Fonodroom

30/12/2024

2024 in review from Stationary Travels, featuring Chihei Hatakeyama's 'Thousand Oceans':

Tokyo-based Chihei Hatakeyama has described his work as polychroming, quite an apt way of putting it as anyone has spent time in thrall of one of his many albums would attest. Thousand Oceans is a sort of sequel to his 2016 release on the label Above the Desert, though clearly complementing it with an aquatic theme. Specifically, the music conjures the imagery and childhood memories of a special place by the sea by exploring the harmonic range of the Gibson Les Paul he typically uses as his main instrument and Fender guitars which he employed to “manage the mid-low range and highlight higher frequencies.” The end result is simply gorgeous, a shimmering sea of enveloping drones that open out to seeming endless horizons. The polychromatic nature of the work is echoed in the stunning blazing orange and sea green cover art, making the album as beautiful to look at as it is to listen to.

Thousand Oceans was released June 14, 2024, jointly by Dronarivm and Fonodroom on limited edition vinyl LP and CD as well as digital download & streaming.

The act of creating a sense of a place or capturing a moment in time is a fairly common motif in the realm of instrumental music, especially the ambient genres, but it is intrinsically at the very …

27/12/2024

Corrado Maria De Santis featured in the new episode of The Institute of Spectra-Sonic Sound podcast dedicated to the new experimental music.

Bonus #8. Too much music for a weekly show. Please seek out the full pieces. With: John Duncan, Modelbau, Lauré Lussier, Corrado Maria De Santis and more. Share the show with friends on social media. Send promos. Support independent artists and labels. CONTACT: [email protected]. Instagram & ...

27/12/2024

A beautiful review of Old Amica 'F​ö​r alltid' by Stationary Travels:

"As sometimes happens for reasons I am still at a loss to explain, there is an inverse relationship between how much I have enjoyed the music of Old Amica in recent years (a lot) and how much I have written about it (not very much). Originally based in Sweden, the duo of Johan Kisro & Linus Johansson is now geographically split with one member in Stockholm and the other in Genève, Switzerland, but what has not changed is the band’s enchanting way of traversing ambient, folk, and post-rock music with a keen ear for melody and a comforting aura. För alltid (forever in English) does all of that in an especially powerful way with all of its songs bound together by thoughts of the passing of time and the persistence of memory. Vocals both sung and spoken are used sparingly, but to great effect on tracks like “Mot natten” and the hauntingly beautiful closing track “Till dig”. Each time I listen, it feels like coming in from the cold into a room bathed in warm firelight."

The year in review begins on a different note for 2024 by introducing a new category that reflects on albums that resonated especially deeply on a personal level. To some extent that can be said of…

24/12/2024

✅ We made it! Just in time...
NEW PODCAST FOR YOUR CHRISTMAS 🎄

⭐️ Set in with this show, relax and be pampered with wonderful sounds of new and earlier releases, specially sorted out for you to make this Christmas a nice listening experience. A podcast where music and magic come together;

✨ Choose the regular show and you have my words & music, choose the nonstop edition and stay miles far from the earth's surface, without anyone interrupting you. Yes... Nonstop® Edition for all Patrons and Members 🎅🏻

🎶 Music comes from the following albums:

Winter Vol. X
PANGAEA PROJEKT

Timelines II.
STEVE MILLER’S AFTERLIFE

Burn the World quietly
LPF12

Aerials EP
JAMES BRIGHT

Moonlit Reverie (remixes)
THOMAS LEMMER

Scrapbook
DIONISAF

Postales
DAVID CORDERO

Above the Clouds
SPACECRAFT

Apeiron
TERMINUS VOID

Only Five Petals
BRUNO SANFILIPPO

Beyond the Sleepy Hills
RUDY ADRIAN

Reflections
LAROTH

LINK TO THE SHOW POST:
https://www.ambient.zone/sessions-christmas-carol-2024/

📝 Track list available in the show notes through our website Ambient.Zone incl. links to artist pages, portals, shops. (hit the show link in my Profile)

