hinako omori - a journey… (2022)

Back in March, Hinako Omori released her debut album a journey... and what a journey it takes the audience for! Or stream of consciousness as the artist suggests. The release is a perfect example of the kind of music that is meant for soothing emotions and making the listener's life simply better.

There's something special about the East Asian approach to ghost ambient pop; the artists like Green Horizon, Ichiko Aoba or everyone at Ricco Label prove it time after time. Omori is no exception here. Although residing in UK, she was born in Japan and must have taken with her some of this ghostly beauty and put it onto the debut album. It "combines inner healing and natural landscapes into in an immersive cartography of the mind in ambient electronics" - and the word "landscapes" is not a coincidence here, Omori hides tons of field recordings within the drone compositions, making them alive and filled with the primal stress relief abilities. The album really feels like a walk through a forest during a warm, summer night and I love it. 

And there's another focus point of the artist as she presents interest in the healing properties of sounds. This is an album engineered to heal and make your life easier, even if for a moment. If it's not for the particular frequencies Omori uses, it's certainly true for her soothing vocals - the gems of airy and ethereal singing, often sounding like extremely intimate whispers flying directly into your ear and mind. Subtle melodies flow effortlessly through the air; any listener is bound to catch themselves daydreaming very quickly.

a journey… costs 9 EUR (7 GBP).

Check: Will You Listen In

Country: Japan/UK

Genre: nature-inspired ambient pop

Label: Houndstooth

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:soundcloud:

:spotify:

With Hidden Noise - Nowhere (2022)

Charlie Berger is of course known as With Hidden Noise and Slowly - with both of the projects appeared on this blog already. The Canadian artist came back at the beginning of the year with another great album called Nowhere.

This "collection of songs contemplating love, loss, life and death" is filled with ultimately slowcore music. Its slow pace and mood-creating abilities definitely fit the self-reflecting theme of the album. Especially with Berger's dreamy, properly dispersed vocals flowing just above the soundscape like an autumn fog above the ground. The theme is no joke and the artist doesn't beat around the bush either; already the first song brings up the most important question in any human being's life: "Oh my god, in heaven/ What will happen to me when I’m gone?" and then it gets only more melancholic with the theme of loss (in friendship - Two Ships and in relationship - my favourite track here Back to Me) being perhaps even sadder than the theme of death - at least you don't have to live through the latter.

As always, this intimate slowcore atmosphere makes me think of Raised by Swans with similar level of melancholy and emotions enchanted in dreamy ballads. Ballads that have a huge potential to fill broken hearts with tons of melancholia.

Nowhere costs 3 EUR (4 CAD).

Slowly - Reverse (2021)

With Hidden Noise - Beside the Sea (2019)

Check: Back to Me

Country: Canada

Genre: dreamy slowcore

Label: Lossleader Records

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:spotify:

Ghostly Kisses - The City Holds My Heart EP (2018) EN

The project by the Canadian Margaux Sauvé is made of airy music sounding like William Faulkner's poetry would (if it was music) and hence the project's name.

I really like Sauvé's poetry, it is about love, but it's a very different take than the usual ones. It's brilliant, especially in the title song The City Holds My Heart with the lyrics going "The city holds my heart/ Within walls of glass and steel/ Can’t you see I just can’t go?/ These walls are all I know". This airy and a bit dark vocal is accordingly fitted with ethereal compositions of piano, strings and electronic elements. But the most important is the way the artist manages to create an unbelievable atmosphere in.

And the whole play list is closed by the most atmospheric take on the classic Zombie I've ever heard.

The City Holds My Heart costs 7 USD.

Check: The City Holds My Heart 

Country: Canada

Genre: ghostly pop

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:official:

:soundcloud:

:spotify:

Ghostly Kisses - The City Holds My Heart EP (2018) PL

Projekt Kanadyjki Margaux Sauvé to eteryczna muzyka brzmiąca jak poezja Williama Faulknera (z niej wzięła się nazwa projektu). 

Nadzwyczaj podoba mi się poezja Sauvé, niby o miłości, ale w bardzo inny sposób. Znakomicie brzmi zawłaszcza tytułowy utwór The City Holds My Heart, z tekstem "To miasto trzyma mnie za serce/ Między ścianami ze szkła i stali/ Nie widzisz, że po prostu nie mogęgo opuścić?/Te ściany to wszystko, co znam". Do eterycznego i trochę mrocznego wokalu pasują zwiewne kompozycje z pianinem, smyczkami i elektronicznymi elementami. Najważniejsze jest jednak to, jak niepowtarzalną atmosferę potrafi stworzyć artystka.

A całość zamknięta jest najbardziej nastrojowym wykonaniem kultowego Zombie, jakie słyszałem.

The City Holds My Heart kosztuje 27 złotych (7 USD).

Sprawdź: The City Holds My Heart 

Kraj: Kanada

Szufladka: ghostly pop

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:official:

:soundcloud:

:spotify:

Hanging Valleys - Fortaleza EP (2018) EN

Before they started their own project, the duet Thom Byles and Michael Phillips worked in a recording studio as helping hands, sought adventures around the world and finally decided to make their music. Their project called Hanging Valleys is an atmospheric dream pop full of warm guitar haze and soft vocals, all of this is well audible on the new EP "Fortaleza".

Slow paced melodies and dreamy atmosphere, this is a perfect summary of their work. The album's ambiance is well expressed by the cover art - a small, cozy hut somewhere in the high mountains, surrounded by clouds, this is Byles and Phillips's project - we are aware that there is the world of music somewhere there but we feel good with the Englishmen's sounds. The album is opened by the essence of this atmosphere, a track entitled "Fundamentals".

Later it get more melodic, with the leading role of somewhat muffled guitar sounds that made me think of the music by Eric Howden a.k.a. Raised By Swans. Without leaving this atmosphere spectre, they are able to play livelier ("Arion") but also absolutely ambient-like ("Jaguar Tones"), but whatever they do, their music goes straight to this part of your brain that is responsible for awe.

"Fortaleza" costs 4 GBP.

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:official:

:youtube:

:spotify:

Hanging Valleys - Fortaleza EP (2018) PL

Zanim założyli swój projekt, duet Thom Byles i Michael Phillips pracowali w studiu nagrań jako popychadła, wybrali się w świat szukać przygód i w końcu poświęcili się robieniu muzyki. Ich Hanging Valleys to klimatyczny dream pop pełen ciepłej gitarowej mgły i miękkiego wokalu, słychać to na wydanej właśnie EP-ce "Fortaleza".

Niespieszne melodie i senna atmosfera idealnie podsumowują to wydawnictwo. Klimat płyty idealnie oddaje okładka - mała, zaciszna chałupa w górach otoczona chmurami, taki właśnie jest projekt Bylesa i Phillipsa - wiemy, że gdzieś tam jest cały muzyczny świat ale dobrze nam z dźwiękami Anglików. Płytkę otwiera kwintesencja tej atmosfery, "Fundamentals".

Później więcej jest już melodii wygrywanych na przytłumionej gitarze, co przypomina jako żywo muzykę Erika Howdena i jego Raised By Swans. Nie opuszczając tego spektrum klimatyczności, zespół potrafi pokazać nieco żywszej muzyki ("Arion") i całkiem ambientowej ("Jaguar Tones"), a każda od razu trafia do tej części mózgu odpowiedzialnej za zachwyt.

"Fortaleza" kosztuje 20 złotych (4 GBP).

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:official:

:youtube:

:spotify: