McElhinney's music. Here is another connection to Para I guess: minimalism as compository guideline.

Young McElhinney is a man of taste and virtuosity. His art- and photoworks supply a fine complement to his music and are worth a minute of your attention, e.g., whilst listening to the "Nowcast" EP. Archaic Horizon sums it all up: "2% loops samples into vaporous drones creating a milky haze for his melodies to refract within then drops beats that land you back on solid ground." Wooord!

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "Nowcast" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: myspace.com/2pourcent
Release: 2% - "Nowcast"
Netlabel: archaichorizon.com

Wixel - "Skatebeats" (MP3)
Wixel - "Bacterial" (MP3)

I'm a keen fan of Belgian Wim Maesschalck's work and music since 2004. Starting as a solo outfit, Wixel soon became a band with Wim as central songwriter. The latest Wixel CDs "Heart" and "Somewhere Between the Sun and the Moon" in particular are wonderful pieces of postmodernism Folk- and Avantgarde music everyone should be familiar with.

2009 saw the launch of Wim's "12 Records in 12 Month" project. Up to now, six records are online for download via bandcamp. You can choose what you want to pay for the MP3, including nothing, or you go for the limited edition CDRs available from Slaapwel (the tiny record label Wim is running).

-

The June EP "An Empty Canvas" is the preliminary highlight of the series. Wim discards the fragile Folk approach and delivers a dense piece of dim and orchestral Ambient, not too far from Gas, Nest or 1970's German Electronica like Cluster or Tangerine Dream. Wim himself notes Arvo Pärt and Dubstep for influence. Check "Skatebeats" and the massive "Bacterial" to get an idea.

What I like best about "An Empty Canvas" is the multilayer sound. A lot of dirt and noise twinkles through the washed-out textures and synthesizer patches, you can discover new aspects on every new listen. The beats, however, could deserve some more elaboration. But taking in account the facts this record was programmed in a month, that is pretty OK I guess.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Artist-Website: slaapwelrecords.com/wixel
Release: Wixel - "An Empty Canvas" via bandcamp

FourColour - "sets02" (MP3)
Taylor Deupree - "Silver Trees" (MP3)

Fällt rounded up an impressive collection of musicians. "Format" opens with a beautiful and suble guitar impression by 12k's Taylor Deupree. The influence of this guy on modern day Ambient music is not to overestimate! FourColour a.k.a. Keiichi Sugimoto (Cubic Music) delivers wonderfully dense Ambient/ Drone meditation on bubbling synths. The collagists' Avant-Pop of The Focus Group (Julian House) is unsettling but fascinating.

In the later half of the album, there is Steinbrüchel to mention. His composition "b|ton" sounds like a microscopic study of background noises and unwanted hissing of a tape machine. Interestingly, it is based on a guitar recording by Daisuke Miyatani, the grand maestro of accidental folk. Music like dust. Hard Sleeper fuses field recordings, rural Acid and warm Ambient, giving an undogmatic piece of electronic music. Only Lawrence English, usually a sure shot, was sort of a disappointment to me.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "Format" ZIP
Release: Various - "Format"
Netlabel: www.fallt.com

Phillip Wilkerson - "Incident 4" (MP3)

According to his website, Wilkerson is a busy man. He has a good cue of releases with the usual candidates for experimental Ambient/ Drone stuff (Clinical Archives, Treetrunk, JNN). I do not consider myself an expert in his oeuvre, but Wilkerson's EP "Incidents in Spring" makes me speculate to become one.

