EERIÆRMOR - EERIÆRMOR (2024)

Kevin Gan Yuen known from the black noise Sutekh Hexen and as Fermentae released his first album under the moniker of EERIÆRMOR. The self-titled LP makes a great combination of two sides of electronica: the lively ambient and industrial noise. And those contrasting vibes go together surprisingly well.

The album is designed to convey "a powerful emotional imprint, guiding the listener from states of liminal ecstasis to expressing unification of beauty and brutality". The way the artist achieves it is combining beautiful ambient () passages with moments of harsh noise, creating this kind of contrast that is very satisfying to listen to. Although, to be fair, the harshness of the noise is softer than I'd expect so the barrier to entry is not that significant. 

EERIÆRMOR costs 7 USD.

Check: I, Rainmaker

Country: California, US

Genre: noisy electronica

Label: Cyclic Law

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terraplana - olhar pra tr​á​s (2023)

The underground very noisy music from Brazil makes another appearance on my blog. This time, it's all about the Curitiba-based terraplana who have recently released their first ever LP called olhar pra tr​á​s.

The album is kept in this very much melancholic atmosphere (the title itself translates to "Look back") which is built with the extremely noisy, lo-fi sounding guitars and dispersed vocals. The latter are provided by Stephani Heuczuk who, together with another band member, Cassiano Kruchelski, interestingly enough for me have names that give out some kind or Poland-related origins. Anyway, music-wise there's everything one would expect from the shoegaze music with strong lo-fi vibes: the guitar noise is something that reigns the compositions and makes an overwhelming effect on the audience with the melodies and vocals struggling to resurface. But this is what we are here for.

olhar pra tr​á​s costs 7 USD.

Check: memórias

Country: Brazil

Genre: lo-fi shoegaze

Label: Balaclava Records

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Nac/Hut Report - Absent (2023)

With already their 7th album, the Kraków-based Nac/Hut Report continue to develop their very unique style that marries dream pop-atmosphere with experimental ambient electronica. Absent makes yet another extremely interesting album in the offstream landscape of Poland.

Brigitte Roussel is the singing part of the duo and her voice is utterly oneiric and atmospheric. It always sound like something that appears on the verge of a dream, difficult to decipher but enriching the mesmerizing ambiance of the compositions. Anyone who attended any of their shows knows how focused Roussel and Li/ese/Li are while working on their experimental ambient music. This music manages to be melodic and catchy while undoubtedly representing the very experimental part of the electronic music that directly borders with drone and noise genres. 

The artists sprinkle this outstanding mode of operation with a captivating idea on this particular album on which "All music has been extracted from shortwave radio interval signals from different international broadcasters" named in the track titles (from Korea and Uzbekistan to Poland and Slovakia). This alone makes it even more mysterious and difficult to pass on.

Absent costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: 702 KHz, Radio Stockholm

Country: Poland

Genre: experimental ambient pop

Label: Crunchy Human Children Records

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Flower and Pines - Hnieŭ (2022)

Jegor Mickiewicz and Sasha Pushkin are based in Wrocław and create this extremely unique music that combines a lot from a lot of genres. And then some. It's no wonder that the artists' names are also the names of the most important writers in Poland (Adam Mickiewicz) and in Russia (Alexander Pushkin). Their new EP, Hnieŭ, is certainly one of the most interesting releases in Poland this year.

This is not an ordinary album, it's said to be "sonic performance" that is meant to be a "memorial service and an ode to courage". The fact that it is performed in Belarusian, the forbidden language in the modern Belarus, only provides a broader context and explains whose courage it is meant to praise. The noisy and experimental on many levels music has some of the east sacral vibe that is certainly only strengthen by the impressive and very original vocals. It is folk, it is dark, there's so many things going on in the backgrounds and each of them adds to the overall mysterious atmosphere. 

Hnieŭ costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Hnieŭ II

Country: Poland

Genre: dark folk noise

Label: Geertruida

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Hiding Place - Bouvetøya & Yellowstone (2022)

Given what I know about geography, there's only the slightest chance that Hiding Place is a project coming from Svalbard or Jan Mayen islands, as it is suggested on their Bandcamp page. However, this, and all other references to the geographical North, already say a lot about the music created by the artist. There seem to be a short EP released every month so far this year, but I decided to look closer at the two last ones: they seem to be matching in more than one way.

