Well we have made it yet to another year-end list season. It’s been a long-ish year for me, but there has been plenty to soundtrack the angst-y days and anxiety nights. What do I do to cope with the mental anguish and shadowy unknowns? Well, I listen to music. I exercise as well, but the last month or so I haven’t been doing the latter as much. Good thing I’ve got the former.
When my head is full of hazy indifference or I’m just trying to work something out that seems to be alluding me, my go-to aural salve of choice is ambient music. Ever since 2020 and the discovery of record labels like Moon Glyph, SFI Recordings, Azure Vista, Past Inside The Present, Aural Canyon, and Zakè Drone Recordings I’ve discovered a pocket of peace amongst the static noise. Ambient, New Age, Private Press, and drone have been essential in grounding my mind when it needs it.
Today is my list of favorite ambient, new age, and drone music of 2023. There were a lot of amazing ambient albums I was fortunate enough to hear this year, and sadly many more I didn’t get around to yet. When reality gets rocky it tends to mess with your mind and make things you love to do seem somehow insignificant or inconsequential. Especially when your life feels busy, but not in a good way. That happened to me this year. Lots of hectic noise in my brain that I couldn’t get away from. So there was a lot of music I didn’t get a chance to hear. I’m catching up as our lives have gotten less static, so that’s good.
Take it from me, don’t listen to the negative voices. Drop the needle on a record and let it do its magic. Even if you think it won’t help. It will. If you’re looking for some kind of musical answers to questions your mind is driving you nuts over, look no further than these albums.
From Overseas and zakè : Demain, dès l’aube
Two of the current masters of ambient/deep meditation music, From Overseas and zakè, collaborate on one of the most epic sound journeys of the year with Demain, dès l’aube. Demain, dès l’aube is a tour-de-force in subtlety and restraint, with sound sculptors From Overseas and zakè creating lilting, epic passages that feel like falling through time. Tracks like “Tomorrow At Dawn”, “I Will Walk Eyes Fixed On My Thoughts”, and the grand epic finale of “A Bouquet Of Green Holly” painting cavernous, transcendent sound with exquisite sonic brushstrokes. Minimalism at its cinematic finest.
Paul Riedl : Ocean of Peace
Paul Riedl’s Ocean of Peace follows his series of Ambient Mixtape volumes with the grand calm of deep space contemplation. Riedl has proven a master of meditative drone and melodious vibes through the circuital path via analog synthesizers. Ocean of Peace might be his pièce de résistance, culminating in three tracks that emulate the low, lulling roar of a mind clear of clutter and open to what gifts the universe offers. Undeniably therapeutic for the mind, body, and soul.
Justin Sweatt : Permian Tapes Vol 2
Permian Tapes Vol. 2 sees my good friend and master sound cultivator Justin Sweatt honing his ambient skills. Building on such ambient classics as Say Your Goodbyes and When The Light Goes, Sweatt builds minimalist epics like “Switched Off”, “Goodbye To A River” and “Coyanosa Moon” using subtle layers. While taking inspiration from Krautrock and Berlin School masters, Justin Sweatt makes these meditative works more three-dimensional. And also more emotionally engaging in the long run.
awakened souls : unlikely places
There’s something quite entrancing about awakened souls, the debut project of husband and wife duo Cynthia and James Bernard. No strangers to the ambient world, these two fine ambient composers in both solo and collaborative projects come together and create a magical, warm, and all-encompassing world with album unlikely places. 10 beautiful tracks the envelope the listener in light and life. From the brassy optimism of opener “i was complete” to the nocturnal mystery of “fall asleep, dream” to the buoyant hopefulness of closer “whispering goodbye”, Cynthia and James Bernard have made a record of epic beauty and emotional heft. A joy to hear and experience.
zakè and City of Dawn : Ash
zakè (a.k.a. Zach Frizzell) and City of Dawn (a.k.a. Damien Duque) continue the sound journey they began with 2022s excellent Agape, this time with Ash. Five tracks of billowing, cloud-like walls of sound built from densely layered, heavily-effected electronics. Listening to “Quiet Spirit”, title track “Ash”, and the finale of “They Know Not” feels like looking into a chasm of time, space, and collected experiences and emotions. It can be overwhelming in the best way possible if you just open yourself up – to the experience and singular universal hum – that these two masters of melodic transcendence offer.
City of Dawn : Scattered Colours
Damien Duque keeps the musical magic going with City of Dawn’s widescreen Scattered Colours, a masterclass in electronic music. At times orchestral in feel, yet also very alien. Like a broadcast from deep space that shows not only is there life out there, it’s life with heart, soul, and emotional depth. “Experimentation using Muse EEG headband to generate neurofeedback into sonic landscapes, alternative guitar tuning and field recordings.” So basically this is sound built on brainwaves and thoughtful psychedelia. It’s like Altered States, but instead of regressing to some primal self we become more enlightened in this intellectual and visceral sound journey.
Omni Gardens : Golden Pear
Steve Rosborough, aka Omni Gardens and label head at Moon Glyph Records has made it his mission to share with the world music that deals in warmth and light and a kind of dizzying optimism. His project Omni Gardens radiates all of the above. 2018s excellent West Coast Escapism was full of hum and entrancing, droning new age enlightenment. 2020’s Moss King was built on minimalism and added warm Moog layers. Golden Pear continues that evolution of sound, building lush sound worlds with bells, vibraphones, and mellotron flutes. “Salt Lamp” washes us in sound, much like the ocean waves we hear in the background; while “Lucky Rosemary” has a percussive cascade to it. The album teeters between meditative bliss and a nature walk on the edge of the universe.
zakè : Orchestral Tape Studies II
zakè’s Orchestral Tape Studies II continues the heady, orchestral sound experiments he started in 2019 with Orchestral Tape Studies I. Capturing the magic of composers like Johann Johannsson, Max Richter, and Philip Glass but putting his own unique ambient spin on it, zakè creates thoughtful sound spaces and gives gravitas to his ephemeral symphony. It’s like music as clouds; strident shapes twisting and turning before your eyes before morphing into something completely different. Or dissipating into the universe never to be seen again. Orchestral Tape Studies II is a score to a vivid dream, a dream where canvases paint themselves and ideas come to technicolor life revealing magic hiding in plain sight.
Discover more from Complex Distractions
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
