A Sense of Place and Time – Stationary Travels

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 core of these works released in 2024. Some are personal narratives, and some are depictions of landscape either real or imagined while others are inextricably linked to the locations where they were recorded. Wherever they fall on this spectrum, each of these records offered some truly memorable stationary traveling this year.

Akira Kosemura & Lawrence English- Selene

Info: https://lawrenceenglish.bandcamp.com/album/selene

When they collaborate, the music created by Akira Kosemura and Lawrence English becomes a mesmerizing liminal space that hovers between the expressiveness of compositional forms and the elusive abstractions of ambient experimentation. Despite its evocation of a figure from the mythological past, the focal point of their album Selene is not confined to history, nor does it dwell on legend or arcane mysticism. Rather it draws inspiration from what she can be seen to symbolize – a shared human experience that speaks to the “longitudinal fascinations that have guided us on this planet”.  The visual dimension of the album comes from Chilean filmmaker & photographer Malena Szlam which can be seen in the cover art and, most especially, in the video she created for “Thela”, the album’s third track. With footage of a lunar eclipse filmed in Valle del Elqui and the sand and moon filmed in Australia’s Butchulla country, the 16mm film blends visions of heavenly wonder from two very different perspective into a single abstract experience.

Selene was released May 21, 2024, by Temporary Residence Ltd. on CD, digital, and two limited vinyl editions – black and cloudy white.

Braulio Lam – Redscale

Info: https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/redscale

Braulio Lam is an artist and photographer from the border region of San Diego/Tijuana who whose music draws from a diverse array of influences. On Redscale he sets out to create fascinating sonic experiment based on a photographic concept relating the image chosen for the cover artwork. The photo was shot using Lomography Redscale at 50 ISO and each track has a title relating back to that particular shoot. Each track was recorded at a different time of day and mood in a process the artist described as being like therapy, a feeling that extends to the listener on a beautifully crafted ambient excursion.

Redscale was released June 22, 2024, by Whitelabrecs on limited edition vinyl-effect CD as well as digital download and streaming.

Chihei Hatakeyama – Thousand Oceans

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

Dalot – Aquarium

Info: https://dalot.bandcamp.com/album/aquarium

Greek-born artist Maria Papadomanolaki, known to many for her ambient & electronic experimentations under the moniker of Dalot, offers up a delightful sonic surprise here with her adaptation of an original soundtrack for composed for a dance performance for children directed by choreographer Caterini Dinopoulou enitled “Aquarium”. It is a playful, vibrant blending of music influenced by Greek children’s TV shows from the 80s and early 90s with the more contemporary minimalist sounds that she has explored on her previous Dalot records, all in the service of helping to bring to life the story of a lionfish who lives inside a fish tank. Note that only the digital edition of the album is the only place you can find the atmospheric “Opening” and “Closing” tracks that bookend the soundtrack.

Aquarium was released on June 17, 2024, by Same Difference music on limited edition vinyl as well as digitally. The album features artwork by Giorgos Papadakis.

Federico Durand – Té De Flores Silvestres

Info: https://iikki.bandcamp.com/album/te-de-flores-silvestres

Following the format of all IIKKI releases, Té de flores silvestres (or Wildflower Tea) is an audio-visual dialogue between two artists, in this case Belgium photographer Michael Roemers and Argentinian musician & sound artist Federico Durand. The idea is to offer different ways of approaching the work in the form of an art book and album of music which can be experienced separately or together. Focusing on the music side of things, Durand is in fine form here giving sonic form to an ethos that revolves around a fondness for simple joys in life like gardening, poetry, collecting stamps, and drinking tea. Diffuse melodies emerge and recede from his tender cultivation of sounds created by various synthesizers, shortwave radio, music boxes, tape loops, and field recordings. Together with the imagery it creates a world that is at once organic and surreal.

Té de flores silvestres was released July 1, 2024, by IIKKI in limited, hand-numbered CD and vinyl LP editions along with an 80-page hardcover artbook each of which can be purchased separately or bundled.