Bouvetøya and Yellowstone are filled with drone soundscapes, the kind that at first glance seem static but when investigated closer, reveal tons of lively sounds dancing around the melancholic layers. It's the sound that makes it very easy to get lost within while admiring its beauty - especially when the organ-like keyboard sounds kick in. The nostalgic Arctic atmosphere, reminding me of Terror the TV series, is only enriched by the visuals and the tracks' titles that together create some kind of sad exploration story.

Both EPs cost whatever you want to pay.

Check: カルデラ 

Country: ?

Genre: drone soundscape

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ROOK - Infinite Empty (2022)

Just before this year's edition of dunk!festival, dunk! label is showing us a new, pretty impressive work of one of its artists: the Belgians of ROOK. It's the band's second full-length album and most certainly best one yet with its gloomy and heavy atmosphere spreading all around the listener.

The Belgians' music is centred around Billie's spoken word and more traditional vocals with a hint of folk flavour to them; vocals that sound unfazed by the dark madness that goes on around her all the time. The guitar noise the band prefers to put in the backgrounds ranges from dark ambient's pure despair to noise-filled jazzy passages up to the louder, post-rock-like pieces. This one-of-a-kind atmosphere boils throughout the album, reaching the peaks in the post-metal fragments of The Shoulder and surprisingly electronica-heavy, horror disco in Ruis. This track transforms into the most mesmerizing fragments that bring together the psychedelic guitars, tribal tunes and chanting vocals and I'm here for it.

It's no wonder that the musicians aim for the genre-fluidity, as the label locates their music in the place where "genre becomes a nebulous concept, and the uncanny impressions formed by the music demonstrate a powerful synergy between the visceral and the ethereal". I bet this is the kind of music that is particularly impressive live so I'll be happy to see this spectacle on the dunk!festival next week!

Infinite Empty costs 7 EUR.

Check: Ruis

Country: Belgium

Genre: spoken word guitar noise

Label: dunk!records

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YRRE - Luhlae x The Witch (2022)

When talking about Swiss music this year, I am excitingly waiting for E-L-R's sophomore album. But there is something else that proved to be as compelling and gloomy. YRRE's debut album Luhlae x The Witch is a soundtrack of fear and noise disguised as modern drone post-metal album and I love it.

This very special album is "an adaption of a ciné-concert composed to the movie ‘The VVitch'" by Robert Eggers and was created for the festival 2300 Plan 9 les Etranges Nuits du Cinéma and performed for the first time at Bikini Test in La Chaux-de-Fonds under the name Luhlae x The Witch (thus the title of the album of course). The movie itself grew up to be an icon of ambitious horror genre and the original music by Mark Korven is masterpiece on its own. This album seems to be an interpretation of the movie through post-rock and post-metal sounds. There won't be any surprise when revealed that the album is particularly dark and heavy. It achieves that with very modern post-rock/metal means though.

While the band describe themselves as dark ambient noise, there's way too much of the guitars and drums and other effects. It is, yes, soaked in noise which makes the angry and desperate post-metal vocals that sound in the backgrounds even more poignant. And in general, the feeling of horror is very well tangible in every second of this fantastic release. There's quality of sound, there's inspiring noise, there's captivating ambiance. Fantastic.

Luhlae x The Witch costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Uhtceare

Country: Switzerland

Genre: noise post-metal

Label: Hummus Records

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Lee Yi - Hayví (2022)

Lee Yi - South America-originating, Spain-based ambient artist creates minimalist but very atmospheric soundscapes. He gives a taste of his style on the new album from the Midira Records, called Hayví. 

The label states that the album presents "pieces that move slightly between noise and ambient sounds" and it's extremely aptly said. The minimalist music here offers very slow soundscapes that sometimes can barely be perceived only to develop into harsher, noisier passages within the same composition. This subtle noise is very much like this characteristic vinyl sound which only adds more artistic vibes to this moody release.

Hayví costs 7.99 EUR.

Check: Air Turbulences

Country: Spain

Genre: noisy soundscape

Label: Midira Records

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Pan Daijing - Tissues (2022)

When I posted about Pan Daijing's album Jade last year, I mentioned that it was her leap towards more intimate composition writing, a break from bombastic performances at art galleries she had gotten fluent in. And now, only several months later, we can get familiar with those massive works she needed to get away from, thanks to the album called Tissues.

