Blog
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Observation n.100
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
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 #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
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 #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
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 #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 #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 #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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Observation n.95
Observation n.95
Luke Kokoszka
Beneath The Sea Of Clouds There Is Nothing But Eternity
○ Feb 2026 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Ambient / Electronic
■ Rating: 7.1/10
■ Favorite track: “No Man Has Ever Died Beside A Sleeping Dog”► This unfolds like a slow, unsuccessful escape attempt. Quiet tension and shifting textures suggest movement forward, yet something unseen seems to resist every step. Layers of synths gradually expand and darken, creating an atmosphere that feels both spacious and confining. The progression is patient, almost hesitant, as motifs appear and dissolve without resolution. Each sonic change hints at possibility, but the destination remains unreachable. Hope and frustration coexist.
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Voices #49
Voices #49
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
subespai
answering some questions. We have already observed his experimental / drone / noise / field recordings work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: Can you tell us how the track “St. Lawrence” came to light?
► subespai: After nine years living in Australia, my family and I relocated back to Spain. That transition was intense and all-consuming, and for a while I completely stopped making music. I only returned to it once we had settled in our current hometown, Alaior, in the Balearic Islands.
Spain has a strong tradition of music tied to place and ritual, and Alaior is no exception. In the summer of 2024, my wife recorded a short snippet of the traditional tune that opens the festivities of Saint Lawrence, the town’s patron saint. When I listened to it, it stayed with me. It felt unresolved, almost insistent, like the beginning of something. I started working with the recording in my usual way: manipulating it, layering it, letting it drift away from its original function and turn into a journey of its own.
At the time I was also developing a live set that never quite came together. I was stuck with it, hitting a wall creatively. “St. Lawrence” completely took over that process, although some of the DNA of that abandoned live set remained. The result was an almost 30-minute piece. Longform works are natural territory for me. They allow time for things to breathe, for slow transformations to happen. In a way, they are also a quiet statement against the speed and constant dopamine-chasing that dominates how we consume culture today.
Once the piece was composed and rehearsed, I recorded it properly at Es Molí Estudis, a local studio run by a friend from town. After that, I pitched the idea to Mike from Oxtail Recordings: a two-track cassette release, with another longform piece on the B-side. Mike immediately connected with the idea, for which I am deeply grateful, and that’s how Saints came into existence.[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.94
observation n.94
f5point6
In Retrospect
○ Feb 2026 | Label: See Blue Audio
■ Genres: Ambient / Electronic
■ Rating: 8.5/10
■ Favorite track: “Theory of Change Pt 2 (Remastered)”► This unfolds with quiet and mysterious elegance. The track moves effortlessly through the nuances of a ternary musical phrase that serves as its guiding motif. Texture and tone gradually reveal new shades of emotion with each cycle. The structure becomes a space for exploration, where rare layered synths and delicate timbral variations expand the idea to its fullest potential. A great minimalist work.
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Voices #48
voices #48
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Daron Key
answering some questions. We have already observed his drone / ambient work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “On The Slopes” that we prefer is “First Light”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Daron Key: When I first moved to Hawaii Island I ended up living and working in lower Puna at a place named Puʻalaa, this is where I first heard the story of Papa and Wakea, the Hawaiian story of creation. This particular location is also known to be the first location that sunlight hits in the archipelago. These ideas were the focus of my intent as the piece starts abruptly like when the first rays of light break through the ocean horizon then slowly forms into the ball of the sun.
[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.93
observation n.93
Giacomo Vanelli & Matteo Cantaluppi
A Small Life and Unnoticed Movements
○ Feb 2026 | Label: Cassis Records
■ Genres: Drone / Ambient / Experimental
■ Rating: 7.3/10
■ Favorite track: “Small Body”► We move around a slow pulsing bass that acts like a steady heartbeat beneath the surface. Above it, layers of soft synths gradually expand and intertwine, forming a dense yet fluid sonic space. The textures drift and shimmer, creating a hypnotic atmosphere that feels both immersive and quietly introspective. Each element evolves with patience, allowing the listener to sink deeper into the rhythm of the piece. We welcome sweet oblivion.
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Observation n.92
observation n.92
Ed Herbers
Season Cycle: Winter
○ Dec 2025 | Label: Passed Recordings
■ Genres: Ambient / Drone / Electronic
■ Rating: 6.9/10
■ Favorite track: “Winterlude”► This floats effortlessly within an airy, expansive atmosphere. Soft synth plucks drift in gentle layers, creating a sense of open space where each tone has room to breathe. Subtle harmonic shifts and delicate textural details add quiet movement, preventing the sound from ever feeling static. There’s a soothing clarity to the production, as if light were filtering through sound itself. Everything is weightless and luminous.
