"Wilding Theme" by Jon Hopkins

Jon Hopkins has created the soundtrack to a film called "Wilding," a documentary about Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell's pioneering rewilding project at Knepp Estate in England, and the title track is lovely...

https://jonhopkins.co.uk/

"Big Empty Country" by Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe

It is a match made in heaven: a collaboration between ambient pioneer Brian Eno and conceptual artist/musician Beatie Wolfe has produced a pair of albums, "Luminal" featuring Wolfe on vocals, and "Lateral" featuring eight glorious tracks of classic ambient sonics which both describe as "ambient-landscape-dream-music" and "like the familiar, but better." These tracks are a tonic for these ailing days...here are four of them...

https://www.brian-eno.net/
https://beatiewolfe.com/

"Bloom: Living World" by Brian Eno

I have loved Brian Eno's ambient music since I first heard "Music For Airports" nearly 45 years ago. Another classic ambient creation of his, "Thursday Afternoon" is one that makes its way into rotation when I am on an ambient kick. And now I can add this glorious new Eno ambient creation, "Bloom: Living World" to my mix.

"As a decades long pioneer of generative and ambient music, Brian Eno instantly saw the possibilities offered by newly emergent phone apps. In 2008, he and software developer Peter Chilvers, collaborated on their first - Bloom, an award winning, generative, visual music app that can be enjoyed on any smart device. Utilising Eno's original music and visuals, it allows the user to explore elaborate patterns and melodies by simply tapping the screen.

Not many apps have remained fresh and relevant after sixteen years in the way that Bloom has. Over the years it has featured in films and television, gained new features, and spawned an extended 10-year anniversary edition, Bloom: 10 Worlds which introduced 10 new realms to further explore. Bloom: Open Space premiered in The Transformatorhuis in Amsterdam in February 2018. The installation was Eno's first foray into augmented reality with a generative music experience in situ using the HoloLens.

In Bloom: Living World, Brian Eno has reimagined Bloom as a studio work, applying treatments to an hour long recording and adding subtle sonic touches. It is accompanied by Bloom: Small World, which encapsulates the whole experience into a concise 5 minutes and thirty four seconds. Originally released in October 2024 as an Amazon Original, it surpassed 17 million streams in its first three months, and will now be released on all digital music services on January 31, 2025.

Accompanying the music is an original video edit, also generated from the app."

https://www.brian-eno.net/

"your milk is cold now" by Neon Genesis

OH.MY.GOD. I am in love with this floaty, dreamy, ethereal track "your milk is cold now" by L.A. duo Neon Genesis.

https://www.instagram.com/_neongenesis_/
https://neoncatalog.bandcamp.com/

More "Somnum" by HÆLOS

In 2021, the phenomenal band HÆLOS created a work they called "Somnum" to reflect where they were at the time: "When the whole world is asleep and it feels like it’s just you, on your own, it can be wonderfully calm or horribly isolating. Although the band have been in different locations this year, they have often found themselves in the same sleepless state. Lotti navigating the early days of motherhood, Dom struggling with tinnitus and Daniel working nocturnal hours. In this twilight search they began exploring white noise and sharing ambient albums, gathering a palette of sounds that would form the basis of 'Somnum'."

Well, thankfully the band have revisited this musical sleep project, adding new tracks which build on the original ambient sound by introducing a cinematic quality and intriguing sampled sounds. And the visuals in the following videos are subtle but effective. They appear to be AI generated which give them an unsettling feeling, unmoored from reality. Taking place at night, naturally, the urban images of distant skylines, underground tunnels and roads, fire escapes, metal catwalks, skyscrapers, car parks, street lights, tower blocks, lighted advertising signs, bare roof tops, and overhead pipes and wires, all bathed in blue fluorescent or neon orange are inexplicably endless. Incongruous ballerinas, hip-hop dancers, and parkour freerunners are caught in mid-leap, sporting three arms or three legs as they flicker, shimmer, and dissolve. This is how I dream. Everything is based on reality but everything shifts. Something about where I am is just not right. Eerie. Uncanny. Even a little frightening. And the music reflects all of that.

Here is "Quietus," "Caligo," "Momenta," and "Coram Tempestate."

https://haelos.com/home

"Secret Life" by Fred Again.. and Brian Eno

I am kind of entranced by this collaborative album from Fred Again.. and Brian Eno called "Secret Life," released a few months ago. It is a fascinating mix of Eno's ambient talents and produciton skills with Fred's soulful approach to music.

https://www.fredagain.com/
https://www.brian-eno.net/

Ambient Music by Les

Estonian musician Les creates ethereal, atmospheric ambient tracks, all of them too short. Here is a selection--turn off your mind, relax and float downstream. I could have "The Same Dream" on repeat for 15 minutes or so...

https://linktr.ee/lesbeats

"Seraphim II" by How To Disappear Completely

I am thrilled that How To Disappear Completely (previously here) has released another collection of incredible ambient drone music, "Seraphim II" which is a follow up to the equally stunning "Seraphim." Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream...

https://htdc.bandcamp.com/

"Ephemera" by How To Disappear Completely

"Ephemera" is a new three-song collection just released by How To Disappear Completely. It's dreamy, ethereal, melancholy...described by the artist as:

Flowing in a state of deafening solitude. Visions of sadness murmured in dreams. We know how the end always is.

https://htdc.bandcamp.com/

"Nuit Ensemble" by Perry Frank

Exquisite, sublime ambient music from Perry Frank, "Nuit Ensemble" is a collection of 10 hypnotic, dreamy tracks.

https://www.perryfrankmusic.com/home

"Rotations" by Above & Beyond

The electronic music act/DJ trio Above & Beyond (English DJs Jono Grant and Tony McGuinness, and Finnish DJ Paavo Siljamäki) explored some Ambient sounds recently and this lovely track, "Rotations" while way too short, offers a calm soundscape but tinged with a sense of cinematic mystery and enigmatic expansion, a sense of something awe-inspiring and infinite just waiting around the corner...

https://www.aboveandbeyond.nu/

"A Drop In The Ocean (Paul Corley Remix)" by Frakkur

Some calm transcendence in a troubled world.