The Chinese artist based in Berlin performed "an opera of five acts" at Tate Modern in London back in 2019, and now we can admire its grandeur and experimental flavour. The event made use of "conventions of opera and tragedy to present a searing representation of the embattled human psyche in space and time." As we all know already, Pan Daijing uses a lot of impressive vocals, but here the opera-like, very theatrical but also not very informative lyrics-wise are utterly dominant. Or maybe not so meaningless? The libretto is said to be written in a mix of traditional and modern Chinese so perhaps there's more in the voices then I think. But for sure, there's tons of emotions communicated in extremely direct way, inviting the audience to feel all sorts of feeling from the whole spectrum - from melancholic calm to invigorating grandeur and this is thanks to the cast of twelve dancers and opera singers who perform it together with Pan Daijing.

But this is as far from a traditionally defined opera as possible. The artist based her work on industrial noise that, although gives space to the vocal quite often, really is there to create the soundscape. It's not a coincidence that the artist was my Ambient/Neoclassical act of last year as her music skills are as impressive as they are diverse.

Tissues costs 7.5 EUR.

Pan Daijing - Jade 玉观音 (2021)

Check: Part Two - A Found Lament 

Country: China/Germany

Genre: noise opera

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SALTO - Cappuccino (2021)

Saying that I'm not huge on jazz music would be an understatement. There are, however, projects clearly inspired by the genre that I enjoy to say the least. One of them is SALTO, debuting band from Poznań, Poland, who make this tasty blend of jazz, noise, post-rock and music improv I find particularly attractive. 

The trio released their debut album Capuccino last summer and it's a release with a lot of potential. Coming from behind such Polish bands as Lonker See or Ciśnienie, SALTO captured their music during live performances and now it's used to make the debut album. In their music, there are parts that are chaotically psychedelic, perhaps even bordering with instrumental ambient, ones that clearly set up the mood towards emotional contemplation. However, they do give place to guitar-based, high-paced compositions soon enough. Those are carried by the jazzy, very clear bass line with guitar riffs that are both noisy and artsy. And the whole things ends with a loud and guitar crescendo in a very good post-rock style.

A worth mentioning addition to the music makes the cover art by Ania Cywińska - such a beautiful and psychedelic image that combines the classical painting with modern distortions. No wonder SALTO's members say it "brilliantly captured and visually communicated" the music on the album.

Cappuccino costs 3.5 EUR (15 PLN).

Check: Cappuccino

Country: Poland

Genre: noisy instrumental

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Pan Daijing - Jade 玉观音 (2021)

Born in China but residing in Berlin, Pan Daijing creates unique electronic and industrial music that on her new album Jade evolved into intimate and touching poetry performance as if she was standing right next to the listener and showing her heart.

After her debut solo album, the 2017 Lack, "Daijing has expanded her operatic vision into a series of major commissioned exhibition-performances" that involved big cultural institutions and epic-proportion compositions that included, for example, "full casts of opera singers and dancers". The new album was meant to be an antidote for this, a way for the artist to look inwards and produce more intimate music. It worked like charm, the electronica here is experimental enough to catch attention without overwhelming the audience, while the ambient pop vocals make it the subtlest, the most intimate poetry. Her voice, even though it's usually very quiet, sounds powerful both when put on top of delicate ambient or on harsh industrial noise. Not to mention the moment when it turns into opera-like madness in my favourite Metal.

Jade 玉观音  costs 7.5 EUR.

Check: Metal

Country: China/Germany

Genre: spoken word electronica

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Greenwald Lads Club - It Is Safe Now (2021)

Best known from being a vocalist of the post-punk/surf rock band Syndrom Paryski, Wojtek Filipowicz has just surprised his fans with a so-much-different solo album. The EP called It Is Safe Now shows a huge turn from the lively and positive rock'n'roll-like music of Syndrom... and focuses on dark and heavy ambient sounds that are only a thin wall from turning into drone metal-like madness.

The EP shows music born from the artist's pandemic time's explorations of "the atmospheric electronic music". This epic notes reflect the concept behind the album: a post-apocalyptic vision of the world without humans, with crumbling buildings and nature reclaiming the centres of the cities. When you take this under consideration, the album's title shows so much of the modern social anxiety and nihilism towards the humanity's fate. This is also very much tangible in the album's music, it's nervous and bleak atmosphere. 

The artist admits to inspirations from Boris' music and you can hear it well in the album's turns toward the airy, diluted black metal that stems from the synth and ambient backgrounds, blossoms for a while and comes back to the subtle noise of the rest of the album (as it is in the title track It Is Safe Now). However, most of the release is set in the noisier, synthier kind of ambient. There's some irregular beats but they die very quickly, there's some drums and melodies but, just like the human civilization, they seem to be bound to fall. Everything ends with a beautiful but also kind of scary soundscape.

