Black Sea (2022 Reissue) vinyl

During the 2000s, Christian Fennesz was on an astonishing run of form, creating and perfecting a trademark sound where fractured shards of heavily processed sound and distant field recordings cloaked slowly evolving ambient chords and melodies - many created using heavily effects laden guitars - in a weightless, mood-enhancing sound soup. Every one of the albums he released in this period are worth a listen, but 2008's Black Sea - which has finally been reissued on vinyl in freshly remastered form - is undoubtedly one of the most accessible and intoxicating, if only for the subtle exoticism and deft nods to Balkan and Turkish musical culture hidden amongst the waves of enveloping sound. It's an ambient masterpiece all told, and one that should be in every horizontal music lover's collection.