Phillip Wilkerson shifts harmonious layers of processed textures, each rich in tone and design. His sound is artificial and glitchy, still Wilkerson manages to  enshrine the warmth of his source material. While the first two compositions are plain Ambient or Drone, tracks three and four come off with songwriting qualities. Rural beats, transparent instruments (if you dare to call that cheapo GM piano in  "Incident 4" an instrument) at interfering micro-melodies make me think of German Electronica like To Rococo Rot or Kreidler. Auspicious.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "Incidents in Spring" ZIP
Artist-Website: phillipwilkerson.net
Release: Phillip Wilkerson - "Incidents in Spring"
Netlabel: Bypass

Wo0 - "Sunkissed Ladymoon" (MP3)

Wo0, founding member of the Belgrade Noise Society, has an interesting approach to "play" his guitar. He uses the pickups of his instrument to receive certain frequencies (from cell phones, radio transmitters, and similar).  Processed by multiple effect pedals and amplified to Rock n' Roll volume, mesmerizing drones emerge that are carefully interlaced and focused in an all-live setup by Wo0. The outcome sounds familiar yet fresh and disturbing.

Warm distortion, rich of overtones, harmonious feedback that underlines Wo0's drones like Möbius strips, you might want to name the experimental moments of Sonic Youth or Montreal's GYBE! for reference. But it's different altogether as no melodies are formed and no "songs" are sung.  Wo0 adapts the physical presence of Noiserock for his textural Ambient Drones. May I name Glenn Branca for a more suitable comparison?

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "With the Flowered Minds" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: www.myspace.com/belgradenoise
Release: Wo0 - "With the Flowered Minds"
Netlabel: www.phantomchannel.co.uk

Sleepmakeswaves - "One Day You Will Teach Me To Let Go Of My Fears" (MP3)
Sleepmakeswaves - "So That The Children Will Always Shout Her Name" (MP3)

The EP kicks off with "I Will Write Peace On Your Wings And You Will Fly Over The World" - a 7:22 minutes long track that kicks off hard to slow down and build up again. Some parts of the song can even be associated with a metal-like style.
"Exits To Nowhere" brings you down again and gives you some time to prepare for "One Day You Will Teach Me To Let Go Of My Fears", which is the strongest and most beautiful track on their EP.
After a pretty calm and "minimal" introduction, that only features some ambient background sounds and two guitars, the song develops a fascinating middle-part from 1:30 to 4:10. As soon as the distorted guitars, the strings and the drums set in, the song takes you over. Completely. This is one of the best postrock-pieces I have heard in a long time. Open up for it and it will take you over, too. But listen to it loudly!
After this musical highlight it is quite difficult to keep up the beauty and brilliance of "One Day You Will Teach Me..." but still, "In Today Already Walks Tomorrow" in a whole has the power to grab you and hold you close enough to make you stay with it.
The subtle electronic variations, the well placed eruptions and the perfectly arranged build-ups create something that deserves a bigger attention to this australian quartet. More than 1000 Downloads in the first week after the re-release on the Lost Children Netlabel might be the beginning of something big. Certainly a band to keep ones eyes on!

MP3 Postrock Music Download

Download: "In Today Already Walks Tomorrow" (ZIP-Archive)
Artist-Website: www.sleepmakeswaves.com
Artist-Myspace: www.myspace.com/sleepmakeswaves
Release: "In Today Already Walks Tomorrow" (Lost Children)
Netlabel: Lost Children Netlabel

Kalte - "Spagyric" (MP3)
Kalte - "Mariana Arc" (MP3)

For their releases, Stasisfield create highly processed images playing with the effects of extrem enlargement, blur and digital halftoning. The art for Kalte's "Lanthanide Series" is especially beautiful. Pallid coloured pixel strings fall like northern lights over a dark background, giving both an idea of alienation and pulchritude. Same is for the music.

Fully synthetic, enhanced with a little bit of scraping noises, Kalte music is quite kalt (which is "cold" in German). But in between the multiple layers of sound, harmonies dwell like fungi in the dark. "Buzzes and drones intertwined in a mesmerizingly thick blanket of static", as the label puts it in fine precision. Their minimal Drones remind me of Direwires & Freder, offthesky or entia non.