It Is Safe Now costs 2.5 EUR (10 PLN).

Check: It Is Safe Now

Country: Poland

Genre: post-metal ambient

Label: Opus Elefantum

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trajedesaliva - Ultratumba (2021)

The Spanish/Galician trajedesaliva is a band of a certainly long history. It was started back in 1998 as an attempt to create some darkwave/dark jazz music. I hadn't heard about them before I discovered their new (but only the fourth one?) album called Ultratumba and I have to say, there is a lot going on there and I love it.

The thing that enchanted me is, as it's often the case with me, the spoken word/poetry inclusion. This is something that sounds especially powerfully and poignant on the backgrounds of deep basses and electronic chaos. Especially with the heavy beats of A casa por las vías. Or with the harsh noise of other tracks. It is even more impressive when you realize the album was recorded "using only analogue synthesizers and voice". It was meant to be an intimate, personal take on industrial and noise (Familia Ferro!) electronica and it certainly feels like it. This is the way the duo conveys the message of the album being "family dialogue, full of sadness, acceptance and hope, that digs into the origin of melancholy". There's few things more personal than family relations. And few more intimate music touches than whispering vocals (so great in Arenas calientes!). 

Ultratumba costs 7 EUR.

Check: Arenas calientes

Country: Spain

Genre: spoken word noisy ambient

Label: Gradual Hate Records

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Jocelyn Packard - Nothing Is Solid (2020)

With the name taken from David Lynch's mythos, the Polish Jocelyn Packard have a little choice but to create mysterious and dark music. The duo's second album is called Nothing Is Solid and contains an interesting blend of ambient and post-rock vibes. This release is already three months old but is so intriguing I can't go past it without posting something on my blog.

The album is said to be a musical type of a diary with the music corresponding to the artist's life experience and gradually "growing out of them". It is expressed with lazy noise poring over form the speakers for long minutes. This guitar ambient with traces of very slow, very climactic post-rock would perfectly fit Twin Peak's darker scenes of its unnerving mystery (Kate Song (Jet Fuel Perfume)!). BUT as it seems, the artists are not very fond of Twin Peaks-oriented similes when describing their music so perhaps let's stop here. Although the noisy psychedelia that in visual form defines Lynch's works, truly lives here in its audio persona. And, of course, there are references to other Lynch-like weird pieces of culture like James Joyce's infamous Finnegans Wake. 

Nothing Is Solid costs 2.5 EUR (10 PLN).

Check: Kate Song (Jet Fuel Perfume)

Country: Poland

Genre: noisy ambient

Label: Opus Elefantum

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Tapes and Topographies - Inoculations (2020)

I almost missed this, but Tapes and Topographies is a moniker of Todd Gautreau a.k.a. Sonogram who for me is better known as the leader of Crushed Stars, a duo responsible for the brilliant album Go Dark, Canaveral from two years ago. Here, within his solo project, he's busy with casting spells with ambient music and he does it very regularly as Inoculations is already his second album in 2020.

It's unbelievable how beautiful Gautreau's music is. The way the subtle, extremely delicate noise goes together with the elements of neoclassicism and soundscape'y vibes is something one can hardly find anywhere but also longs for all the time. It's very, very sad but also quite constant in this sadness as if it was morning about something that happened a long time ago. No bursts of depression but long, peaceful melancholia. I absolutely love it.

Inoculations costs 7 EUR.

Check: The Leaving Feels the Same

Country: Texas, US

Genre: melancholic ambient

Label: DRONARIVM

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Soraku - In My Head (2020) EN

Nikola Sorak makes his music as Soraku and although he started just a year ago, he managed to create quite a series of releases already. In My Head makes already his sixth album this year. And it's a good thing I stumbled upon his music as his guitar noise seems to match my tastes.

The album is supposed to be for the author a "result of a year long journey of self reflection, and trying to reach further depths of creativity" and it's filled with drones and coarse ambient created by working with synth keys and guitar pedals, cassette loops and other experiments with piano, guitar and other instruments. Sometimes within those soundscapes some irregular, tearing sounds appear and they make it even more unnerving than the homogeneous noise. But the most important thing is that it's "all done with love, and no settling" and it's clear.

In My Head costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: In My Head

Country: Iowa, US

Genre: experimental noise

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Soraku - In My Head (2020) PL

Nikola Sorak tworzy jako Soraku i mimo, ze zaczął to robić zaledwie w zeszłym roku, produkuje materiał i kolejne albumy seryjnie. In My Head to już jego szóste wydawnictwo w 2020 roku. I dobrze się składa, że w końcu na niego trafiłem bo jego gitarowy noise bardzo do mnie trafił.