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Voices #47
voices #47
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Pefkin
answering some questions. We have already observed her ambient / drone / experimental work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “Unfurling” that we prefer is “My breath the sea”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Pefkin: I read a book by the Scottish historian Alistair Moffat a few years ago called “In Search of the Saints” which is about the Irish saints who travelled to the Scottish west coast and islands to spread Christianity and find solitude, the most famous being Columba who established a religious community on Iona which stills exists. I’ve wanted to go and visit the beehive cells on the uninhabited Garvellach islands in which some of these monks would meditate in solitude. I’ve not managed to do that so I did the next best thing and wrote a song about it, imagining the passage through the seasons, the loneliness, the winter storms, the trance state, feeling disembodied and fearful. The protagonist in the song no longer knows if he hears his breath or the sea as he prays and meditates in the depths of a winter storm.
[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.91
observation n.91
Eternal Music Society
Eternal Music Society
○ Feb 2026 | Label: Knotwilg records
■ Genres: Post-rock / Instrumental
■ Rating: 8.5/10
■ Favorite track: “Unknown Voltage”► We’re on the outskirts of Spiderland. Angular guitar riffs dart and stutter, punctuated by regular rhythms that create a palpable tension. There’s an undercurrent of unease that simmers throughout, mirroring nervous energy and subtle anxiety. Its meticulous dynamics and textured interplay invite close listening, rewarding attention to detail. A superb and irresistible work.
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Observation n.90
observation n.90
public_machines
A Universe
○ Feb 2026 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Electronic / Ambient
■ Rating: 7.0/10
■ Favorite track: “Arms Used to Hold You”► This is really a little precious gem. The gentle imperfections of an old piano become part of a touching language. The delicate V–I cadence anchors the piece with a quiet sense of resolution, repeating like a soft, familiar breath. Around it, subtle electronic fragments flicker and drift — glitches, faint textures, distant tonal echoes — adding movement without disturbing the fragile calm. Listen and try.
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Voices #46
voices #46
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
virabelo
answering some questions. We have already observed his drone / ambient work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: Can you tell us how the the track “Nova Mistero” came to light?
► virabelo: Nova Mistero (which is Esperanto for ‘New Mystery’) happens to be the sister track of Monolito (‘Monolith’). The two tracks share the same synthesis approach while also being the same total track length, which wasn’t hard to end up that way as they both share the same 60 bpm tempo. While Monolito is much darker in mood, I found that Nova Mistero has a much more lighter and open feel. Originally, the album was going to be called Monolito, with the album’s title track being the final track on the album. After later composing and naming the Nova Mistero track, I found that the track title sounded much nicer for the album name, and also felt the overall vibe of it was perfect to begin the album while the sister track, Monolito, closes the album.
[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.89
observation n.89
THE GOLDEN SPIRAL
A Surfeit of Lampreys
○ Feb 2026 | Label: ECHØVEIL RECORDS
■ Genres: Experimental / Electronic
■ Rating: 6.5/10
■ Favorite track: “Pewter”► This abstract and restless track defies easy interpretation. Fragments emerge abruptly, repeat with uneasy insistence, then vanish before the listener can fully grasp their shape. The piece feels intentionally elusive, driven by textures and gestures rather than melody or structure. Each loop carries a sense of tension, as if meaning were constantly forming and dissolving at the edges of perception.
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Voices #45
voices #45
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
end, red dress
answering some questions. We have already observed his experimental / field recordings / drone work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “the brink” that we prefer is “it’s the thinnest and brittlest of veils”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► end, red dress: I was messing around with a DIY shortwave radio I just assembled. Walking around in a remote field, listening to all kinds of sweeps and clicks and patterns that traveled through the ether… suddenly I stumbled upon this indiscernible transmission: there seemed to live someone buried in all that static. It’s that sudden rush of discovery, but feeling it slip away at the same time. I tried to get a clearer signal by repositioning around in all kinds of manners, but the signal was lost. Blips and swooshes remained. The transmission itself was probably just foreign radio talk on some mundane topic… but it’s the thrill of the unexpected. Luckily I was recording as well so it could become the starting point of this track: it just expands on that particular moment, as you so astutely observed yourself.
[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.88
Observation n.88
Perry Frank
Scenario
○ Jan 2026 | Label: Shady Ridge Records
■ Genres: Ambient / Drone
■ Rating: 8.5/10
■ Favorite track: “Wait For Me”► This evolves in broad, patient movements, with layers of electric guitars drifting like slow, rolling waves. Each line melts into the next, forming a dense yet fluid sound mass that feels both expansive and intimate. Sighs of light tension, sustained tones and gentle feedback create a sense of endless motion, as if the music were breathing at its own pace. There’s a quiet emotional pull in the repetition, a feeling of calm tinged with longing. The track resists dramatic shifts, instead embracing gradual transformation.