Got some time for a ride through the night? Start now, start right here.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release: Kalte - "The Lanthanide Series"
Download: "The Lanthanide Series" ZIP
Artist-Website: kaltemusic.com
Netlabel: stasisfield.com

The Sutemos Netlabel is a mixture of Lithunian artists which are joined by musicians from outside their country. Together they stem now for the fifth time an incredible and rich compilation with IDM, Ambient and Electronica-orientated music. It's hard to figure out some favorites, so just dive into the compilation and enjoy some futuristic music.

MP3 IDM Ambient Music Download

Download: Various - "Intelligent Toys 5" (ZIP-Archive)
Release: Various - "Intelligent Toys 5"
Netlabel: Sutemos Netlabel

Nohmad Netlabel doesn't wants to please you on their site. They seek truth in the deep darkness and return with muddy hands full of crawling Dubstep Beats or dusty, scratching and haunting atmospheres. Visiting Nohmad is like reading those ancient Greek stories where Odysseus stumbles into the darkness of the underworld to face the beast.

Like the netlabel leaves you with nothing to read about their artists, you won't find any grooves but highly entertaining electronic music in cinemascope! Fantastic Music for movies.

Complex, dark, artful and for people with strong nerves!

MP3 Dubstep Ambient Music Download

Download: Various - "Petite musique pour arbre nu" (ZIP-Archive)
Release: Various - "Petite musique pour arbre nu"
Netlabel: Nohmad Netlabel

offthesky - "Swallow Shallows" (MP3)
offthesky - "Symphony for Exiting Entropies" (MP3)

Jason Corder's Ambient music rises from the ashes of a thousand instruments like fume from a wasted fireplace. It escapes the crashed corpora of violins, guitars and chimes. It's fluid and ghostlike, drifts from here to there, but once it had entered your ears, you can't get it out of your head. His tickeling textures swarm with micro-tonalities and bring forth that wonderful richness offthesky can be recognised by in all his releases.

In a way, Corder appears like someone who rather captures sound, more like a scientist who knows where to point the microscope to to reveal the beauty of the unseen. For a music video, I'd put someone catching insects with a butterfly net on a late Summer hayfield. In slow motion and back light. Humble beauty! Listen to "Swallow Shallow" and join my praise. A veritable Ambient masterpiece, you name it.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release: offthesky - "Subtle Trees"
Download: "Subtle Trees" ZIP
Artist-Website: www.offthesky.com
Netlabel: www.ropeswingcities.com

While some of Laurent Peter's older recordings have a strong foundation in 1990's electronica acts like Autechre, Squarepusher and SND, his style slightly shifted in recent years.

With "Stase / Contre Stase", Resting Bell releases a two track EP of post-industrial field music, a one-hour mediation on noise, textures and Collage Ambient, to make use of the term I introduced for Preslav Literary School a few months ago. Two tracks that stand like monoliths, two tracks that sum-up the glitch aesthetics, d'incise stands ultimately for.

The awesome thing about "Stase" and "Contre Stase" is that both tracks work equally well as pure sound design and pieces of recycling art as well as virtuoso Ambient music. Beneath tons of field recordings, humming, hissing, scratching and environmental noise, Peter introduces tonal textures and layers of glittering synth drones that makes his deconstructions a hell of a good listen. Music that demands your attention, that forces you to reflect. Take some time and relearn to listen. d'incise is the perfect teacher.

You can purchase a wonderful CDR edition of "Stase / Contre Stase" by getting in contact with d'incise. There's a limited edition of 7o copies. Hurry!

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Download: "Stase / Contre Stase" ZIP
Release: d’incise - "Stase / Contre Stase"
Artist-Website: www.dincise.net
Netlabel: www.restingbell.net

To4ka.Dna (TOЧKA means "dot") is the alter ego of Russian Sergey Misyureff. As we get to know on the Constanta website, he's involved in many different musical projects - none of them which can be found on the internet, and very spare information is available on Misyureff himself either. So... we have to focus on the music!

Sergey Misyureff's debut as To4ka.Dna is an impressive collection of five pieces of dense Ambient music, rich in texture and monochromatically stained in autumn colours; the artwork, as it should, gives you a good idea about the music.

