Juno Recommends Ambient / Drone: March 2024

Review: 36's new album Reality Engine explores "the blossoming dynamics of artificial intelligence and the ever-changing definition of reality" on Past Inside The Present and does so with a continuation of his richly melodic sound while also evolving into new realms. The sheer beauty of these sounds is enough to uplift and energise, with chords ascending to the heavens on the opener 'Imagine The Truth' and then rolling out to infinite horizons on 'Axiom Haze'. 'Reality Engine' suspends you amongst the clouds and 'Beyond The Hyperreal' is a perfect marriage of immersive and organic sounds and hints of digital augmented reality engines. A sublime album, for sure.

Review: California's James Bernard is a much-loved regular on this label as well as being a veteran of the wider ambient scene who has been hard at it for more than three decades. His latest outing on Past Inside The Present with Anthene (aka Brad Deschamps of Toronto) is Soft Octaves, an album that finds them crafting a series of sounds using electric six-string bass. It has a huge range from the deepest depths to the wispiest of highs and each of the tracks here was recorded in one single take. The results are spellbinding indeed and the range of the bass's sonic ability is astonishing as it sounds at times like a cello, at others woodwind and is always intriguing.

Review: Arv & Miljo's new album delves into radical environmental activism and draws from the Swedish Plogbill movement's early 90s actions alongside Earth First! and Earth Liberation Front. Mixing monologues, interviews, protest songs, and site recordings with raw kosmische synth music, the pair crafts a mesmerising audio collage. Chaotic yet harmonious, disorienting yet soothing, the album reflects dedication, passion, and the spirit of change. Originally a limited CDR release in 2021, it quickly became a highlight in Arv & Miljo's discography. Now on, Jorden Forst offers a multi-faceted journey through environmental activism and the human spirit's resilience.

Review: Another 18 chapters "of aural anaesthetics" from 36 and Zake, following up their epic work Stasis Sounds For Long Distance Space Travel Part 1, or "continue their journey through the outer reaches of space in hypersleep" as they'd put it. The album comes on unique solar flare coloured vinyl, and as for its contents, well, they're grainy and immersive, widescreen and cinematic, immediately transporting you out into the farthest reaches of space. Perfect for zoning out of everyday life and enjoying some mindful moments to yourself.

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: Heaven Smile is a Nduja-affiliated label that is back with a second offering that takes a trip into futuristic techno as well as offering up some superb abstract outings. 'Hold-1' is an ambient soundscape that draws you into a filtered synth that pulses as changes shape. 'Track 2' is dubby, techno-leaning house with diffuse chord vamps and 'Aliasing' is a distorted, scruffy collage of broken beats and knackered claps with a fuzzy pulse running through the middle. 'Hold-3' offers another ambient moment to catch your breath then 'Windmill' suspends you in amongst the stars.

Review: When will Alex Paterson, the Dr, run out of ideas? Here joined by fellow originator of The Orb, Andy Falconer, the pair's Sedibus project takes all of the serenity of the legendary UK electronic act and then walks it up onto the nearest mountainside in the middle of the night, sets up camp, and invites you to join in a stargazing odyssey. You can almost feel the cosmos appearing around you as the work unfolds. Just like the great blanket of stars, energy and matter above, there's complexity here, even if it often feels deceptively simple. Layers, textures, passing noises, background harmonies, all these elements subtly create this deep and incredibly immersive soundscape that pulls you in like a black hole, before showing you what the spread, retreat, and expansion of energy might sound like.

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: Here we have the remastered edition of Robert Lippok's Open Close Open. Originally released in 2001 on the well-respected German glitch ambient label Raster Noton, the release has built a strong buzz about it. Late last year, the decision was to remaster the EP to the delight of the fans. The first 'Open' is very minimal with a very sparse beat to it. Glitch ambient and the cuts and click style of that period is wonderfully represented by this sound. To most fans of the release, 'Close' is the reason for the buzz. The combination of field recordings, glitch and a beautiful almost movie like soundtrack to it, makes this piece one of the most beautiful ambient pieces in the genre of glitch ambient. Hearing this remastered, really brings out the beauty even more so. This new version also features the very worthy piece 'Licht' to close out the release. It is very fitting that the amazing Morr Music honor this piece by releasing it.

Review: Primarily known for his work with the double bass and modular synths, Egil Kalman straddles that unique hinterland somewhere between electronic, electroacoustic, and folk. Renowned for his ability to improvise and create stunning, beautiful, minimalist compositions on the fly, while this is hard to truly capture on record, Forest of Tines does its best. With a subtitle referencing the instrument Kalman is perhaps most associated with, the work is deeply textured and yet deceptively bare, with layers slowly revealing themselves before dissipating into the ether. A sonic adventure that lures us in with calm, organic movements set against tones that are more obviously the result of man and machine, timelessness meeting modernity in these exquisite forms, like stories of the ancients told through contemporary musical language.

Review: Hot on the hells of the epic work Stasis Sounds For Long Distance Space Travel Part 1 comes the second instalment, seeing 36 and Zake "continue their journey through the outer reaches of space in hypersleep" as they have it. There's a healthy 18 track selection to lose yourself in, as these experts of the sublimely chilled ambient get to work - in a typically gentle fashion, obviously.