Oct. 2, 2026
I usually expect summer to be a slow time for new releases, but I’ve come across so much interesting music in the past few months. (See also my previous post of jazz-adjacent releases.) And I know I still missed a lot. Anyone who says there’s no good music happening is not paying attention. As always, titles link to the music and names in bold are artists who either currently live or have lived in the Pacific Northwest.
anthéne (Canada) - Air Signs
"Ephemeral guitar sounds overlap in loops, rising and falling like breath. Diffuse gusts of melody blow past. Bright glimmers of sound give a sense of sunlight and shadow." – Samuel Rogers, A Closer Listen
Aquíestoy - Til We Dissolve
"Aquiestoy is the acoustic-meets-analog creative music project of guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Carlos Snaider. Based in Seattle with Nuyorican and Ecuadorian roots, Aquiestoy bridges creative music sensibilities with hip-hop, electronica, and latin music, along with lyrics sung in English and Spanish, with the intention that the message be felt in the music even if the words are lost in translation."
Marc Barreca - A Penchant for the Useless
I've been following my old friend and collaborator's music steadily since the 1980s. One of the pioneers of PNW electronic music, his work is often quite complex relative to much of what gets called "ambient" these days. This one is considerably more subdued than his other recent releases, and it suits my mood just fine.
Be Present Art Group - The Spiritual-Sonic Research Series Vol. 2
This large ensemble from Portland is keeping the visionary, untamed spirit of Great Black Music alive, harkening back to free jazz big band roots in Sun Ra's Arkestra, Black Arts Group, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Last Poets, etc.
Paul Beaudoin (US/Estonia) - signal loss
"Originally conceived as a sound installation for the Nikola Tesla Museum in Zagreb, it draws its conceptual charge from Tesla's visionary but often misaligned imagination—particularly his fascination with invisible systems, failed transmissions, and the space between intent and reception. Each piece behaves like a disrupted or disturbed circuit: minimal, ambient, and spatially responsive."
Blood Lotus (Australia) - Middle of the Night
Sultry/ethereal female vocals over jittery electronics. I appreciate this as someone who enjoys FKA Twigs and Lucrecia Dalt and Portishead, though I can't vouch for its potential shelf life. "...a borderless record that fuses experimental electronic music, alternative R&B, avant-garde pop, and traditional Chinese instrumentation."
Chris Cochrane & Kevin Budd Jones - Live in Seattle...
I produced this NYC duo's concert at the Chapel last year and it was a good one. However, the live recording has here been thoroughly folded, spindled, and mutilated after the fact to create an entirely different beast than what we experienced on that winter night. It's become another thing now, but equally great on its own terms.
Mike Cooper (UK/Spain or Italy?) - Stochastic Parrot
Very unusual and a delightful surprise! He's been active since the 60s but totally new to me. "...music for imaginary places...a suite of vertiginous reverberations that are struck through with Cooper's "real and virtual" lap steel twangs, collaged together from samples and field recordings that wobble like heat haze...it's not like channeling a dream so much as it's like being subjected to three or four dreams simultaneously. It's the ghosts of jazz fusion being raked over coals at midnight." - Boomkat
Dur-Dur Band (Somalia) - Volume 3 (1988) & Volume 4 (1989)
"Dur-Dur Band’s music is constantly moving; rolling, spinning, flexing, and bouncing. Vocals are punctuated by blasts of horns, drums punch out beats doubled up with brass stabs and bass lines are incapable of staying still and walk around the songs happily restless. Percussion is constantly bubbling away, tickling, cajoling, daring you to try not to move." - Joyzine
earthsignchels - Daddy Died
Just one song. It's a remarkable performance, digging deep into grief and rage with a restrained theatricality that is unsettling and highly effective. It’s like she’s an operatic diva dropped into a Noh drama. Her annunciation is hyper-stylized and the lyrics fly by fast and furious (lots of cursing). It's not easy to follow but don't bother with the captions, they're mostly wrong. I'm no hiphop aficionado but I expect this will blow up.
emer (Lithuania/Belgium) & Ugnė Uma (Lithuania/Germany) - you and me
There are so many sub-genres of electronic music, and I am in no way qualified to accurately slot this into any particular style. So I'll just say it's kinda downtempo, kinda dubstep, kinda glitchy, kinda jazzy, kinda soulful, kinda sexy, kinda great.