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Observation n.87
observation n.87
thëm
El Dolor La Norma
○ Aug 2025 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Experimental / Ambient / Post-rock
■ Rating: 7.4/10
■ Favorite track: “S’Agabbadòra (Mazzolu)”► This ambient / post-rock track builds a vast, immersive atmosphere. That’s done by layering shimmering electric guitars over slow, pulsing bass lines, all carried by a hypnotic three-note synth arpeggio. The arpeggio acts as a steady current, allowing the guitars to swell, recede, and intertwine like waves of sound. Patient and expansive, the track unfolds with cinematic grace, offering a powerful blend of repetition and evolution that invites deep, focused listening.
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The a.O. Audio Show
the a.O. Audio Show
Chapter #1
A succession of sounds that we like ▼
TRACKLIST
► Gastr del Sol – Eight Corners
► Auditor – Flooding
► The Abstract Observer – i: to devise, to overcome
► Asha Patera – Chapter
► lebenerde – distanz
► Franco Battiato – I cancelli della memoria
► Harry Mason – Mae
► Keith Fullerton Whitman – Modena
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Voices #44
voices #44
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Droning Cats with NRV
answering some questions. We have already observed their ambient / post-rock / electronic work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “Cartography of Sleep” that we prefer is “Catastrophic”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Droning Cats with NRV: Catastrophic emerged the way much of this album did: in an unplanned moment where intuition quietly leads the way.
During one of our sessions in Brussels, a cluster of bird-like modular tones appeared almost out of nowhere, hovering over a deep, grounding drone. It felt like stepping into a dreamscape — familiar yet shifting. Christophe’s guitar responded instinctively, tracing a melodic path through this fragile sonic terrain.
As with the entire album, the recording was then sent across the world to NRV in Japan, who expanded the space with his subtle atmospheric signature—pads, reverbs, a softened horizon that allowed the track to breathe and unfold.
It’s worth noting that Cartography of Sleep was created entirely at a distance. Although Droning Cats and NRV have never met in person, the collaboration formed a kind of long-distance resonance: Brussels and Japan connected through sound, intuition and shared sensibility.
The title Catastrophic was given by Christophe’s ten-year-old son—a spontaneous suggestion that captured both innocence and emotional scale. We kept it immediately.[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.86
observation n.86
Hajime Nakamura
Loop Drawing
○ Jan 2026 | Label: Ingrown Records
■ Genres: Ambient / Electronic
■ Rating: 7.8/10
■ Favorite track: “A Shower of Light”► This ambient electronic track unfolds around a dreamy atmospheric loop. The sound design feels light and immersive, as if floating through a half-remembered landscape. Nothing rushes: each element breathes and dissolves naturally. It’s an introspective, soothing piece that rewards attentive listening while remaining inviting as a background companion. A delicate, serene composition where repetition becomes hypnotic and atmosphere takes center stage.
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Observation n.85
observation n.85
Daron Key
On The Slopes
○ Jul 2025 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Noise / Doom / Experimental
■ Rating: 7.0/10
■ Favorite track: “First Light”► This track is a crushing wall of sound, thick with feedback, low-end rumble, and suffocating disturbances. The guitars move in slow, monolithic waves, creating a sense of overwhelming weight and ritualistic heaviness. Each sustained chord feels like a collapsing structure, vibrating with raw physical force. Layers of distortion blur pitch into texture, while the slow pacing amplifies every vibration and decay. The atmosphere is coercive and monumental, evoking both dread and dark catharsis.
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Observation n.84
observation n.84
Substak
Empty Halls
○ Jan 2026 | Label: See Blue Audio
■ Genres: Abstract / Experimental
■ Rating: 7.2/10
■ Favorite track: “Empty Halls”► This is built around a relentless industrial white noise loop that engulfs the listener from the outset. The muffled noise forms a harsh, monolithic presence. Rare echoes of electronic rumblings and distant pulses intermittently surface, like signals breaking through interference. These sparse events offer fleeting points of orientation before being swallowed again. It’s an uncompromising experience, where tension between stasis and emergence becomes the central expressive force.
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Voices #43
voices #43
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Tó Anjo
answering some questions. We have already observed his ambient / electronic work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “Dwam” that we prefer is “Inbound”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Tó Anjo: This is the track that really got the album process going for me, and since its inception it felt like an opener. There’s the sound of a train arriving at a station and people stepping out on the platform which kind of divides the track in its two sections and this, along with the title of the song, really ties everything into the theme of arriving somewhere and starting something new. Most of the tracks came after this idea and as a continuation of this sound.