"3'34"" starts with guitar feedback, decent cracklings and some simple synthesizers. "Odno Slovo" combines processed strings with a hypnotic bass fundament. Atop, you get to hear several little noise. The tunes rises to epic when a heavily reworked electric guitar comes in: Wow! For the titletrack, Misyureff gets a tiny little closer to Pop harmonies, at the same time expanding borders with field recordings and ambient noise.

Another sound artist from East Europe or Russia with a highly unique sound and big talents in songwriting. To4ka.Dna is on my watchlist.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: To4ka.Dna - "ZVUK"
Direct Download: "ZVUK" ZIP
Netlabel: www.constanta-label.ru

Gabriel Hernandez' Rain Music Netlabel is a good home for Daisuke Miyatani, but Creation Centre is no less. His loose and lo-fi Folk scribbling suit the ideals of Pop on the one hand and an approach of spontaneity and defectiveness and the other. It's a shame the EP is so damn short (just about 8 minutes) but following title and liner notes, it makes perfect sense at last:

"Daisuke's pieces are like trying to remember a dream after you wake up. Familar, but quickly fading into the noise of life. Quickly he is here to remind us of our dreams. to enjoy that we even have them to start with."

Miyatani's music is based around tiny loop-a-like melodies he improvises on his acoustic guitar. Certain field-recordings wash through his compositions, hiss and environmental noise are are important as moments of silence. Sometimes, found sounds work as percussion elements. What I like best about Miyatani is the impressive element calmness and self-absorption of his music. There are similar (Japanese) artists like Kozo Ikendo or  Yuichiro Fujimoto, but Daisuke Miyatani is my favourite.

P.S.: Watch out for his new collaboration LP with 12k's Sawako on Schole Records!

MP3 Folk Music Download

Direct Download: "Fragments EP" ZIP
Netlabel: www.creation-centre.com
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/diskm

Three rather short tracks that bring forth an atmosphere of intense melancholy (even depression), nostalgia and decent creep. First track "Loathe" starts with processed trumpet or cello, it's hard to say. Undefined field-recordings emerge into a motive of precisely distorted synthesizer which takes on the main pitch of the billowing string-arrangement.

"Doria" afterwards has a similar mood but features some more pronounced guitar play. Alongside Machados whispered vocals, the heart rendering guitar melody injects a big potion of melancholia to João Triangular's rather sober drones. The last track is "Untitled" and comes off with a fine Theremine-like synth texture and processed Moog-flutes. Quite minimal but I like it.

P.S.: The absolutely awesome artwork is crafted by João Machao as well. Triangular, no? Chapeau!

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: João Triangular - "João Triangular EP"
Direct Download: "João Triangular EP" ZIP
Netlabel: www.merzbau-label.org
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/joaotriangular

"Autumn Bricolage" is the MP3 re-release of Adam Thomas' first album as PLS, published on CDr back in late 2006. Thomas labels his way of compositing "Tape Music" which means that he's using old tape decks, dictaphones, radiobroadcast rather than digitally piling tracks. Enhanced with various found sounds and field-recordings, Collage Ambient is the new genre I'd like to coin (ah, by the way, that's Musique Concrète, no?). Half way music, halfway aurual investigation, "Autumn Bricollage" is subtitled "Soundscapist Compositions Set In English Parkland".

For experimental electronic music, the way things are recorded and the specific hardware used are of utmost importance. The approach of PLS results in rich textures and a specific sound that makes his tracks unique and memorable. Analogue hissing blends with lo-fi field-recordings, minimal melodies are introduced, synth textures correspond with the tonal shift in the found sound of an air con hum (or whatever). The whole album mixes seamlessly so please make sure to listen to the whole thing rather than just the track I picked!