Michael Gordon - Field of Vision
"Performed on specially constructed and tuned percussion instruments, industrial metals, wood and gongs...The large number of percussionists, and the vast performance field, invoke a sweeping perspective that suggests the architectural movement of sound."
Jeff Greinke - Land of Ice and Fog
A lovely new album by my old friend, who takes his ambient work in a decidedly more minimal, stripped-down direction this time out. Yours truly even makes a guest appearance on two tracks.
Vittorio Guindani (Italy) - la porta blanca
"These are still fragments and residues, field recordings reduced to their barest essence, loops that hint at melodies without fully resolving, small sonic events enlarged until their grain becomes visible." – A Closer Listen
Nick Hakim - I Can See
Lest you didn't know, I am a total sucker for ambiguously gendered voices: counter-tenors, Jimmy Scott, Anohni, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Armando Garzón, Lula Pena, Annahstasia, Prince's falsetto... You get the idea. I know nothing about Nick Hakim, but I'll follow his voice wherever it leads. Fortunately it leads to hushed, lo-fi R&B-tinged ballads - for which I am also a total sucker. So, win/win.
HIGHSIGH - Once Bend
A sort of "super group" with the guitarist from Deerhoof and a couple other guys I don't know. There's a lot going on here, most of it in song form. It's perhaps the closest thing to Big Rock Music in this batch, but take that with a grain of salt. Reminds me of a busier Sea & Cake, maybe?
Alec Ilyine (Belgium) - Drift Lines
"Ilyine is a Belgian electro acoustic musician mixing fingerpicking with field recordings and effects on the iPad. Sweet melodies and compositions are used as frameworks for an improvisational practice, using steel string guitar, cavaquinho and taishogoto, and different kinds of flutes and found objects from over the whole world."
Eyvind Kang - Sonic Gnostic
"These recordings document a live concert in Los Angeles. Bill Frisell, Tim Tsang, Timothy Young, Lu Coy, Breana Gilcher, Diego Gaeta, Jessika Kenney, Jesse Quebbeman-Turley joined Eyvind Kang on stage...completed with a solo performance of one of Kang’s compositions by pianist Adrienne Varner. The conceptual, spiritual and searching style of Kang binds everything together."
The Klittens (Netherlands) - Have a Heart
This might be the closest thing to the Raincoats since...the Raincoats! Translation: All-female post-punk band from Amsterdam with charmingly ragged edges, smart ideas, and a huge heart. Utterly delightful.
KMRU (Kenya/Germany) - crop
He’s been busy cranking out a slew of ambient releases for a few years now, gradually becoming more well-known. I’ve been interested but waiting for one that really hits the spot. This one does it for me.
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe - Manifestations in the Shadow of an Uncertain Land
"Moving fluidly between voice, electronics, and evolving tonal environments, the record unfolds as a meditation on memory, power, and perception through a language that is both cinematic and deeply personal."
L'Rain - fata morgana
Stylistically, this is all over the map. The fact that it all coheres is kind of miraculous. "Diaphanous vocals blur into shimmering thickets of guitar feedback; soft drums evaporate into thrumming synths; breezy folk molts into pulsing dub." – Pitchfork "...rivers of synths, treated guitars, and whispery percussion create mirage-like songs that are both hazy and gorgeous... It’s Kate Bush-y art-balladry bleeding into R&B bleeding into ambient music..." – BandCamp
Lumtz (Argentina) - Tesoros
These days there's no shortage of music made like this - loops, field recordings, ambient electronics, etc. But this strikes me as a particularly lovely and soulful iteration, made by someone who lives in a small place they love and who wants to attend to it with care. Reminds me a bit of Steve Roden at times, though less obviously conceptual.
