Crossing and blending many genres, this is a list I especially enjoy putting together each year for its variety, eclecticism, and spirit of sonic exploration. Here is a selection of memorable releases from the musical edge lands where electroacoustic music and field recordings meet folk, jazz, post-rock, and other analog experiments in sound.
A Sudden Burst of Colour – Galvanize
Info: https://asuddenburstofcolour.bandcamp.com/album/galvanize-lp
Hailing from Motherwell, a town southeast of Glasgow once known as the steel capital of Scotland, A Sudden Burst of Colour is an instrumental rock trio that has been making music for the better part of a decade now. After a string of stellar EPs and singles in recent years, the band released a full-length album that pays tribute to the heritage of their hometown with a bright and invigorating set of new tunes that showcases a formula the band has honed to perfection – clean, resonant guitar tones and soaring melodies propelled by tight, progressive arrangements. The graphics and animation talents added to the project by band member Liam Shaw is a nice added dimension as well.
Galvenized was released January 26, 2024, on vinyl LP, CD, and digital and features artwork by Liam Shaw.
Caoilfhionn Rose – Constellation
Info: https://caoilfhionnrose.bandcamp.com/album/constellation
Caoilfhionn Rose (pronounced Keelin) is a singer, songwriter & producer from Manchester, England with family roots in Northern Ireland and Yorkshire. Her third Gondwana album entitled Constellation is an imaginative and refreshing blend of folk, jazz, and atmospheric pop brought to life by Rose on piano, vocals, & guitar accompanied by drummer Alan Taylor, bassist Gavin Barras, and featuring Jordan Smart of Mammal Hands on saxophone (along with a few other guest contributors). The music is free-spirited and expansive but manages to come off as warmly intimate at the same time.
I love being open to collaboration, and the record’s a collage, knitting together all these influences, sounds and players, and just really going for it with the experimentation in the production.
Caoilfhionn Rose
Constellation was released May 24, 2024 in two limited vinyl LP editions (clear and black) as well as CD and digital by Gondwana Records.
Charlie Coxedge – Anaphora
Info: https://charliecoxedge.bandcamp.com/album/anaphora
Originating from a Greek phrase meaning “carrying back “, the title of Charlie Coxedge‘s album Anaphora suggests a means of expression that relies on patterns of repetition. A device sometimes used in literature (“it was the best of times; it was the worst of times…”), Coxedge applies to his music by creating layered tracks that rely on rhythmic repetition to build cohesion and meaning – a shimmering latticework of guitar loops that intertwine in repeating patterns, combining and recombining into rotating melodic shapes until a gentle euphoria ensues.
Anaphora was released digitally on May 3, 2024
Chequerboard – Souvenir
Info: https://chequerboard.bandcamp.com/album/souvenir
It is hard to believe it has been 11 years since Irish musician John Lambert released a full-length album as Chequerboard. Unfolding was one of my favorite records in the 2013 – the first year I did a year-in-review on the blog as it happens – and though it took a while to come to pass Souvenir is every bit as beautiful. Gorgeous melodies, fine musical storytelling, pristine guitar, and unobtrusive atmospherics make this a truly lovely and engaging journey from the first note to the last.
Souvenir was released March 8, 2024, on vinyl LP, CD, and digital by Projector.
Chuck Johnson – Sun Glories
Info: https://chuckjohnson.bandcamp.com/album/sun-glories
On Sun Glories, Oakland-based musician, composer, and producer Chuck Johnson explores “themes of time, memory, and illusion” by blending his unique ambient approach to the pedal steel with electric guitar, synths, and organ and opening up space for expansive contributions from guest musicians Ryan Jewell (drums), Clarice Jensen (cello), Emily Packard (violin/viola) nd Cole Pulice (saxophone). The result is something…
Sun Glories was released August 16, 2024, in a limited vinyl LP edition as well as digital by Western Vinyl.
Cowboy Sadness – Select Jambient Works, Vol. 1
Ezra Feinberg – Soft Power
Info: https://bfan.link/Soft-Power
New York based guitarist and composer Ezra Feinberg is able to create music that appeals on multiple levels – thoughtful and humanistic on one hand and buoyantly experimental on the other. On his third solo album Soft Power, Feinberg cleverly deploys a term most of us associate with geopolitics in a musical context and then epitomizes the idea with an inviting set of colorful tunes and lively improvisations that makes it easy for listeners to embrace. The album features guest appearances throughout by Mary Lattimore, David Moore (Bing & Ruth) and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, as well as David Lackner, Robbie Lee, Russell Greenberg, Britt Hewitt, and John Thayer. Feinberg had a very clear concept for what he wanted the record to convey, and with the help of this talented group of collaborators, he brings it life with warmth and vibrancy.
Soft Power was released on May 31, 2024, in two limited vinyl LP editions (transparent green and clear) as well as digital by Tonal Union and features cover photography by Marc Alcock, taken from the book and series California Topiary.
Hammock – From the Void
Info: https://lnk.to/FromtheVoid
After a series of poignantly beautiful albums in a neoclassical vein, Marc Byrd & Andrew Thompson dusted off their considerable post-rock chops last year for a Hammock record aglow with incandescent sonic colors, soaring guitars, and emotional catharsis. It turns out there was much more to come from the sessions that gave us Love in the Void and that manifested itself in this beautiful follow up release which includes four songs that did not appear on the original album along with four new pieces they were inspired to create. Byrd describes From the Void as both a “bridge between LITV and our next LP, as well as a nice stand-alone document of music”. As we eagerly look forward to whatever form that next journey will take, there is no arguing this one stands on its own just fine.
From the Void was released October 25, 2024 in a limited vinyl LP edition as well as digital by Hammock Music.
Jasmine Myra – Rising
Info:https://jasminemyra.bandcamp.com/album/rising
Leeds-based saxophonist, composer and band leader Jasmine Myra follows up her stellar debut with another set of lyrical jazz-inflected instrumental forays featuring the same core of musicians that shone on the first record – namely guitarist Ben Haskins, drummer George Hall, pianist Jasper Green, harpist Alice Roberts, and bassist Sam Quintana. With this impressive collective on board, Jasmine’s musical quest for positivity comes across beautifully in the listening.
Much like my first album, Rising is a reflection of a period of my life. It is a continuation from Horizons, which was all about my experience during lockdown, and entailed overcoming my struggles with mental health. Following on from that experience, I set out to continue building my self-confidence.
Jasmine Myra
Rising was released May 3, 2024 on CD and limited vinyl LP edition as well as digital by Gondwana Records.
Kessoncoda – Outerstate
Info: https://kessoncoda.bandcamp.com/album/outerstate
Gondwana Records expanded their already impressive roster of artists with the addition this year of Kessoncoda, a West London duo made up of drummer Tom Sunney and keyboardist Filip Sowa. Citing influences a broad array of influences from rock, electronica, ambient, and breakbeat to soundtracks for film, the band is arguably most adjacent to label mates like GoGo Penguin or Portico Quartet as they create their own distinct take on elevating melodic, rhythm-laden music to cinematic heights. Outerstate is a potent and intricate blend of sounds that are as intricate as they are atmospheric. Also worth noting are a
Outerstate was released July 12, 2024, on CD and limited vinyl LP edition as well as digital by Gondwana Records.
Michael A. Muller – Mirror Music
Info: https://michaelamuller.bandcamp.com/album/mirror-music
For his first full-length solo album for the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label, Michael A. Muller (Balmorhea) with a set of tunes composed on Mellotron, Oberheim synthesizer, and Rhodes organ which were then enhanced by an impressive list of hand-picked collaborators – Danny Paul Grody, Chuck Johnson, Vestals, Ilyas Ahmed & Jonathan Sielaff, Douglas McCombs, Rama Parwata, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Hania Rani, Jon Porras, and Clarice Jensen. The concept of the album comes to life in captivating fashion as each track offers an intriguing interplay between the original compositions and their musical reflections created by a diverse array of musical voices.
Together, the pieces form a cohesive movement through an assembly of two halves—a diptych of images braided into a single vision; holding a unified form whilst flashes of errant and haunting light refract through the proverbial glass
Deutsche Grammophon
Mirror Music was released March 15, 2024, on vinyl LP and digital by Deutsche Grammophon and features cover art by Los Angeles painter John Zabawa.
