Back catalogue: Ambient/Drone

Review: Past Inside The Present welcomes the excellent pairing of Brock Van Wey aka Bvdub and vocalists and instrumentalist Lacey Harris aka Inquiri for a brilliantly escapist new ambient EP, Destroyesterday. They combine to majestic effect with 'All The Weight Of The World' a swirling soundtrack with vocals floating amidst the melancholic pads. 'Alone In Crimson' is more textural and suspenseful and 'Please Let Go & Let Me Hold You' then has the spoken word vocals front and centre as intense synth crescendos sweep you up. The title cut is a hypnagogic delight that leaves you adrift in your own dreams.

Review: .Rhetorical Islands was originally pieced together from Giuseppe Ielasi's work for l'Audible Festival in Paris. An event dedicated to pushing forward thinking, mind-expanding, experimental and just plain strange sounds, his efforts certainly fit in with all of those terms. Presented here as ten standalone tracks, all without name and many without the usual elements we expect from a 'track', this first vinyl pressing of the work is really an extension of the original idea, rather than a time capsule of it. "Isolated sound worlds" is the phrase Ielasi used to describe what's happening here, and it's certainly true that the individual parts stand alone and can each be heard as autonomous. But together they also make a strange kind of sense, complementing, almost feeding into each other, even at the most stark juxtaposition. Ultimately, then, it's about interpretation, making what we choose from the ingredients.

Review: Since 2007 Rafael Anton Irisarri has been imparting his grandiose ambient explorations with the world via labels like Room40, Immune, Uzor Rex and Miasmah. Amidst a steady uptick in output in recent years he shared the acclaimed Midnight Colours via Geographic North in 2018, originally confined to a cassette and digital release. Given the towering sonics contained within, it feels appropriate the album now gets a wider physical release on this magenta coloured vinyl reissue courtesy of Irisarri's own Black Knoll Editions. If you dig the kind of tundra scapes conjured by classic Tim Hecker, you'll certainly enjoy this album.

Review: Curiously, Rafael Anton Irisarri's eighth solo album, the genuinely brilliant Midnight Colours, was not released on vinyl when it first appeared in 2018 - hence this belated and much-needed appearance on wax. Presented beautifully and pressed onto delicious 'bio green' vinyl in limited numbers (only 300 copies have been manufactured), it offers a brilliant starting point for those keen on exploring Irisarri's distinctive take on 21st century ambient. Built around colourful, slowly-shifting synthesizer chords and billowing aural textures, each of the eight immaculate tracks comes drenched imerssive, echoing electronic noise - the kind that helps create cavernous, immersive soundscapes and enveloping, beat-free sound worlds. It's a triumph of both ambient composition and sound design and remains as potent now as it did back in 2018.

Review: Midnight Colours originally came out on noted ambient label Geographic North in 2018, arriving in the midst of a flurry of activity for accomplished drone navigator Rafael Anton Irisarri. Irisarri's work has graced plenty of scene leading experimental labels from Room40 to Umor Rex, sometimes given the lavish ceremonial release treatment and other times tucked away in the furtive folds of the tape world. One listen to the monolithic icebergs of sound drifting through this album, and you'll agree it was too large a work to not make it onto a full vinyl release. Now Irisarri has done the right thing and pressed this spectacular album up via his label, Black Knoll Editions.

Review: Alex Israel's new 'Uncertainty Manipulated' release on Somnambulant Drift features generative music he has crafted by "building elements of arbitrary length that work together melodically but do not correspond in time. As the individual components replay, they overlap coincidentally, resulting in music that makes itself." The result is four tracks of sublime and escapist ambient with no beginning and no end but plenty of heart-aching piano chords, harp strums, hazy drones, mindful synth smears and meditative moods that offer comfort but also encourage inward reflections. It's a perfect coming together of man, machine and absorbing minimalism.