[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.83
observation n.83
Pefkin
Unfurling
○ Jan 2026 | Label: Morc records
■ Genres: Ambient / Drone / Experimental
■ Rating: 8.1/10
■ Favorite track: “My breath the sea”► This is immersive and solemn, balancing reverence and unease. A slow bass pulse that feels both sublime and tense grounds the piece in a ritualistic sense of anticipation, while a whispered voice with a sacral tone weaves through the texture like an invocation. Notes from strings rise and fade in restrained gestures, intertwining with fractured electronic fragments that shimmer and decay at the edges. That’s such a powerful and deeply absorbing work in its slow, deliberate intensity.
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Observation n.82
observation n.82
Hendrix Gullixson & Sawing Sound
Juniper II
○ Dec 2025 | Label: Somnimage
■ Genres: Electronic / Experimental
■ Rating: 6.4/10
■ Favorite track: “Lightning Ride”► This espands within an unquiet atmosphere. The soundscape is anchored by a fragmented granular pad that constantly shifts and erodes. The texture feels unstable, as if the sound were perpetually on the verge of collapse. From within this haze, brief melodies played by flutes and string instruments surface unexpectedly — fragile, fleeting gestures that hint at form before dissolving back into abstraction.
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Voices #42
Voices #42
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Perry Frank
answering some questions. We have already observed his drone / ambient work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “Atlas” that we prefer is “Desert Plain”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Perry Frank: Desert Plain was written and recorded during an evening session together with Leave No Shadows On The Ground.
They were basically written with guitar, while making experiments with reverb and delay pedals on my pedalboard after watching a documentary about the Amazon deforestation.
Main drones features a combination of the Strymon Cloudburst and the Hologram Electronics then I’ve added a bass line with the Volcakeys.
Basically there are only three or four tracks in this song.
I usually record my songs on tape cassettes with my Fostex X18 multitrack, often when they feature not so much tracks, then I record the tape on my Mac.
Titles came to me while thinking about a future when all the trees have been cut down, all around there will be only desert with no shadows on the ground.[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.81
observation n.81
subespai
Saints
○ Dec 2025 | Label: Oxtail Recordings
■ Genres: Experimental / Drone / Noise / Field Recordings
■ Rating: 7.0/10
■ Favorite track: “St. Lawrence”► This long, obscure drone track unfolds as a bleak sonic landscape. The piece moves with unrelenting weight, its textures grinding slowly forward and stretching time into something heavy and disorienting. Only toward the end fragile sonic fragments begin to emerge — faint tones, softened harmonics, hints of melody — that gently temper the harshness. These late arrivals feel tentative yet meaningful, offering a subdued sense of release after prolonged tension.
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Best Tracks 2025
Best Tracks 2025
During this first year of activity we’ve sifted through countless independent releases, following faint signals rather than hype.
These 10 tracks stood out not for volume, but for intent. They move between ambient drift, instrumental focus, electronic tension, contemporary composition and experimental minimalism, often blurring those lines entirely. What connects them is a shared patience: sounds are allowed to breathe, structures either unfold or fall slowly, ideas trust the listener.
Together, they form a small map of the year’s most compelling independent music — works that reward attention and linger well after the final note fades.
Here is a mix set of all tracks (click on each track link for more info) ▼Tracklist
► matt robert mclennan quintet – tea tide pool
► marko josipović – vii
► euan dalgarno – horrow (feat. canaan balsam)
► modern silent cinema – nexus
► ince b – baseload drift
► suki quasimodo – i feel like
► perry frank – atlas
► swoop and cross – this river
► arutan – symphonic descent into the beast’s lair
► droning cats with nrv – catastrophicSee you in 2026.
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Observation n.80
observation n.80
virabelo
Nova Mistero
○ Dec 2025 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Drone / Ambient
■ Rating: 7.3/10
■ Favorite track: “Nova Mistero”► Here’s a vessel for elevation and release. Sustained tones drift freely, unmoored from rhythm or structure, giving the listener a sensation of endless suspension. The sound is airy and expansive, yet this very openness carries a subtle anxiety — there’s no clear anchor, no ground to return to. That’s both soothing and unsettling, capturing the paradox of freedom without support. Yet we surrender to weightlessness.
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Voices #41
Voices #41
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
RAUSTE
answering some questions. We have already observed his drone / ambient / experimental work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “Never started never ended” that we prefer is “5 steps”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► RAUSTE: I needed to close my EP, and I wanted to end it with a positive note especially because the rest of the EP is quite dark in the way it was conceived. I needed some hope. I remembered an old video I took of my son, who was 4 years old at the time, playing the piano for the very first time: 5 notes, 5 movements, 5 steps to a new world. (Fun fact: today, years later, that world completely belongs to him.)