🙏🏼 Big Thanks to all my Patrons and Members in the Ambient Zone, for your support over the years, for your patience, for your feedback. Still listening free? Consider joining the community with a Pledge on Patreon, or subscribe to a listening plan through the Ambient Zone website. With the help of your financial support we can continue with new shows and fantastic content. I am grateful for that and want to invite everyone to join or make a donation on my Ko-Fi page.

https://ko-fi.com/ambientzone

🔊 Enjoy the Show!! 🎶

Big Thanks ;

Pangaea Projekt James Bright THOMAS LEMMER Sine Music Dionisaf Chitra Records David Cordero Dronarivm Music of Terminus Void Bruno Sanfilippo Spotted Peccary Music Txt

21/12/2024

Happy Solstice and Yuletide, everyone!

A nice soundtrack for today is provided by David Cordero in his Æther #006 guest mix ~ soundcloud.com/dronarivm/aether-06-by-david-cordero

David has curated a selection of his favorite tracks from 2024, offering his personal perspective on contemporary ambient music. Through his choices, he invites us to explore atmospheres imbued with emotional depth and nuanced textures, which are shaping the genre today.

We've just released David's new album 'Postales' ~ dronarivm.bandcamp.com/album/postales ~ and we sincerely apologize for the delay in shipping! The CDs were unexpectedly held up at the pressing plant, but we promise to start sending them out as soon as they arrive in our hands.

In the meantime, we’ve finally assembled a batch of 'Illuminations III' compilation CDs for those who specifically requested a physical copy. These will be shipped next week ~ dronarivm.bandcamp.com/album/illuminations-iii-free-download

And last but not least – festive season is here! As a token of appreciation for your support and love of great music, we’re offering a 20% discount on all our digital and physical releases until the end of the year. Use the code ‘bye24’ at checkout and enjoy! This offer also extends to our side-labels, Le Mont Analogue and Owl Totem Recordings.

We wish you a blissful beginning of the new cycle!

Truly yours,
D & F

18/12/2024

wjerstean’s track ‘I Pust’ from the debut album ‘Radpad’ (NEN Records) was featured in Daniel Blumin’s show at Radio WFMU.

“The run-around drill sergeant of love meets the freeform radio nurse in an international popularity crisis. Twang, dub, noise, rockers, aliens, drum machines, foreigners, imported goods, songs, rumbles, hollers, blips and squiggles, along with an occasional musical number…”

Audio & playlist from December 16, 2024

16/12/2024

‘Borosa’ from David Cordero’s new album ‘Postales’ sounds in the new episode of The Moderns!

Spotify Apple iHeart Amazon Park Jiha – Blown Leaves 0.00 Infinite Future Band – Bozo Complete 4.32 Ali Balighi – Love in Exile – Movement II 17.17 EHb – Amatomb…

15/12/2024

David Cordero's track 'Zumaia' from the new album 'Postales' finds its place in The Stillness and the Dancing playlist. Get yourself embraced by these sounds!

Chasing the final stretch of the year's darkest days, feeling a weight but moving forward. Here is a selection of sounds, new and old, to blanket you. *Our cover comes from Alary's album Demi​-​lumi​è​re

14/12/2024

A review of ‘Raspad’ by wjerstean (NEN Records) by Medienkonverter, auto-translated from German:

Sometimes you wonder if anything is allowed in Russia anymore - apparently not even music! Because even labels like the genre-agnostic exile label NEN Records have to leave the country in order to develop freely. And it was there, in exile, that 'Raspad', the debut of 'Wjerstean', was created.

The artist Lisa Viktorova, who has lived in Armenia since 2022, presents us with a work that deals deeply with themes such as insecurity, persecution and a life of constant uncertainty. 'Raspad' sounds like looking at an acoustic map through a broken life: fragments of language, field recordings and multi-layered soundscapes merge into a journey between memory and alienation. NEN Records, known for music with a "shifted center of gravity", provides another example of the versatility of sound art with this release. The album deliberately evades any genre pigeonhole, but still remains tangible - like a dream that calms and disturbs you at the same time.

