Photo by Polina Romanenko
Silky Disturbance - Indebted To You
alternative
Bristolian experimenters Silky Disturbance hammer into psychedelic depths on "Indebted To You", an idiosyncratic cut from the group's new album Lens of Arcana. The source material for the new album is the Tarot, a dubious though sustaining practice of intuitive life mapping. Tarot's mystical element is expressed wonderfully here, by a group who are as much dark arts practitioners as they are are a musical ensemble. Comprised of violinist Ben Mowat, trumpet player Lyle, and synth and vocalist Thea Gordon-Rawlings, the group act as a multi-level canvas for frontperson Georgia Collins to enact wonderous brushstrokes of poetry with hypnotic delivery, weaving "stories of environmental healing, protection to women and embodiment of the land" into smooth cabaret-tinged sonic sorcery.
Gunnar Spardel - Towards Silence
neoclassical
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Neoclassical electronic composer and producer Gunnar Spardel was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany, but is now based on the Northeast coast of the USA. This intercontinental bent extends to his music, which ranges from blissed-out ambient quietness to post-rock epicness. This dynamic is cleverly served on the track "Towards Silence", which morphs from Yoshimuraesque sonic purling to cinematic sweeps of rhythm guitar and percussion heavy sections, culminating in a concoction of emotive and well-produced music that is half academic, half video game music in disguise. "Towards Silence" is taken from Spardel's second album The Fade to Afterlife.
Sutras - A Lotus Like Mouth
devotional
While the simple yet effective music of Virginian sonic meditator Tristan Welch may seem like an innocuous expression of spirituality through the medium of music, there's much to be said for the effects of incorporating religious elements into instrumental ambient. Our increasingly globalized society is turning more athiestic by the minute, and music is becoming more detached from its devotional roots than ever. Yet, there's something about ambient music that is innately spiritual; it appeals to the deeper levels of human perception; to our sense of space as opposed to the animalistic urges of rock and pop. Welch found comfort from the struggles of existence through Buddhism and Bhakti teachings, incorporating his gratitude to those religions into exotic music. The first single from this new devotional project, aptly named Sutras, is "A Lotus Like Mouth", a track which manifests around sustained tones of rather harsh electric guitar that rings in layers over a militaristically simple drum beat.
Inezona - Midnight Circle
folk rock
Swiss dark folk group Inezona make a convincing call to antiquity on "Midnight Circle", the first single from their upcoming album, Heartbeat. Inezona are comprised of vocalist and guitarist, Ines Brodbeck, guitarist Gabriel Sullivan, bassist Fabian Gisler, and drummer Eric Gut, and the group hints at medieval imagery sprinkled throughout the romantic use of language as well as in the dark interpretation of '60s psychedelic folk. Featuring guest vocalist Frederyk Rotter, "Midnight Circle" crescendos to a substantially metal and hard-hitting finale, the impact of which is ultra-effective after you've been hypnotized by its rich vocal harmonies and transient dynamic intensity. This single is also released alongside a video by Baschi Thommen, which mirrors the track's pleasantly disorienting nature. Heartbeat comes out later this year on Czar of Crickets Productions.