The melody was already there; I just needed to shape it the way I liked by creating different samples, working on pitch, reverse effects, and so on.
The final touch, the element that gives the sequence its unity, is the sampled birds and wind chimes. For this, I have to thank the artist Lonetapes, who kindly shared these sounds with the whole community.[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.79
Observation n.79
The Earl of Dean
Silence Has Broken
○ Oct 2025 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Electronic / Experimental
■ Rating: 7.1/10
■ Favorite track: “Excavate”► This is where you get in a tense, restless atmosphere that never quite settles. Jagged synth clouds, nervous pulses and ticking textures create a constant sense of motion, as if the sound is pacing within its own confines. Dissonant tones hover uneasily in the background, sustaining a mood of unresolved urgency. That feels deliberately and effectively unstable.
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Observation n.78
Observation n.78
Droning Cats with NRV
Cartography of Sleep
○ Dec 2025 | Label: See Blue Audio
■ Genres: Ambient / Post-rock / Electronic
■ Rating: 8.4/10
■ Favorite track: “Catastrophic”► Well, you’d better take 5 minutes of your time for this track. Guitar lines slowly evolve within a sea of spacious, enveloping layers of atmosphere. Sun is quietly rising all around. The progression is patient and immersive, inviting the listener to sink fully into the sound. Each swell adds depth and scale, transforming simple phrases into something vast and cinematic. Resistance is futile.
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Voices #40
voices #40
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
H-M O
answering some questions. We have already observed her drone / ambient / new age work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: Can you tell us how the track “Misty Lake” came to light?
► H-M O: I live in northern Finland and spend a lot of time in nature – one beautiful morning in August I woke up in the wee hours to a sudden urge to go outside and enjoy the first rays of the sun. As I stepped outside, I was enticed by this sweet mist to a nearby lake. And there I could do nothing but stare at the water, breathe in the balmy air and record the soundscape all around me. So, the whole track is built on and around one single field recording from that morning. All I tried to do was to capture the feeling of staring at the lake at sunrise, by emphasizing the natural soundscape with soft and smooth and meditative electronic elements. My aim was to keep it calming yet quietly suspenseful, as that morning, or the whole natural world actually, felt and often feels to me. It was an almost transcendental experience, as if a whole huge lake was evaporating into thin air…and condensing back into a single drop on a blade of grass.I also took many black and white photos on my film camera of that lake on that very morning, which then ended up forming the cover art for Misty Lake as well as the music video (for which the link is this: ▼)
[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.77
Observation n.77
Apostolis Tziogkidis, Giorgos Kelesidis
Shades of Structure
○ Jan 2025 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Avant-garde / Experimental / Improvisation
■ Rating: 7.0/10
■ Favorite track: “Inner Turbolence”► That’s an improvised dialogue between a double bass and an electric guitar, raw and intensely present. Their interaction feels conversational yet confrontational, as if two distinct voices were negotiating space in real time. There is no fixed structure, only intuition and risk, allowing tension and release to emerge organically. The result is challenging but compelling, a vivid exploration of texture, gesture, and spontaneous form that rewards attentive listening with moments of stark, unpredictable awareness.
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Observation n.76
observation n.76
Tó Anjo
Dwam
○ Nov 2025 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Ambient / Electronic
■ Rating: 8.1/10
■ Favorite track: “Inbound”► This unfolds like a dream in slow motion, guided by an uplifting piano that glows at the center of the soundscape. Each piano note lingers, suspended in a haze of soft pads and shimmering textures that stretch time into something weightless. The harmonies rise gently, creating a sense of quiet optimism and emotional warmth, while the electronic layers drift like distant light. The pacing is unhurried, allowing every sound to bloom fully before dissolving into the next.
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1: to be, to unify
a bunch of frames
This is a video for the Fourth track of the album
The Dawn Identity
released on Bandcamp on September 19th.Thanks for your time.
Take care,
The AbstrAct Observer -
Voices #39
voices #39
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Swoop and Cross
answering some questions. We have already observed his ambient / drone / electroacoustic work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “On the Grounds of Indecency” that we prefer is “This river”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Swoop and Cross: There is this quote in Ishiguro’s Never let me go: “I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it’s just too much. The current’s too strong. They’ve got to let go, drift apart.”
