Back catalogue: Ambient/Drone

Review: The late Joanna Brouk's legacy as an electronic music pioneer is a mysterious one, given her rejection of industry conventions in favour of a more heartfelt connection with her craft. Her run of new age releases in the early 80s were landmarks of the genre, and now Numero Group are reissuing one of the finest of them now. Sounds Of The Sea originally came out in 1981, and it's never been reissued since. Making its first ever appearance on vinyl, this captivating, mysterious album remains wholly out of time and place, existing in its own sphere inhabited by flute, drones and whale song alike.

Review: Sounds of the Sea was one of the first albums from Joanna Brouk, a West Coast sonic explorer who emerged somewhere around the boom in DIY tapes of ambient music in the early 80s. Brouk distanced herself from the platitudes of new age music and instead probed at more mysterious moods in her pieces, best captured in this highlight from the run of cassettes she first released. Numero Group have taken up the mantle and reissued Sounds of the Sea for the first time, bringing the swathes of pads and cascading flute to the attention of a much wider audience, finally.

Review: An overview of Laraaji's earliest works, Glimpses of Infinity gathers selections from his 1978 debut Celestial Vibration, and six additional studio sessions from the era. This is a condensed version of the 2023's sold out 4xLP Boxset, perhaps among which the most notable track has been 'Segue To Infinity', the infamous 20-minute pan-piper (we intend the double meaning of the term 'pan', as its many wind instruments stretch out in a beautifully prostrated fashion, extending over both the entire stereo field and the entire length of the song). And though Laraaji's many multi-instrumental amusements are ambitious, the record never falls afoul of grandiosity or dilettantism, retaining that hard-to-achieve mix of humility and commitment to the sound, all throughout; our favourite 'glimpse' is the peek into his 'Koto' session, for which the infamous Japanese string instrument is put to work with total dexterity. Full of discovery and wonderment, Glimpses of Infinity is a miraculous chronicle of new age's most fabled artist.

Review: We have long been big fans of the work done by The Numero Group and now they are back to present a guide to private-issue new-age music that is as essential as you would expect. Featuring trailblazers like Laraaji, Iasos, Joanna Brouk, Don Slepian, Peter Davison, Master Wilburn Burchette, Jordan De La Sierra, David Casper, Robert Slap and others from the Perrier underground, this double LP compilation is adorned with Marcus Uzilevsky's Linear Landscapes and includes a 32-page booklet. Showcasing the essence of a transformative era, the collection invites you to explore the ethereal soundscapes and boundless creativity of the fourth world, and a fine place it is to be.