Anonymous Soundcapist (photos by James Grey)

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: Preslav Literary School - "Autumn Bricolage"
Direct Download: "Autumn Bricolage" ZIP
Netlabel: www.clinicalarchives.blogspot.com
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/preslavliteraryschool

Adam Thoma's Label: www.myspace.com/glossesfurdiemasses

Darren McClure "Miniature Forest Remix" (MP3)

offthesky "Miniature Forest Remix" (MP3)

Usually, I avoid talking about the same Netlabels over and over again. But this release is too important to keep it in the closet just because I wrote about Brometer and IOD two weeks ago. The Green Kingdom, Detroit-based musician and graphic designer gave out the song "Miniature Forest" from his self titled CD debut for a bunch of house-keeping IOD artists to let them redraft his delicate Ambient textures.

Exile-Irishman Darren McClure takes the original with him on a trip underwater. Not a trip to abysmal pits but a smooth skin-dive through colorful coastal waters. SEM-mastermind Alexandre Navarro treats the song with his cine scope delay mainly. Navarro's edit is pretty close to his own sound of semi-experimental, melancholy guitar Ambient and brings forth a sniveling feel of prairie vastness. Letna (SEM) and Mexican Manrico Montero (of Mandorla-fame) rework the track from a similar minimalistic point of view, the former with a good amount of Pop, the later with a rather dark approach. Both at huge success.

My favorite remix comes from Jason Corder a.k.a. offthesky, a guy you probably have heard of. His "Miniature Forest" is the most song-like rework and so full of fresh textures, strange sounds and beautiful melodies that it's a pleasure to zoom in and listen closely. Did I mention the best place for Ambient music is the Netaudio scene? Go download the proove!

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: The Green Kingdom - "Miniature Forest"
Netlabel: www.semlabel.com/iod
Artist Website: www.thegreenkingdom.wordpress.com

The first, released at the excellent Luvsound Netlabel, brings forth four rather short pieces of Ambient. Warm and intimate, handmade and rich, subtle Avantgarde Muzak for those who know. Striking art by Kati Meden of goYippi from the Resting Bell-crew!

The latter is published by US Netlabel Experimedia and shows the man approaching Ambient from a slightly more song-orientated point of view. Under the disguise of “Koen Park”, Ian D. Hawgood whisks fresh Electronica-beats, sweet melancholy melodies and Ambient textures. An eclectic album.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: Ian D. Hawgood - "Tents And Hills"
Direct Download: Ian D. Hawgood - "Tents And Hills" (ZIP)
Netlabel: www.luvsound.org

Release Site: Koen Park - "Grey Night Clouds"
Direct Download: Koen Park - "Grey Night Clouds" (ZIP)
Netlabel: www.experimedia.net

Dubosmium - "Istandub (Supermoog)" (MP3)
(MP3)
Dubosmium - "Overdub Da Dub (Yarkouy)" (MP3)
Dubosmium - "7Heavens" (MP3)

"Green Element" is partly a review of Dubosmiums earlier release "Horiozontal plane polar Dub", but it also features three new tracks, that give us a little impression of his forthcoming longplayer, that will be released later in 2008.

The first track ("7Heavens") is very atmospheric in its sound and it features an ever-present oriental touch, that is highlighted through vocals by Said Jaha. The next two tracks are quite similar in it's sound and make it a lot easier to find obvious connections to dub music. But still, the songs feature a strong ambient element. The last five tracks from the "Green Element" EP are remixes by other Fresh Poulp artists like Rafiralfiro, Xena Supermoog, Silent Bells, Duck and Yarkouy that range from ambient tracks ("Tuvadelic Odyssey") to hard electro-dub with drum 'n' bass elements ("IstanDub").

All in all the "Green Element" EP is a different and interesting approach towards dub music. To me it's still warm in it's mood but at the same time dark and deep. So, it seems to be perfect for the dark nights of the upcoming summertime.

MP3 Electronic Dub Music Download

Direct Download: Dubosmium - Green Element (RAR)
Release: Dubosmium - Green Element
Netlabel: www.fresh-poulp.net
Artists Website: www.myspace.com/dubosmiumziks

I'm not actually sure if "Bleu Vespéral" is produced on a "hardware" harmonium solely. The sound of the instrument's pipes is clearly there but I would have expected some more noises, certain glitches that occur if you hit the instrument's keys, chiffing and such. "Bleu Vespéral" sounds very clear, ethereal, even sacral with it's huge cathedral reverb flags.