The track is largely inspired in this idea of trying to hold on to each other in a turbulent world, hence the feathering in and out of sounds that try to overtake the looping motif that extends throughout the piece and that symbolises the attempt for stability, which keeps being disrupted by the flow in “this river”. From the starting idea, the track was then just a technical exercise of musical composition and layering. Like most pieces, it wrote itself.[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.75
Observation n.75
GODTRAWLER
GODTRAWLER
○ Nov 2025 | Label: 1.44mb
■ Genres: Noise / Experimental
■ Rating: 6.5/10
■ Favorite track: “Evil”► Heraclitus said that dynamic tension and opposition inherent in all existence make things real and distinct. The track opens with a gentle guitar phrase serving as a calm anchor before the piece fractures into eruptions of noise and sharp dissonances. The contrast is striking: warm, melodic strings giving way to bursts of distortion, metallic resonance, and unpredictable sonic fractures. The only thing we can do is embrace instability.
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Voices #38
voices #38
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Modern Silent Cinema
answering some questions. We have already observed his experimental / concrete / electroacoustic work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “Surveillance Film” that we prefer is “Nexus”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Modern Silent Cinema: Surveillance Film is my fifth score for filmmaker Matt Barry, and with each new score I like to try something a bit different from what I did before. In terms of the amount of recorded music, this would be the longest project yet–requiring nearly an hour of music. And so, to counter that scope, I wanted to reduce the compositional palette and work with repeated motifs and sounds as a fun creative challenge.
At the time, I had recently seen Claus Boesser-Ferrari play guitar at Downtown Music Gallery in NYC, I was really struck by his performance, which embraced the totality of the guitar, the wood, the shape, the depth, the strings, every aspect of the instrument had potential for sound and he explored all of it, and for me that inspired a new relationship with the guitar (I’ve been playing for over 30 years). Claus greatly influenced how I approached this score, playing the whole guitar, and not just melodies and chords on the strings. It also inspired me to consider how other objects could be used for sound (I used my water thermos for percussion on several tracks).
So, for “Nexus,” I started with a Philip Glass type of minimalist rondo, which originally appears earlier in the film but played on a thumb piano. I repeat it on multiple instruments throughout the score–but here it is played on a piano (technically on a MIDI synth, since I don’t have access to a real piano at the moment). I also wanted to do more than just repeat the melody, I wanted this to be its own piece, so I used an acoustic guitar to create scrapes, percussive bangs, and other twangs to create a soundscape as a musical counterpoint. Electroacoustic dynamics is an overarching interest for me–that intersection of a real instrument with electronic manipulations, and I try to explore that throughout all the Modern Silent Cinema albums. For “Nexus,” I wanted to contrast the serene piano melody with these more abrasive noise elements. I also wanted to have a contrast between the intentional, structured melody and the improvisation of the guitar sounds.[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.74
Observation n.74
Bee Resort
Hivemind
○ Oct 2025 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Electronic / Ambient
■ Rating: 6.8/10
■ Favorite track: “A Constant Struggle For Air”► The atmosphere is built around a stratified, pulsing synth that glows with steady, hypnotic energy. Each layer expands the harmonic field, creating a sense of gentle propulsion without overwhelming the calm. Beneath this luminous swell, a minimal IDM rhythm flickers with precision — crisp clicks, soft taps, and subtle syncopations that add movement while preserving the track’s spacious serenity.
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Voices #37
Voices #37
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
karsino kuuni
answering some questions. We have already observed his experimental / lo-fi / electronic work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The section from “und die ganze welt sang mit mir…” that we prefer is “und die ganze welt sang mit mir (thank_you)”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► karsino kuuni: I started working on this song in september of 2024, a few months after releasing my first album ‘people should get drunk, even if they are on fire…’. That album was my main musical focus for years, so in retrospect this song feels like a palette cleanser. I started by playing around with a sample of an old italian tv jingle from the 80s, not sure yet what I was going to make with it. After a while I just ended up slowing it down a bunch and looping it and then playing a couple of synth pads on top of it. For a while it stayed this way and went by the working title ‘Certified ambient classic’ (hopefully it will be just that one day in the future). As time went by I added some field recordings I had on my phone from times I’d been on planes and at airports. But it was still missing something.
That missing piece came on the 28th of december 2024 when I listened to the song in my DAW while dozing off and the phrase “nothing/everything in the world sang it with me” popped into my mind. I keep a journal for dreams and phrases heard in hypnagogic states from which I draw a lot of inspiration for my music. From that phrase came the name of the song (and the whole EP) “und die ganze Welt sang mit mir…” (german for ‘the whole world sang with me’). I started writing lyrics for the song which I later sang into audacity, recorded with my laptop microphone only. The concept had formed: climbing up and down the sky between time and space, revisiting your own past.
The EP started forming as I realized this song went together really well with two other ambient pieces I had made earlier but didn’t know what release they might fit on. Together they tell a story of living in the future with a new found confidence and then traveling back to the past, back to your lowest moment and saying one last goodbye to your childhood, then seeing yourself from a distance before returning back home. The EP works as a companion piece to the album released prior. Going over a lot of the same themes and events but rather looking at them retrospectively, instead of expressing something felt in the moment.
