Back in stock: Ambient/Drone

Review: Italian techno heavyweight Claudio PRC's fifth album, Self Surrender, is a meditative dive into self-acceptance that comes on Amsterdam's long-running and always top-notch Delsin Records. Claudio delivers a fluid narrative across an exploration of tasteful ambient, dub, minimal house and deep techno here, and it opens with some absorbing introspection before gradually shifting into more kinetic territory. It is driven by pulsing kicks, dreamy textures, acid flourishes and ghostly strings as a refined blend of techno and house sounds all coalesce with the signature depth Claudio has honed over years of his craft. Self Surrender closes on an ethereal note, which encapsulates its core message of letting go.

Review: With Heilun, Hyldipi makes a stunning debut on ambient powerhouse Past Inside The Present by presenting seven meditative compositions shaped by his native Iceland's raw, introspective beauty. Crafted entirely with guitar and minimal hardware, each track feels like a gentle conversation with nature, ephemeral and soul-soothing. From the delicate strums of 'Opnun' to the deep serenity of 'Hvild,' the album flows like glacial melt, patient and healing. 'Fadmur' blooms with aching emotion, while 'Kyrrd' closes the journey in subaquatic calm. This is ambient music for deep listening-an improvised, transcendental escape into stillness, where the ego dissolves and all that remains is presence and peace.

Review: It's hard to believe that Steve Roach's landmark space ambient exploration is now four decades young. Emphasis on the young, considering we're getting new releases through that sound pretty similar. No disrespect to those that do - the point is Structures From Silence was so massively ahead of its time it still feels like the rest of us are catching up. Floating on a dust ring somewhere close to Saturn, maybe, this is lush, dreamy, cosmic synth stuff to lose yourself in. Just be sure there's a yurt close by, because this one's all about lying down and staring into your own thoughts. An exercise in escapism, without needing to move a muscle. In 2025, there's plenty of off-world talk as Earth buckles under the weight of capitalism. Little do they know some of us left that place behind decades ago.

Review: Sleepdial's debut for West Mineral is a mesmerising dive into ambient dub that blurs the lines between vaporous texture and low-end weight. Across nine tracks, the producer crafts smudged soundscapes rich with submerged rhythms and fractal echoes while evoking the spirit of early Pole or Vladislav Delay. Tracks like 'Icarus Rising' and 'Blue August' balance sensual warmth with dubwise grit and maintain a steady pulse through dreamy abstraction. This vinyl-first release feels both aquatic and etheric, with dub used as a method of spatial exploration. It is seriously hypnotic and emotionally nuanced, so is a strong statement from a promising new voice in ambient electronics.