Ghostly International Us Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Brijean is the combination of percussionist and singer Brijean Murphy and multi-instrumentalist and producer Doug Stuart channelling their collective experiences into fresh rhythms. They debuted their first Ghostly album back in 2021 and since then have left the Bay Area. This new EP finds the pair at their most intimate, working through grief and exploring a new range of moods and styles across effervescent rhythms and colourful chords that bring rich and vibrant feelings to the fore. It's a captivating and creative record that might be their best yet.

Review: Emeralds really are the gift that keeps on giving. And giving. tTe Cleveland, Ohio-trio have around 40 releases out, which landed in rapid succession over a period of about four years. Many are self-facilitated CDs and cassettes, nodding to a 'record everything' mentality that keeps them front of mind, and invites listeners into their development, wrong turns and staggering successes. Within that insanely long oeuvre, formal releases bookend mini eras, each showcasing a slightly refined, retuned and rethought sound. Does It Look Like I'm Here? is no different, offering the most beautiful and crystalline music this outfit has made to date. Up against the epic-dominated preceding outings, where ten minute tunes abound, things are more 'standard album format here', with a couple of exceptions. But the tracks are not bound by uniformity or rules of this or that, and instead feel just as expansive.

Review: Helios is back with a new album that comes here on CD. He is rather a mainstay of the Ghostly label and someone adept at going deep into immersive worlds of ambient sound, though has always manage to evolve his signature style across his various long players. This one is all about minimal ambient electronics laced with instrumentation. It is his third long player on Ghostly following Veriditas and then Domicile in 2020 - and is a bit of a hark back to his earlier electro-acoustic roots. These are lush sounds with lively leads that unfurl slowly and meaningfully with plenty of emotion.

Review: Canada may not shout as loud as the US, UK or Germany when it comes to electronic music, with the exception of Richie Hawtin perhaps, albeit frequently assumed he's American, and is actually part-British. Nevertheless, the larger North American state has a truly remarkable legacy in house, techno, ambient, and synth-y odds and sods.

It's proof the apple never falls far from the tree, given proximity to some of the bonafide birthplaces of those sounds - Chicago and Detroit. Edmonton's Khotin is indicative of the difficult to define tones that emanate from the Maple Leaf and its people. So much texture, pouring with emotion, and fundamentally born of new ideas, or at least different ways of thinking. Release Spirit, his third album on Michigan's Ghostly International, is thoughtful, intelligent, downtempo electronic stuff, crafted with love and attention to detail.

Review: This is what happens when acclaimed Los Angeline harpist Mary Lattimore enlists Slowdive's Neil Halstead fo production duties. A lush, and liquid listening experience that is as graceful as it is confident, blurring the lines between classical and ambient in a way that seems to echo centuries of traditional, almost Medieval tones and contemporary electronic adventures alike.

Lattimore's work has previously been described in terms of 'dreamscapes', and few have been painted more vividly than Silver Ladders. These are deep dive arrangements that expand and contract like breathing, allowing the artist's signature instrument to shine while submerging it in swells of refrain. Movement is constant, and yet the record feels mill pond still. Hardly par for the course, even in the fertile sonic ground she works in. Step inside and prepare to be captivated.

Review: Two years and two months have passed since Scott Hansen delivered his fifth studio album Awake and there's a strong rumour that his sixth is en route. In the meantime, Ghostly have channelled the spirits to commission nine fittingly far-out, heavily textured remixes. From the faraway jungle breakbeats and spiralling arpeggios of Nitemove's shake-up to the sparse flute flexing and smoky beats of RJD2's jam by way of warped, time-bending nuances of Bibio's take, the all-star cast deliver an all-star collection of versions. This will keep us more than happy until the next Tycho tale arrives.