Whatever. Seven songs, rather short, stricly featuring the wide range of sound provide by the "reed organ". Michelet is best when his compositions feature minimal harmonic changes and drifts. The second tune "Arcs (Mobiles)" e.g. fuses Ambient and Chambermusic, huge and beautiful. Wouldn't have been a dropout on the Nest EP. The delicate flute-sounds at "Hexa" are wonderful and the slightly optimistic "Cromorne" brings forth a soothing feel of late-summer nostalgia I enjoy a lot. As a comparions, Processing... comes to my mind. A good EP in a whole although some songs are missing certain hooks.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Direct Download: Etienne Michelet - "Bleu Vespéral" (ZIP)
Netlabel: www.lanouvelledegelee.com
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/etiennemichelet

McNeill and Phantom Chanel introduces nine rather unknown Ambient composer, all of them working at the edge of Electronica, Drone and something like Postrock. Mercury synth-textures, drifty memories of guitar and a lot of noise are the common elements. Wonderful!

Engine7 opens the mix with his trademark sound of Electronica beats and deep Ambient harmonies. Bleeding in, Parhelion (Ihor Dawidiuk from Toronto, CAN) basically produces sugar Noisepop that sounds like received from the bottom of a glacier lake. Experimental band Brakhage (CH) shift the overall sound to something more sparse and dark, extensively using field-recordings over bass-saturated instrumentals. Michael Henaghan aka Mosca, next to Engine7 the only artist I was familiar with, resembles this sound with his subtle melodies buried under a lava flow of down-pitched synth textures. Finally, youngster Lee "Svefn" Chapman takes you home with a high-spirited piece of Drone muzak from his recent EP "Lightness".

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: V.A. - "Phantom Channel Presents - Part I"
Direct Download: V.A. - "Phantom Channel Presents - Part I" (ZIP)
Netlabel: www.phantomchannel.co.uk

"Bittersweet Love EP" is condensed dark atmosphere. I am fascinated by the minimal sound, which sucks you into the deep EP. With little sound elements, some small changes the czech producer creates a cinematic grimmy shortstory. Great stuff, ready to rewind!

PS: Discoverd on Catching The Waves Weblog.

MP3 Dubstep Music Download

Release: DJ Side - Bittersweet Love EP
Netlabel: Surreal Madrid Netlabel
Artist: DJ Side's website | DJ Side's MySpace

While some of his former releases were either a bit too poppy or a bit too noisy for me, his full-length debut is just right. Not only well-balanced and "quality music" in terms of craftsmanship, slippy Maze can't be hold to any style conventions. "Delightfully strange", as Huw Roberts puts it on the liner notes.

Warm in tone and texture, Maze mixes processed instruments like flutes and strings with a lot of crackling noise and programed beats. His melodies are splendid and lush and create an artificial 70's Progrock-feel that goes along with the analog sound very well. The idea seems to resemble Jan Jelinek's approach to Krautrock on Kosmischer Pitch.

It is hard to pick certain songs as the whole album works best at full listen... my personal favorites are the first three tunes: "Steampunk" for it's wishful slide guitar, the flutes and the wafting beats, "Nested Companion Template" with it's cut-up vocal samples huge tonal synth-pads and finally "Subtropical Blasting Officier" which is just an incredibly weird piece of, well, Maze muzak. Yummy.

Don't forget to check the delicious artwork!

MP3 Electronic Music Download

Release Site: Daniel Maze - "Red After Image"
Direct Download: Daniel Maze - "Red After Image" (ZIP)
Netlabel: www.serein.co.uk
Artist Website: www.maze.walltapper.com

Other netlabels Daniel Maze released his music on:

Netlabel: Test Tube
Netlabel: EKO
Netlabel: 12rec.