"A Drop In The Ocean (Paul Corley Remix)" by Frakkur (a nom de musique our beloved Jónsi from Sigur Ros used to record ambient music several years ago).

https://frakkur.bandcamp.com/
https://jonsi.com/
https://sigurros.com/

"Vetiverol" by Jónsi

I am currently lost in--and weeping from--this exquisite, transcendent track by Jónsi. From his album "Obsidian" released last year, "Vetiverol" captures the sound of ultimate compassion...it's full of a gentle wistfulness, a sense of an ending, of letting go without regret...

https://jonsi.com/

"Environments" by PJS

I've been on an ambient music kick (again) lately...I have loved ambient music since I first heard Brian Eno's seminal work "Music For Airports" about forty years ago (!). This genre has occupied a constant position in my life. And I am glad so many current artists have taken up the mantle and are producing gorgeous ambient works. I just posted the brand new (August 2022) release of How To Disappear Completley's new album "Aural Stream" here.

And another ambient music group making ethereal soundscapes is PJS, a project by Canadians Patrick Dique and Jordan Christoff. They released their collection "Environments" several months ago and when I play it, time seems to stop...

"Aural Stream" by How To Disappear Completely

I am thrilled that the ambient musical group How To Disappear Completely has released a new album called "Aural Stream." It is a beautiful, dim, moody, droning collection...highly atmospheric, otherworldly, soothing, penetrating.

https://www.instagram.com/htdccollective/

"Erased Dreams" by Yotto

I know Yotto (the nom de musique of Otto Yliperttula), previously here, as a DJ and creator of electronic dance music so I am delighted to discover his brand new release of downtempo and ambient tracks called "Erased Dreams." The entire collection is stellar but the first few tracks really set the tone. "Lone Machine" is a gorgeous almost-drone, blending beautifully with "Seat 11" which is an expansive/pensive movement. "Sunburn" is another highlight among these lovely eight tracks. Listen to the whole release below.

Yotto's record label says:
"Throughout his sparkling career, which includes a Billboard #1 LP and official remixes for artists like Joris Voorn, Gorillaz, and Coldplay, Yotto has produced ambient tracks to help him look inward and recharge his creative battery. But when COVID hit, his inner world took over. 'At first, I was being really productive with club music,' Yotto says, speaking from his home in Helsinki. 'But then after a while, I started making something completely opposite.' Yotto found himself exploring a different form of expression, and didn’t have a plan other than to create. But when he put the tracks side-by-side in a playlist he recognized a synergy, and the outline of the project began to take shape."

The result is more of a continuous soundscape than an album; an ethereal and dreamy experience designed to accompany the listener as they turn inward and drift away. If club music is a form of escape, then this is too – but instead of turning outward, we lose ourselves inward."

https://yottomusic.com/

"A Memory Away" by Dynastor

I am in love with this new release from Dynastor (the nom de musique of Dutch musician and DJ Maurits Nieuwenhuis). It recalls the works of the legendary Harold Budd and Eno. I like all the tracks but the first three--"A Memory Away," "Beyond The Lens," and "Behind The Curtain"--really are a sort of floating perfection.

The release statement says:
"Lingering fingerprints of a time bygone, hints of a scent once always, a photograph. The dust settles, dancing in the the last rays of sunlight. These days were felt and the smiles and tears we shed are now or the past. The letters we wrote remain, the pictures fade as the world beyond the lens morphs into its ever changing continuum, leaving us with just our creation; a memory away. This album is an expression of nostalgia, capturing the bittersweet evocation of reading letters from the past, seeing the photographs, the wrenching effect of smelling the familiar scents of a time long passed and realizing that the world is always changing, and so are you.

Created with many recordings of nature, instruments, non-instruments and processed using a wide variety of techniques including tape, granular synthesis and analog synthesis, Dynastor explores the storytelling quality of music, creating evocations of places, people, memories and their passing."

https://shimmeringmoodsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-memory-away

https://dynastor.bandcamp.com/

"Circle 26" by Robert Koch & Foam and Sand

What a glorious piece of music this is: "Circle 26" by Foam and Sand, the ambient soundscape and visual project of award-winning composer and conceptual artist, Robot Koch. The background buzz, the swell of the song, the keening of the violins...it all makes me swoon. The BBC’s Bobby Friction noted of Koch’s music, "It sounds like artificial intelligence discovering religion."

"I started meditating 7 years ago. It’s interesting that meditation and medicine have the same root syllable. Meditating before working on my music resets my brain and helps me access ideas that are layers deeper than my conscious mind. Foam and Sand started as a self-soothing project which I now share with the intention of providing healing and inspiration to others."

--Robot Koch

https://www.robotsdontsleep.com/

"Your Shadow A Pale Glow" by KAGAMI Smile

KAGAMI Smile (American-born Ryan Hill now living in China) has released several songs this year so far and this dense, hypnotizing track, "Your Shadow A Pale Glow" is a standout for me.

https://kagamismile.bandcamp.com/

"Music For Psychedelic Therapy (Excerpt)" by Jon Hopkins

Sublime, profound sounds: "Music For Psychedelic Therapy (Excerpt)" by Jon Hopkins, from his recent release of the same name.

https://jonhopkins.co.uk/