Meriheini Luoto (Finland) - Talven Uneen Vaipuen
Released almost a year ago, but I'm just now seeing it reviewed. "...a ten-movement cycle written for and with four distinct Finnish ensembles...she’s a musician whose ear owes nothing to conservatory orthodoxy, even as her handling of pitch, timbre and structure reveals years of disciplined listening...The vocal and instrumental counterpoint murmurs, rattles and quivers; the harmonic language moves by instinct, not by formula." (Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes)
maya ongaku (Japan) - Nothing Space Music
I rarely pay attention to the New York Times' music picks, but this is lovely, even if you don't speak Japanese: "...a soothing blend of minimalism, psychedelia and ambient music...Gentle vocals, shimmering bell tones and a serene colloquy of recurring motifs among keyboards, woodwinds, bass and guitar..." – NYT
Thomas Meadowcraft (US/Germany) with asamisimasa (Norway) - Love Songs Without Subjects
"Love is to give what you do not have to someone who does not want it. Over forty-plus minutes...Lacan’s aphorism is set across a four measure chord sequence based on the famous descending, chromatic bass lament, a compositional device often found in love songs. The vocal line is delicately supported by a musical accompaniment consisting of bass clarinet, violoncello, guitar, vibraphone, Rhodes, piano and synthesisers."
Sean Meehan - nonlocality/phaselocking
It's incredible what Sean can do with his bare hands, a snare drum, and a cymbal. I've been loving his work for many years and he still manages to astonish me. This is about as close as acoustic sound gets to electronic music.
megiapa - Intentions
Play alongside Me’Shell Ndegeocello, L'Rain, and Thee Satisfaction. Extra points for covering Rotary Connection's 1971 classic I Am the Black Gold of the Sun. "Across its warm synths, fluttering basslines, meditative voice notes and spiritual grooves, the Los Angeles-based producer, vocalist and composer maps the uncertain terrain between heartbreak, healing, fear and surrender."
Abul Mogard & Rafael Anton Irisarri - Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun
"...The music proceeds through successive concentrations, through waves that ignite, bend, then merge again into a single breath, with a force born of patience and attention to detail. Its overall motion carries something geological, a gradual emergence of sonic planes that seem to form under the ear, with the implacable naturalness of matter placed under pressure." - Igloo
navā (Belgium/India/Australia) - Rainflower
"Poly Varghese, based in Australia and born in Kerala is a virtuoso of the mohan veena (20-string Indian slide guitar)... Trained in both Carnatic and Hindustani traditions, he blends classical forms with jazz, blues and global styles in thoughtful, detailed improvisations. Alec Ilyine is a Belgian musician, sound engineer, and multi-instrumentalist...He plays a wide range of stringed instruments, including 6- and 12-string guitars, oud, cavaquinho, charango, and bass guitar."
Marco Paltrinieri (Italy) - Otto Studi
Delicate, reductive studies for solo electric guitar and pedals with gracious use of system hum and buzz. Echoes of old school lowercase, which is a good thing
Ella PIana - ianua
"...the album is built entirely from guitar sounds, transformed through a Plumbutter [?] and recorded to tape. Changes in tape speed and playback irregularities introduce subtle imperfections and shifting variations, allowing the loops to evolve gradually over time."
Play Time - Magic Object
"Ben Vida, Booker Stardrum, and Will Epstein [play] a polymetric blend of improv and pulse minimalism for saxophone, drums, and Moog [that] doesn’t really sound anything like any of their many other ensembles or respective solo projects...a sort of minimalist-jazz-krautrock bar band."
Melanie Radford - For the Sake of Stillness
The bassist/singer usually heard rocking with Built to Spill and Blood Lemon slows way down and chills out on this set of lovely bass-forward ballads that should easily appeal to fans of early Low or Hugo Largo.
Ana Roxanne - Poem 1
"Heartbroken and reflective...her voice is naked, vulnerable and alive, no longer shrouded in tape noise or looped and echoed beyond recognition beneath layered electroacoustic textures. Throughout the course of 'Poem 1', Roxanne displays her skill as a singer and songwriter in the classic sense, using the limited instrumentation simply to accent her exposed tones."
