Each month, writer, musician, and DJ Ted Davis wanders through the dreamlike outskirts of Bandcamp. Embracing a fluid, forward-thinking approach to ambient, anything deemed worthy of the genre tag is considered fair game for this column. Here are albums from rave veterans, a kaleidoscopic jazz duo, an ascending harp star, and others.
Seefeel
Everything Squared
Compact Disc (CD), T-Shirt/Shirt, Vinyl LP
It was a monumental month for Warp Records. The storied electronic label kicked things off by releasing Everything Squared, a new EP from experimental rockers Seefeel. The first record by the British project since 2011 finds them in rare form, serving up dubbed-out, dismantled shoegaze, shrouded in spectral mist. These six tracks are largely a collaboration between multi-instrumentalist Mark Clifford and vocalist Sarah Peacock, with bass from Shigeru Ishihara. Everything Squared is more melodic and direct than much of Seefeel’s clattering earlier work. But it maintains a woozy grit that has allowed the project to remain distinct with time.
Nala Sinephro
Endlessness
2 x Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
Barely a week after returning Seefeel to the conversation, Warp returned with another crucial listen—this time around from buzzy up-and-comer Nala Sinephro. The Belgium-born, London-based composer cut her teeth in the city’s thriving scene, orbiting beloved online radio station NTS and remixing Nubya Garcia. Flowering from these promising roots, Sinephro became an unexpected breakout star after the release of her full-length debut, Space 1.8, in 2021. Her new album, Endlessness, picks up where she left off, casting delicate, cascading arrangements in lava-lamp glow. Incorporating a recurring arpeggiation, modular synthesis, and harp, the record lands somewhere in between jazz and contemporary classical. Aided by contributions from Ezra Collective saxophonist James Mollison, black MIDI percussionist Morgan Simpson, pianist Lyle Barton, and others, Endlessness is a glittering snapshot of a crucial moment for the UK underground.
Sarah Davachi
The Head As Form’d In The Crier’s Choir
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
Los Angeles-based keyboard and organ whiz Sarah Davachi takes an academic approach to gothic neoclassical, which has made her something of a breakout star in a relatively arcane field. Her new album, The Head As Form’d In The Crier’s Choir, makes for a chilly addition to her droning discography. A collection of seven compositions for chamber ensembles, these drawn-out pieces play like relics discovered in a buried medieval treasure chest. Davachi lays vintage synths atop arrangements performed by orchestral musicians with whom she collaborated between California and Europe. The record is inspired by Greek mythology, reinforcing the feeling that Davachi’s work comes from some bygone century.
GAS
GAS
Vinyl Box Set, Compact Disc (CD)
GAS mastermind Wolfgang Voigt’s name has been thrown around a lot in recent years, thanks to the fact that labels like Peak Oil and Motion Ward have been returning the kind formless techno that he helped pioneer to vogue. A reissue of Voigt’s hard-to-find 1996 debut via minimal institution Kompakt offers a glimpse at an oceanic depth that defined the early days of GAS. Initially issued by microhouse label Mille Plateaux, GAS stretches six cuts across 92 minutes. While sprawling, these tracks still manage to showcase Voigt’s drive—resonant kicks and clicky hats flicker beneath blue-tinted, subtly evolving pads. Turn up the volume and it becomes apparent that there’s a deceptive amount of space in these tracks for you to disappear into.
Civilistjävel!
Brödföda
In addition to producing and spinning thought-provoking club essentials, Copenhagen-based DJ Fergus Jones (aka Perko) runs the label FELT, which has backed everything from throbbing electro reissues to queasy, misshapen dub. FELT’s newest release is from Swedish artist Tomas Bodén. Operating under the alias Civilistjävel!, Bodén marshy records have quickly made him a revered player in the European nightlife circuit. Brödföda—Bodén’s new full-length for FELT—is dense and sticky. Working with collaborators for the first time, voices and strings crawl from a bog of echoes and atonal clanks. It’s ghostly and imposing, denying every available opportunity to wander towards light.