Michael Scott Dawson – The Tinnitus Chorus
Info: https://michaelscottdawson.bandcamp.com/album/the-tinnitus-chorus
Having added pedal steel to the sonic palette of his pastoral ambient soundscapes on last year’s Find Yourself Lost, Michael Scott Dawson widens the canvas even further on The Tinnitus Chorus by weaving the work of an array of collaborators into the narrative. Referred to as “revered friends and kindred strangers”, that includes Suso Saiz, M. Sage (Fuubutsushi), Eli Winter, K. Freund, (Trouble Books / Lemon Quartet), Dasom Baek, Lina Langendorf (Langendorf United), Vumbi Dekula, Jairus Sharif, Yutaka Hirasaka, Michael Grigoni, and Dawson’s bandmates from Peace Flag Ensemble. The title is a nod toward ear troubles Dawson has experienced recently that left him struggling to complete an album of solo material. With a nudge from the label, he embarked on a direction he had already been ruminating on for a while and this beautiful multi-faceted excursion into electroacoustic bliss was born.
The Tinnitus Chorus was released September 6, 2024, on limited edition vinyl LP and digital by We Are Busy Bodies.
Seabuckthorn – this warm, this late
Info: https://quietdetails.bandcamp.com/album/this-warm-this-late
An artist with a truly distinctive musical approach, Andy Cartwright, aka Seabuckthorn, collaborates here with double bassist and trombonist Phil Cassel using a range of instruments from his trademark resonator guitar to ukulele, banjo, clarinet and field recordings to create rough-hewn soundscapes that sound equally organic and otherworldly.
this warm, this late was released April 17, 2024, on limited edition CD and digital by Quiet Details. The album was accompanied by an art print created by the label from images provided by the artist.
Signal Hill – Discarded Futures
Link: https://signalhill.bandcamp.com/album/discarded-futures
Instrumental post-rock band Signal Hill marked their 20th anniversary with their first full-length album of all new material since 2016. The members of the California based band may be with members located now in New York and London as well as Los Angeles, but they sound as well fresh and tightly integrated as ever on Discarded Futures. There are lots of bright, clean guitars, propulsive rhythms, and sweeping melodies all coming together in a signature blend that will be pleasantly familiar to fans of records like More After We’re Gone or Chase the Ghost while still feeling quite fresh and new.
Discarded Futures was released October 25, 2024 in a limited “transparent rose” vinyl LP edition as well as digital by Better Looking Records and features artwork by band member Rishi Neal Arora.
Svaneborg Kardyb – Superkilen
Info: https://svaneborgkardyb.bandcamp.com/album/superkilen
The Gondwana Records debut of Svaneborg Kardyb was one of the musical highlights of 2022 and it was good to see them back again this year with a solid sophomore follow up in the form of Superkilen, an album named after a public park in the ethnically diverse Nørrebro district of Copenhagen. Once again Nikolaj Svaneborg drives the melody on Wurlitzer, Juno, & piano while Jonas Kardyb creates all manner of rhythms and atmospheres on drums & percussion. Drawing on Danish folk music and Scandinavian jazz influences, their sound is a nimble blend of catchy grooves & melodies bustling with analog and electronic textures.
Superkilen was released October 18, 2024, on CD and limited vinyl LP edition as well as digital by Gondwana Records.
Whale Fall – Five
Link: https://whalefall.bandcamp.com/album/five
The fifth album by Los Angeles based instrumental quintet Whale Fall was born out of a series of jam sessions several years ago that allowed the band to begin to release some of the creative energy that was pent up during the Covid lockdown period. When they went into the studio in late 2022 still buzzing from those sessions, the group set out to record an album that captured their live sound better than any that had come before it. Five is that record and it veritably roars and incandesces with the potency of an inspired live performance throughout. That said, this is no aimless jamming. In the band’s own words, they view music as “the creation of energy infused with meaning” and in between their most thunderous crescendos are moments of beauty and melodic expression.
Five embodies the essence of what this thing we call Whale Fall is when you get right down to it: the synergy of the five of us getting together in a room (or on stage) to play, a creative convergence that is not simply five discrete individuals but a singular Fivesome that can’t be disassembled into its parts without losing the integrity of the whole.
Five was released digitally on October 31, 2024. A CD and 2 vinyl LP editions (“flame orange” and black) are available for pre-sale to ship later in 2025 (see Bandcamp link above for more info).