Schouten/Courtois/Borges/Baux (Holland/France/Portugal) - Open Space
Three great improvisers (clarinet/cello/drums) and an actor interpret a novel by experimental writer Georges Perec ("Espèces d’espaces"), and it is quite wonderful even if you don't speak French.
Shearwater - The New World
I'm a fan of Jonathan Meiburg's other band, Loma, so I'm happy to hear this. It's paradoxically lush and restrained, showcasing his sweet tenor voice amid arrangements that remind me a bit of British bands like Talk Talk or Elbow - tuneful yet adventurous. "The players explore the particular feel of a set of piano or guitar chords and a laid back rhythm, then settle into a hazy, impressionistic groove." - Dusted
Ayami Suzuki (Japan) & Rob Noyes (US/Japan) - Classic Fevers and Chills
Reissue of a 2022 cassette release. "Suzuki has become known to cognoscenti for her brilliantly imagined vocal improvisations...Rob Noyes has developed a parallel reputation as a master third-generation acoustic guitarist in the post-Takoma tradition... Rob's delicate instrumental arcs create a perfect net for Ayami's vocals, which are usually wordless (although they always feel weighted with emotional content)." - Byron Coley
Tempered Steel - Interior Aquatics
Three veterans of the Seattle experimental scene team up for a trio of amplified thumb pianos and stomp boxes, creating "seamless improvisations conjuring everything from phantom harpsichords and subterranean percussion to vintage musique concrète."
Those Who Walk Away - Afterlife Requiem
"...an elegy to friend and collaborator Jóhann Jóhannsson. Drone, electroacoustics, and near-silences extracted from unfinished recordings on Jóhannsson hard drives, underpin two string quintets—Ghost Orchestra (Reykjavík) and Possible Orchestra (Winnipeg)—processed and erased in a doleful durational work."
Topdown Dialectic - False LP A
Techno isn't my usual thing, but this isn't your usual techno. All 16 tracks sound similarly dubby/squelchy/ghosty and are each exactly five minutes long. I suspect they might all be different dub versions of the same track. Works nicely burbling subliminally in the background.
Morita Vargas (Argentina) - III
"Buoyant rhythms ride midnight waves while childlike choirs surface and dissolve, and through it all, Vargas’s voice is at the center. It gets broken into strata, melted, reformed, and repitched, before being fused back together in angular structures and unfamiliar sonic silhouettes. She casts revelations wrapped in black threads and tonal silk." – Foxy Digitalis
Various (Greece) - Aman Aman: Greek-Anatolian Laments
I'm no expert when it comes to Greek music recorded in the early 20th century, but I absolutely adore it and believe there are few things more soulful. Blessed are the crate diggers who unearth these treasures and share them with the rest of us.
Various (Namibia) - Himba Hymn: Ghosts of Namibia's Skeleton Coast
If you dig Ba Benzélé pygmy music, Inuit throat singing, and Balinese kecak, this will surely be your jam. I have some questions about recordist Ian Brennan's ethnographic approach. Like, does using a looper during the recording make him a participant-observer? But this is a Sublime Frequencies release, after all, and unorthodox methodology aside it sounds pretty damn fabulous.
Laura Veirs - Temple Songs
I haven't listened to her in a few years, and her voice has changed; interestingly, it sounds younger, not older. "These songs have the shivery clarity of a glacial stream, built out of rock instruments but scrubbed clear of sweat and distortion...Veirs has always engaged with the natural world, capturing flora, fauna, ocean and rock formations in precise, not overly ornamented language." - Dusted
The Womack Sisters - The Womack Sisters
Talk about a pedigree. Their grandfather was Sam Cooke, their uncle was Bobby Womack, and their parents were the duo Womack & Womack. They were clearly born to sing classic R&B/soul, which they do magnificently. Part of me is wary of how thoroughly retro this sounds (think slightly updated 60s Motown), but it's so perfect I can't resist.
ZÖJ (Iran/Australia) - May the Devil's Ear Be Deaf
"Recorded live, without overdubs, each piece holds the fragile moment where a sound might disappear, or stay with you... Voice, kamancheh, and drums move through silence and resonance, leaving space for the air between notes and the emotion inside them."