The four track EP is epically entitled "The World That was Surrounded by a Deep Forest and Warm Light". The artwork shows a vivid painting by Karl Bodmer, a 1809 Swiss-born artist who traveled the "new world" portraiting the North American indigines and white folks settling the west. Alongside the highly figurative title and Bodmer's moony paintings, you get a good idea of Ryonkt's music without having heard a single note.

Ambient guitar music, smooth in tone and rich in texture, this is what Ryonkt is known for. The overall warmth and sunlit harmony of his short-term meditations is striking at first try. Where "Slow Time" was lightly linked to Folk- and Pop music, "The World That was Surrounded" has a more experimental purpose; the fact that Nakata does not forget about certain harmonic and structural changes makes his music unique. Pick your favorite tune, they're all worth it.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: Ryonkt - "The World That Was Surrounded (...)"
Direct Download: Ryonkt - "The World That Was Surrounded (...)" (ZIP)
Netlabel: www.restingbell.net
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/ryonkt

con_cetta "hexagram" (MP3)
con_cetta "con_cetta" (MP3)

Filippo Aldovini, the smart guy behind Zymogen, has a sovereign feel for choosing the right music for his label. If you make up a compilation including Zymo folks Letna, Lezrod and Marihiko Hara, people might doubt there's more than one artist featured at all. Taking place between the later two, con_cetta fits this musical terrain just perfect. Harmonious Ambient drones, spiced with glitch and field-recordings, how does that sound to you?

The album opens with the hypnotizing string-miniature "2.53" that sounds like Arvo Pärt underwater. "hexagram" is a dense meditation on processed guitar and different high- and low-frequent noises which surprisingly make up a smooth listen. The song features Nicola Fernoli of Posthardcore outlet Go Down Moses on guitar. Afterwards, "sad.ay" is back with a dense piece of synthesizer Ambient, including echoing sine waves, a mesmerizing synth loop, songbirds and white noise distortion. For "hornplant", con_cetta approaches Indietronica from an Ambient point of view, introducing a plain and beautiful texture to rattly sample beats. "Sclerosis" closes with the magnificent "calendaexl", the orchestral counterpart of "hexagram".

When Lezrod sounds like the creaking ground below and Marihiko Hara is the conductor of ascension, Cordaro is capable to be both textural noisy and heavenly harmonic. Not as beautiful as Hara and not as microscopic as Lezrod, con_cetta is the missing link of experimental Ambient music.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: con_cetta - "Sclerosis"
Direct Download: con_cetta - "Sclerosis" ZIP
Netlabel: www.zymogen.net
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/concettamusic

Kiorda Daekin "Median" (mp3)

With two EPs and numerous single tunes Däkin is a real housekeeping artist at 1bit Wonder. With his third appearance "3", he founds himself connecting to the Deephouse-style of his debut "Interstellar Paradise" (which is the name of his own Netlabel, too). Spaced out synthesizers, naive melodies and interstellar echo chambers evoke memories of late 70's retro futurism.

Imagine the Discovery approaching the stars with "Meditate" for score rather than György Ligeti's composition. The fine echo-chords and grumbling synth textures of "Median" sound like Thinner gone Pop, while "Melt" marries Deephouse and cautious Minimal Techno. The title track "3" has wonderful full-synthetic strings, fine stage piano pads and brings forth a certain Fusion-feel. Did someone say Return to Forever? I do.

Free MP3 Electronic Music Download

Release Site: Kiorda Däkin - "3"
Direct Download: Kiorda Däkin - "3" ZIP
Netlabel: www.1bit-wonder.com
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/kiorda

Tomorrowland is basically Stephen Baker and Nick Brackney, joined by Eric Morrison (of Füxa-fame!) on drums for the recording of "Anemone". Hailing from Michigan, USA, Tomorrowland had an album out at Kranky before they teamed up with NYC's Red Antenna. Both Baker and Brackney play their guitars through various effect pedals so one might assume there aint guitars at all. With Morrison's loop-a-like drum patterns and a few drum machine-dubs, the songs are really composed for minimal effort. But although the sound is very pure, maybe even paltry here and there, something happens between bubbling guitars, delay and drum tracks.