Płyta ma być dla autora "rezultatem rocznej podróży, refleksji na swój temat i prób dotarcia do głębin kreatywności" a wypełniona jest dronami i szorstkim ambientem tworzonym przez połączenie synthów i gitarowych pedałów, użyciu kasetowych loopów i innych eksperymentów z pianinem, gitarą i innymi instrumentami. Czasem pośród tych pejzaży wybijają się rozregulowane, szarpiące dźwięki powodujące jeszcze większy niepokój niż homogeniczny noise. Najważniejsze jednak, że "wszystko zrobione jest z miłością i bez kompromisów" i to słychać.

In My Head kosztuje tyle, ile chcesz zapłacić.

Sprawdź: In My Head

Kraj: Iowa, US

Szufladka: experimental noise

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SENS DEP - Lush Desolation (2020) EN

One of the most interesting albums recently came to us from Australia.SENS DEP is a Melbourne -based trio who make a unique mix of such genres as noise, post-rock and shoegaze that is governed by the urge for music experiments. Lush Desolation makes a huge experience on many levels.

The band "creates textured noise and sonic ruminations that explore ideas of control, restraint and abandon in equal measure" and I really like this "textured". It's difficult to label the album from its very beginning, there's a lot of instrumental ambient there that borders with rattling noise that soon becomes a beautiful soundscape'y drone. A lot of textures, a lot to experience.

And no sooner than in Nebuvital, in the middle of the album, do the slowcore-shoegaze inspirations come up. This is when the calm vocals overwhelmed by instruments and guitar noise appears. The next thing that happens is an actual post-rock climax in Will You. A lot of inspirations made up this debut album. I want to stress that it's their debut as the album doesn't show it - compositions are complex and well thought through but also so non-obvious that they feel like improvised. Quality music.

Lush Desolation costs 10 AUD.

Check: Nebuvital 

Country: Australia

Genre: free post-rock

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SENS DEP - Lush Desolation (2020) PL

Jedna z najciekawszych płyt ostatniego czasu nadeszła do nas z Australii. SENS DEP to trio z Melbourne tworzące bardzo unikalny miks takich gatunków jak noise, post-rock i shoegaze, którym rządzi niepodzielnie potrzeba muzycznego eksperymentu. Lush Desolation to duże przeżycie na wielu poziomach.

Zespół "tworzy hałaśliwą teksturę i dźwiękowe ruminacje, które w równej mierze eksplorują idee kontroli, ograniczeń i opuszczenia" i bardzo do mnie przemawiają te tekstury. Od samego początku ciężko zakwalifikować dźwięki tej płyty, dużo jest na niej instrumentalnego ambientu graniczącego z rzężącym noisem, który po chwili przechodzi w pięknie soundscape'owy drone. Wiele tekstur, wiele wrażeń.

I dopiero Nebuvital w połowie albumu zdradza pewne slowcore'owo-shoegaze'owe inspiracje. Pojawia się spokojny wokal zagłuszany instrumentami i gitarowym noisem. Potem następuje prawdziwie post-rockowa w bardziej tradycyjnym sensie kumulacja w Will You. Dużo różnych inspiracji złożyło się na ten debiutancki przecież album. Podkreślam to, bo po krążku w ogóle tego nie czuć - kompozycje są kompleksowe i dopracowane a jednocześnie na tyle nieoczywiste, ze całość może wydawać się improwizacją. jakościowa muzyka.

Lush Desolation kosztuje 28 złotych (10 AUD).

Sprawdź: Nebuvital 

Kraj: Australia

Szufladka: free post-rock

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Kynduum - Neurisol (2020) EN

This very short EP is a creation of Canadian artist known only as Kyn and playing music within his project called Kynduum. Spend a moment to listen to Neurisol because it's absolutely worth it.

The album is devoted to depression and suffering as a result of isolation. Kyn expresses themselves with the use of mesmerizing drones creating inviting soundscapes that also emanate the feeling of distress and attractive danger. This is only strengthened in the finale part of Isol where it transforms into noisy, static post-rock. I hope the project will release some more material soon.

And we can't forget about the phenomenal cover art. It may be minimalism but one fascinating with its depth and atmosphere.

Neurisol costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Isol

Country: Canada

Genre: noisy soundscape

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