'Raspad' is also a visual eye-catcher: The white cassette with UV print comes with a double-sided inlay that offers you four different cover designs to choose from. Limited to just 50 copies - you'll have to act quickly before the sounds of exile disappear again.

Conclusion: 'Raspad' is not for the faint of heart, but just the thing for everyone who is ready to leave their musical comfort zone. NEN Records shows once again that great art can be created even in exile - or perhaps especially there.

Manchmal fragt man sich, ob in Russland überhaupt noch irgendetwas erlaubt ist – anscheinend nicht einmal Musik! Denn sogar Labels wie das genre-agnostische Exil-Label NEN Records müssen das Land verlassen, um sich frei entfalten zu können. Und genau dort, im Exil, ist ‘Raspad’, das Debüt ...

13/12/2024

OUT NOW: wjerstean 'Raspad' MC / DL
(NEN Records, NEN157, ltd. 50)

https://nenrecs.bandcamp.com/album/raspad

Raspad is the debut cassette by Lisa Viktorova (wjerstean), an artist living in Armenia since 2022.

Darkly unsettling yet profoundly intimate, this album resists easy genre definitions. Born out of a time of legal persecution, it weaves together reflections on a tangled reality shaped by ongoing war and an elusive, uncertain future.

Through her project, Lisa explores the interplay between the explicit and the hidden, between words and phonemes, between sound and speech. An alchemical blend of memory and estrangement unfolds into resonant and melodic contexts, enriched with field recordings and voice, capturing events in their unfolding multidimensionality.

For those familiar with NEN's releases, Lisa is known under the alias Patimat Khripa.

Cassette edition is limited to 50 hand-numbered copies and comes with a double-sided black & white inlay sleeve, which provides four cover design options.

12/12/2024

Out today on Dronarivm: David Cordero ‘Postales’ CD / DL

https://dronarivm.bandcamp.com/album/postales

A few words from David himself:

“For this new record I’ve been inspired by some of the most breathtaking landscapes in Spain. These are 11 tracks where, like musical postcards, I’ve tried to reflect the beauty of the Irati Forest in Navarra, the Flysh of Zumaia in Gipuzkoa, the Albufera of Valencia, the Gorafe desert in Granada or the Somiedo natural park in Asturias, among other amazing places.”

The CD is packaged in a cardboard discbox slider with a soft-touch finish, featuring all track titles and credits handwritten by David Cordero. Special Edition (ltd. 40) comes with an additional set of 11 postcards depicting the places mentioned in the tracklist.

Distributed worldwide by Fonodroom.

11/12/2024

Three of our 2024 releases managed to get to this list! Thank you Hermann Holsgr and thanks to the amazing artists: Logic Moon, Henrik Meierkord, Wil Bolton and PJS!

• BEST AMBIENT ALBUMS OF 2024
• curated by
• bit.ly/pal-2024

09/12/2024

Hi, ambient lovers!

We will be happy to meet you at David Cordero's 'Postales' listening party this Wednesday at 8 PM CET.

Follow this link to join us:
https://dronarivm.bandcamp.com/merch/postales-listening-party

We'll listen to the entire album live before its official release, share our thoughts in a live chat, and have David himself joining us from Cádiz, Spain. Special preorder prices will still be available, so if you enjoy what you hear, you can grab a copy with an earlybird discount!

Thank you in advance for your support!

04/12/2024

Yay! Wil Bolton's 'Quiet Sunlight' got featured in the "2024 best packaging list" by A Closer Listen! Thanks! 🙏

There’s something special about a physical release ~ the package arriving in the mail (or if one is fortunate, purchased from a shoppe); full-sized art to appreciate, liner notes to pore over…

02/12/2024

Old Amica ‘För alltid’ – review by CD HotList:

"...In this case the music is sometimes comforting and almost cheerful in its quietude, and sometimes more dark and foreboding, and sometimes just hard to pin down. In other words, this is interesting ambient music, something of which the world always needs more."

CLASSICAL Michael RantaTransits: Volume 1 (2 discs)Sarah Hennies; Madison Greenstone; Katie Porter; Bard College Conservatory Percussion EnsebleImportantIMPREC535 You may not know his name, but per…