Krautrock is the magic word, and if you ever heard the first two Neu! records or Tortoise's "Millions Living"-album, you probably can imagine what I mean. Tomorrowland-tunes like "Mineral" and "Anemone" are growers for groove and melody, in a straight Rother/ Roedelius/ Moebius-kinda way. These songs have sort of a retro-feel while tracks "Stormy" and "Unfadeable" come up with increased density and volume, clearly locating Tomorrowland into US Postrock with references to SST, Thrill Jockey and, well, Kranky.

MP3 Rock Music Download

Release-Site: Tomorrowland - "Anemone"
Netlabel: www.redantenna.tv

A straight bassdrum is something that leaves me quizzical. Thus, after surfing the beautiful Klitorek website (Klitorek is some kind of loose Netlabel, run by Marow and Olaf Tonstein), I found myself a bit disappointed by Marow's EP "+". But everytime I saw the cover pic browsing through my MP3-folders, I listened to his music and finally got into it.

There is a certain 90's feel about "+". Marow combines the classic minimalist approach of Pole and Kraftwerk with a rather romantic idea of harmony and micro-tuning to be found at Turner or early Autechre. Deep in dub, Marow's sound is special because he is clever enough to use the reverb with care. The frosted echo chambers which use to bore me so much are missing here. Check the hypnotic Ambient piece, the elegant Minimal House of "Und", the harmony-blessed "Addition" or "Positiv" for its tricky rhythmic entanglements. Another Netaudio release with a similar ominous mood is Direwire & Freder's "Sleeping near Highways", and THIS is one of my all-time favourites.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: Marow - "+"
Direct Download: Marow - "+" ZIP
Netlabel: www.klitorik.com

I was wondering how Eric might achieve the specific Biathalon-sound. All his synths and field-recordings sound a bit like wrapped in wool and the melodies shift in tone like molten cassettes. Imagine a broken tape deck under a blanket, playing Brian Eno and Cluster-tunes. And indeed: all his music is recorded on an old cassette multitracker, as he told me when I got in contact with him, asking about the music. Cool.

The EP starts with the lulling "Warm Front". Though it's very harmonic, a feeling of subtle menace remains... The song captures the feeling of "calm before the storm" quite perfect. For "Neumayer Station" and "Cloud Formation", Eric gets close to the Boards of Canada. With it's minimal oscillations, tiny pitches and overall fluctuation, particularly "Cloud Formation" is more than just copying the Boards' trademark-sound... Eric Satie comes to my mind, and again, Eno.

"Program Information" comes off with a nice set of retro-futuristic synth sounds and gently shifts the atmosphere from sky high to underwater... to bring it all down in the epic 16 minutes-track "Underwater Is A Place To Be Alone". Being the most traditional song on this EP says a lot about Biathalon herein. Pure calm, Eric skillfully combines water sounds, aquanaut breath, smooth rhodes chords and gentle guitar-improv. Music to fall asleep to, if you know what I mean ;)

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release Site: Biathalon - "Biathalon 2"
Direct Download: Biathalon - "Biathalon 2" ZIP (FLAC ZIP)
Netlabel: www.electronicdiversity.com
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/ericadrianlee
Eric's Painting: www.ericadrianlee.com

I am a fan of classical ambient where no disturbing sounds keep me away from a sweet and melancholic mood. In this condition I like to dive into heavy and melodic strings where I discover little chances, new sounds and a wonderful world to rest. If you turn on you speakers loud at home, Umisetsu and Martin Dot slide with you exactly into this pure, green and healthy world. Like a reviewer wrote on archive.org: "The only downside of the track: it is too short." Only 22:48 minutes.

MP3 Ambient Music Download

Release-Download: www.archive.org/details/rain
Website: Rain Netlabel
Netlabel @ Archive.org: www.archive.org/details/rain