CHANTSSSS
Shyness
Vinyl LP
Australian label and mix series Theory Therapy has solidified a niche that is at once spa-like and cryptic. Glasgow-based imprint co:clear occupies a kindred gauzy lane, having already issued noteworthy 2024 releases from Eden Aurelius and Box5ive. Now, Theory Therapy and co:clear have teamed up to issue Shyness, the debut album from Italian producer CHANTSSSS. These 10 tracks are just as foggy as one might expect, given the co-sign that brought them into the world. Deep sound design outlines poppy songwriting, making me imagine what might occur if Jan Jelinek tried his hand at cloud rap. A guest appearance from Ben Bondy’s k2dj persona and mastering credit from Hysterical Love Project’s Ike Zwanikken further assert CHANTSSSS as a promising addition to the glitch resurgence bubbling up from cool corners of the Internet.
Luke Sanger
Dew Point Harmonics
Vinyl LP, 2 x Vinyl LP
The albums put out by Philip Sherburne and Albert Salinas’ label Balmat are both inquisitive and pearly. On their 12th release, the pair re-enlist Luke Sanger—a UK synthesist who inaugurated the imprint with his 2021 album Languid Gongue. Sanger is technologically savvy enough to create his own software, and he retains a strong command over Max/MSP. But his output thrums with humanness and spontaneity. The 13 cuts on his new LP, Dew Point Harmonics, split the difference between blissful soundscaping and more serrated sketches. Wiry synth leads have a tendency to dovetail into bloopy puddles, laid on a canvas of naturalistic rustles. Dew Point Harmonics sparked as Sanger was hiking alone on a remote slice of English coast, and is fittingly misted and inward gazing.
Isik Kural
Moon in Gemini
Vinyl LP, 2 x Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
Isik Kural’s music evokes a lullaby heard in a dream about levitation. The Turkey-born, Glasgow-based multi-instrumentalist has historically merged nylon string guitar, synthesis, and field recordings. On his new album for RVNG Intl., Moon in Gemini, Kural diversifies his process by incorporating cryptic, sugary vocals. The whole thing is quaint and content—begging to score bouts of solitary contemplation and rainy strolls.
YAI
Sky Time
Vinyl LP
New York State duo YAI craft tracks that seem to emerge from billowing clouds of incense. The partnership between seasoned audio engineer John Thayer and prolific session musician David Lackner released its first full-length on Not Not Fun in 2022. YAI’s new record for AKP Recordings expands on the purply formula explored in their prior work. Cosmic jazz, new-age soundscaping, and bohemian beat making all coalesce over the album’s 37-minute runtime. Thayer and Lackner have each collaborated with ambient heavyweight Arp, and it’s easy to trace a throughline between these smokey, albeit daylit projects.
Setting
at Eulogy
Cassette
North Carolina’s indie rock boom has been receiving a lot of attention lately, but on at Eulogy, the trio Setting provides an enticing taste of its outsider community. Consisting of multi-instrumentalist Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly, and Joe Westerlund, the album was captured during a live performance at the Asheville brewery that gives the record its name. These scorched, lengthy jams are carried by twitchy drums, twangy fretwork, and harmonium. The end result thrums with weathered electricity, blurring bohemian free folk and kosmische soundscaping.
Quarterly
Adonis
Whether platforming Steely Dan-esque songwriting or ECM tinged jazz, Ruination Record Co. is a crucial outlet for brainy albums. Quarterly’s new album for Ruination, Adonis, is a breezy slice of prickling folk. On the record, cellist Kristen Drymala and outside-the-box guitarist Christopher DiPietro paint classical techniques in earthy hues. The pair happen to be romantic partners, and this intimacy yields a nuanced interplay. Track titles hinting at billowing sails, Italian sorcery, and New England beaches only heighten Adonis’s essence of warm escapism.
Lia Kohl
Normal Sounds
Vinyl LP
In theory, Lia Kohl and Moon Glyph dwell at opposite ends of the ambient spectrum. Kohl’s cello-based pieces are creaky, fitting nicely on noisy imprint American Dreams. Portland Oregon-based label Moon Glyph’s output is typically more optimistic and tie-dyed. But Kohl’s new release, Normal Sounds, suggests that Moon Glyph might be branching into more brooding terrain. Kohl and collaborators Patrick Shiroishi and Ka Baird use their instruments to mimic field recordings of everyday objects like refrigerators and car horns. Blending the benign and avant-garde, Normal Sounds is a hallucinogenic portrayal of sonic textures frequently taken for granted.
