The AbstrAct Observer
We regard music.
We write notes and share voices about independent releases: ambient, instrumental, electronic, contemporary, experimental, minimalist, whatever.
Submit yours here.
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Our first release is out.
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observation n.100
Suki Quasimodo
Power
○ Mar 2026 | Label: Random Artefacts Ltd
■ Genres: Electronic / Experimental
■ Rating: 8.3/10► This haunting mantra somehow moves us. The voice is heavily manipulated — stuttered, stretched, and harmonized — creating shifting textures that feel both intimate and alien. Each repetition carries a different emotional shade, moving between vulnerability, tension, and quiet empowerment. The production is intricate yet immersive, allowing the listener to sink into its hypnotic cycle. It’s a striking, evocative composition where language dissolves into pure feeling and sonic expression.
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observation n.99
Asha Patera
The Sacred Ground
○ Mar 2026 | Label: Passed Recordings
■ Genres: Drone / Ambient
■ Rating: 8.0/10
■ Favorite track: “Grand Prismatic Spring”► This unfolds like the slow arrival of an inescapable storm, its atmosphere thick with anticipation and dread. Low, sustained tones gather like dark clouds, gradually intensifying as subtle dissonances ripple beneath the surface. Textures swell and shift like distant thunder, hinting at something immense and unavoidable. There is no refuge within the sound — only immersion in its looming presence.
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voices #54
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
public_machines
answering some questions. We have already observed his experimental / drone / noise / field recordings work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “A Universe” that we prefer is “Arms Used to Hold You”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► public_machines: Like so much of my music, it came to be by chance. I had at different times recorded two piano pieces on separate tracks on a multitrack cassette player and then forgot about them. Some time later I found the unmarked cassette, played it and was immediately struck by the strange but familiar feeling. By chance, the tracks were recorded just slightly out of sync but when played together they fit, in an odd not-quite-right way with an almost limping rhythm, something I found very fascinating.
This was then recorded from a regular cassette player at a lower speed to make all the textures and noise from the tape come alive. It was re-recorded to tape several times, each successive recording further degrading the sound and bringing even more analog artefacts into the mix. To finish off the track I added a touch of granular and delay effects.
I don’t want to go too much into the meaning of the track, as it’s meant to be up to the listener’s interpretation. However, as the title suggests it’s about loss in some way. But to me the music feels ambiguous. So is it a sad loss or a happy loss? Maybe a little bit of both?[2. CREATION]
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observation n.98
Backyard Neighbor
illusionary world
○ Feb 2026 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Ambient / Field Recordings
■ Rating: 7.7/10
■ Favorite track: “illusionary world”► This centers on a four-note phrase loop that circles gently over a sustained harmonic bed, creating a sense of quiet persistence. The guitar tone is clean and luminous, while delayed sounds scatter outward, falling like droplets across the stereo field. These echoes add depth and motion, transforming a simple motif into a richly textured space. The interplay between repetition and decay feels organic, as if the sound were breathing. Meanwhile, people talk, traffic persists, but music – just like life – continues to flow.
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voices #53
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Giacomo Vanelli & Matteo Cantaluppi
answering some questions. We have already observed their drone / ambient / experimental work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “A Small Life and Unnoticed Movements” that we prefer is “Small Body”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Giacomo Vanelli & Matteo Cantaluppi: Through six musical pieces and six short films created together with filmmaker Fausto Caviglia, we wanted to create a space for slow listening and attentive looking, where sound and image invite the viewer to observe the world at a different pace.
[2. CREATION]
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observation n.97
Wahn
Drifting Vol. 4
○ Nov 2025 | Label: FORM@ RECORDS
■ Genres: Electronic / Ambient
■ Rating: 8.4/10
■ Favorite track: “Echoes of the Long Night”► This blossoms around an airy piano phrase loop, which repeats with quiet insistence at the heart of the piece. Surrounding it is a superb electronic texture — rich, layered, and slowly evolving — like a soft halo of sound expanding outward. The result is immersive and emotionally resonant, balancing clarity and abstraction. It’s a greatly sculpted soundscape where a simple piano idea grows into a luminous, enveloping ambient journey.
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voices #52
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
thëm
answering some questions. We have already observed his experimental / ambient / post-rock work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “El Dolor La Norma” that we prefer is “S’Agabbadòra (Mazzolu)”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► thëm: The concept of ‘El Dolor La Norma’ arose after suffering from a serious and rare illness, which fortunately is now in the past. It left me with several bad and somewhat traumatic experiences on a personal level. After a while, they were still very present in my daily life, dark and sad memories. I thought it might be therapeutic/healing to use these feelings to do something beautiful and enriching for myself. And then I expanded the concept of the album to explain stories that, at first glance, seem cruel but turn out to be healing or kind. While searching for information about this concept in other cultures, I came across S’Agabbadòra, a woman who was responsible for providing a quick death to terminally ill patients so that they would not suffer. I thought she was a clear example of the concept of the album, as she may seem like a macabre, cruel character, but she was actually a person who was called upon by the relatives of the terminally ill to end their suffering. Meanwhile, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a figure associated with kindness, had her “hospitals of suffering”/’houses of death’, where, through the privacy of medicine and the pain suffered by the sick until their agonising death, she promised them paradise (the more you suffer, the greater the reward). Agabbadòra bad and Mother Teresa good… isn’t that curious?
The song attempts to set to music the scene of how I imagine it would be before, during and after S’Agabbadòra’s work with a patient.[2. CREATION]
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Voices #51
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
THE GOLDEN SPIRAL
answering some questions. We have already observed his experimental / electronic work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “A Surfeit of Lampreys” that we prefer is “Pewter”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► THE GOLDEN SPIRAL: King Henry I (reigned 1100–1135) allegedly died from eating a surfeit (excess) of Lampreys (a kind of eel), most likely served and eaten from pewter vessels, which during the Middle Ages were luxury items. The track therefore carries the weight of the complete composition.
[2. CREATION]
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voices #50
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Hajime Nakamura
answering some questions. We have already observed his ambient / electronic work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “Loop Drawing” that we prefer is “A Shower of Light”. Can you tell us how it came out?
► Hajime Nakamura: I imported several stems I had been working on into DJ software, then adjusted the pitch and applied various effects while shaping the track. That’s how the piece came together.
[2. CREATION]
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