One last sample on this song, which I added as I put the EP together to create a transition between this and the next song, was from a noise session with my stylophone gen x-1. In it I had fed the drum track from Sublime’s ‘Santeria’ into the synth and then messed around with the delay. The section I sampled I had actually already used once before on a track called ‘mää lähestyn taivasta’ (Finnish for ‘I’m approaching heaven’). That track was more in the style of vaportrap but thematically centered around flying as well so it only felt fitting to repurpose it here.[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.73
Observation n.73
Glinca
Tament
○ Jul 2025 | Label: Fluid Audio
■ Genres: Ambient / Experimental
■ Rating: 7.3/10
■ Favorite track: “Swoq”► At first there’s this abstract loop speaking, both fluid and mysterious. As the loop swells and dissolves, an upright piano enters in fragmented, cascading phrases, each note tumbling softly into the next with blissful abandon. The melodic shards feel spontaneous yet deeply expressive, drifting like memories resurfacing through haze.
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Observation n.72
observation n.72
Jēkabs Ošiņš
Live 1409
○ Sep 2025 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Experimental / Live Improvisation / Electronic / Noise
■ Rating: 6.8/10
■ Favorite track: “part II”► This is immersive, gritty, and boldly exploratory. Metallic scrapes, thuds, and environmental textures collide with oscillating synth tones and bursts of processed signal, creating a dynamic interplay between the physical and the digital. The performance feels alive —unpolished, responsive, alert — capturing the thrill of discovery as each sound provokes the next. This sounds vivid.
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Voices #36
voices #36
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Ince B
answering some questions. We have already observed his ambient / drone work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “altered buoyancy” that we prefer is “baseload drift”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Ince B: Ince B is the name of a defunct and demolished power station which was very near to where I lived as a child. The red aircraft beacons shone across fields and dairy farms to my bedroom. On the other side of the house, there was the huge oil refinery Shell Stanlow that had a heavy and brooding presence, especially when the flare tower lit up the night sky with its burning pulses. Every Saturday morning, they would test the emergency sirens which sent an eerie whine across the fields. As you got closer to the refinery, you could hear its constant drone. I can hear and feel all of this in baseload drift; it is a response to the intensively industrialised landscape of my childhood.
Musically, it started as a simple A Minor chord droned with textures added through my use of these little contact mic instruments that I made myself. I wanted to see how much I could do with just a single chord. Then I started to wonder about layering different textures like waves throughout the track. I was using a lot of looping prior to recording this but, en route to the recording session, the power supply for my looper got damaged, so I ended up working in a different way recording sound-on-sound. For the entire length of the track, I played drones over the top of drones through different effects and with different amounts of distortion, this is what gives the track the feeling of something that pulses and changes throughout even though it is just a single chord.[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.71
Observation n.71
Perry Frank
Atlas
○ Jan 2025 | Label: Cyclical Dreams
■ Genres: Drone / Ambient
■ Rating: 8.5/10
■ Favorite track: “Desert Plain”► This is a little, precious gem. There’s this graceful melodic passage built around the 4th, 5th and minor 7th degrees of a major scale, creating a sound that feels both sublimely uplifted and subtly bittersweet. The sustained drones provide a warm, enveloping foundation, allowing the melody to hover above like a slow-moving light. God is in the details.
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Voices #35
voices #35
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Akira Film Script
answering some questions. We have already observed his drone / ambient work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “Autumn’s Dawn” that we prefer is “Capturing The Flag”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Akira Film Script: The whole album is built from meditations on my youth – before each session, I’d do an extended meditation on some point in my childhood, pre-internet, then upon exiting the meditation, I’d go straight to my machines and document how I felt, in sound. ‘Capturing the Flag’ was created when exiting a meditation focused on the final moments of actually, finally, successfully capturing and delivering the other team’s flag in an intense game of Capture the Flag, ultimately winning the game. When I was a kid, before the area I live in today had become so built up, there was this incredibly large field, with a large ditch running through it (in hindsight, it may have been a water way for when the rains came through, letting excess runoff out to the bay). The ditch became our midline, and we’d establish our forts on either side of it, then raise our flags. It was a winding ditch, so there were plenty of areas to pass though it and emerge on the other side without being caught – if you were lucky; there wasn’t much coverage up top of the ditch on either side, save a few bushes and overgrown fox tails. If you were lucky enough to make it to the opposing team’s fort, unseen, then the real fear set in – now you had to successfully get back to your fort. This was a nerve wracking experience, filled with anxiety, fear, dread, heightened senses – true fear. But if, and when, you saw you were in the home stretch, guaranteed to win, all the dread washed away for instant euphoria – YOU DID IT! YOU MADE IT! That was the moment that I set out to capture in ‘Capturing the Flag’ – the glory of a successful round, the washing away of the fears, the true elation of victory, and not in hindsight, but in, and of, the moment itself. Harps have always felt heavenly to me, and I love a rising portamento synth or string and how it can lift a movement in a song, so the combination of both were my target for capturing that feeling, that moment, of capturing the flag. Add to it, somehow drone-based ambience has always felt like a moment in suspension to me, so while I could have composed an uplifted, rising musical movement in hopeful keys and progressions, it suited the capturing of the moment – the polaroid nature of it all – to make a drone around these uplifting inputs.
[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.70
Observation n.70
RAUSTE
Never started never ended
○ Oct 2025 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Drone / Ambient / Experimental
■ Rating: 7.5/10
■ Favorite track: “5 steps”► That feels simultaneously familiar and dreamlike: calm and mystery coexist. The natural field recordings ground the piece in organic matter, while the reversed tones and airy chimes blur time and direction. The piano, sparse and emotive, acts as the emotional core, offering fragile moments of clarity amid the ethereal swirl. That’s where real and surreal meet.
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Observation n.69
Observation n.69
H-M O
Misty Lake
○ Oct 2025 | Label: Ingrown Records
■ Genres: Drone / Ambient / New Age
■ Rating: 7.0/10
■ Favorite track: “Misty Lake”► Breathing in intense cycles of expansion and release is not easy as it seems. Deep, sustained tones form vast sonic spaces, while subtle new age elements add gentle movement. The interplay generates a meditative tension, evoking both earth and air, presence and transcendence. It’s a soothing yet quietly dynamic soundscape.
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Voices #34
voices #34
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Euan Dalgarno
answering some questions. We have already observed his ambient / electronic / drone work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “uoying” that we prefer is “horrow (feat. Canaan Balsam)”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Euan Dalgarno: Canaan Balsam and I first connected while we were both putting out music on Modern Obscure Music. Since we’re both based in Edinburgh, it was only natural that we started exchanging ideas, tracks, stems—and the occasional beer. When this track called for a bit more grit, I gave Canaan a shout and he sent over a few pad layers, some of which had been run through a RAT distortion pedal, giving the track just the edge it was missing.
[2. CREATION]
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Observation n.68
Observation n.68
end, red dress
the brink
○ Mar 2025 | Label: Independent
■ Genres: Experimental / Field Recordings / Drone
■ Rating: 7.7/10
■ Favorite track: “it’s the thinnest and brittlest of veils”► This infuses the stillness of drone music with a striking sense of urgency. Beneath the steady, immersive hum lies a pulse of tension — like an inaudible clock ticking. The radio fragments never resolve into clarity, instead hovering like lost messages from a distant crisis. Subtle oscillations and tonal shifts widen the atmosphere, giving the impression of scanning an unknown horizon for signals of meaning or safety.
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Observation n.67
observation n.67
Modern Silent Cinema
Surveillance Film (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
○ Dec 2025 | Label: Bad Channels Records
■ Genres: Experimental / Concrete / Electroacoustic
■ Rating: 8.6/10
■ Favorite track: “Nexus”► That is unsettling in the most effective way. We find ourselves looking for an impossible dialogue between innate human fragility and the concrete crudeness of productive slavery. We move in an aural landscape where beauty and despair coexist, perfectly capturing the existential ambiguity of a world on edge.
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Observation n.66
observation n.66
Swoop and Cross
On the Grounds of Indecency
○ Oct 2025 | Label: Perceptual Tapes
■ Genres: Ambient / Drone / Electroacoustic
■ Rating: 8.5/10
■ Favorite track: “This river”► Yeah, this is clearly a river. Trembling strings provide a mournful, cinematic backdrop, while spoken-word fragments drift in and out like a memory echo, half-heard and deeply human. Each piano note adds both fragile purity and dissonance to the hazy atmosphere. The combination of these elements somehow generates a real masterpiece. Poetry needs to be unclear.
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Voices #33
voices #33
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
MaTT Robert MCLennan
answering some questions. We have already observed his quintet experimental / noise jazz / post-rock work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “J’Peux” that we prefer is “tea tide pool”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Matt Robert McLennan: “tea tide pool” was the first track we laid down and it is completely improvised around a guitar refrain that I play repeatedly and, somewhat obstinately, outside of the metre of what the percussion and bass were doing. On this track, you can really hear us calibrating our sound and finding our roles – which I don’t think is at all a bad thing. It’s a fairly optimistic track despite the dark tonalities.
[2. CREATION]
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