Glåsbird – Fenscapes

https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/fenscapes

Glåsbird has been one of my favorite musical projects for a while now and 2024 was the year we learned the identity of the artist behind it, none other than Whitelabrecs label runner Harry Towell. Inspired by a love of geography & exploration as well as an appreciation of both cinematic and neoclassical, Towell’s then anonymous alter ego led listeners on a globe-spanning multi-album Sonic Expedition before finally revealing his identity and launching a new chapter in the project. That new chapter focuses on landscapes closer to home – namely the Fenlands of eastern England, a low-lying, naturally marshy region which has been largely drained over hundreds of years to create flat, arable land. As the album notes explain, this region which covers 500 square miles now serves as a highly fertile agricultural zone still retains its unique ecological character. Fenscapes becomes an immersive musical diary of the artist’s time spent walking the fen roads near his home in Lincolnshire in the hopes of raising the cultural profile of the area.

Fenscapes was released November 16, 2024, by Whitelabrecs on limited edition vinyl-effect CD and digital. The album features cover art and photography by Harry himself.

James Ross & Maxwell Quartet – Landscape to Light

Info: https://linktr.ee/jamesrossmusicscot

“How naturally generous should be our appreciation of the marvels and beauty of a strange land”. These words from the final coda of novelist Neil Gunn’s autobiographical account of resigning from the Civil Service to journey through the Inner Hebrides on a small boat seem especially apropos to the introduction of this musical project from Scottish composer and pianist James Ross. Taking its name from a book of Gunn’s essays published in 2009, Landscape to Light is described as a “musical storybook” set in Caithness which is not only the northernmost point of the Scottish mainland, but also the place from which both the composer, and the author to whom he pays homage, each hail. In what is clearly a labor of love, Ross is joined by the Maxwell Quartet (Colin Scobie, violin; George Smith, violin; Elliott Perks, viola; Duncan Strachan, cello) as he seeks to evoke the more lyrical elements of his homeland with compositions inspired by the life and lore of the North Coast as well as the landscapes about which Gunn wrote so memorably.

Landscape to Light was released June 21, 2024, by the Phenotypic Recordings label. The album features artwork by Magi Sinclair.

Kilometre Club – At Dusk Hour the Crickets

Info: https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/at-dusk-hour-the-crickets

Canadian electronic sound artist Daniel Field’s Kilometre Club describes At Dusk Hour the Crickets as “a soundtrack to the connection between the earth and the sky”. The origins of the album go back to a warm September evening in 2022 when Field and his family were sitting around a campfire while visiting with friends a couple hours north of Toronto. He left his field recorder running on top of his car and found what he came away creatively inspiring. Inverting his usual approach of embedding field recordings in the music as it was composed, Field goes on to explain that he sought to match the tones, timbres, and atmospheric aspects of the sounds as they occurred on the recording. Enhancing its immersive quality the album is really a single continuous piece of music in which the track titles & division serve more as episodic markers. 

At Dusk Hour the Crickets was released March 8, 2024, by Polar Seas Recordings on limited edition CD as well as digitally.

Kinbrae – Cryptophasia

Info: https://kinbrae.bandcamp.com/album/cryptophasia

Kinbrae  is the musical project of brothers Andrew & Michael Truscott based in Edinburgh and Dundee, Scotland. Their signature sound is at once evocative and experimental, mixing brass, acoustic guitar, percussion and musique concrète to create works rooted in a sense of place utilizing both ambient and contemporary classical elements. A number of their landscape-oriented works have been featured on the blog, but with Cryptophasia the Truscotts explore a different kind of geography if you will. Working producer and recording artist Ben Chatwin and using only the song titles as verbal cues, they offer up a musical reflection on their relationship growing up as twins covering themes such as “family dynamics, lived experiences and memories, identity, sibling rivalry, isolation and battles with mental health”. A fascinating sonic dialog.

Cryptophasia was released March 7, 2024, by Castles in Space on limited edition orange “blacksmoke” vinyl LP as well as digital. The album features artwork & design by Steve Gribbin.

Low Altitude – Boat

https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/boat

Hailing from Belfast, raised in Manchester, and currently residing in the Welsh countryside, Bruce Magill has had a musical career spanning three decades during which he has evolved from a frontman in local guitar bands to exploring electronic music as a producer. After a 14-year hiatus, Magill returned to music during pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and those recording sessions eventually led to this ambient seafaring journey released under his new moniker of Low Altitude. Inspired by the sensation of sailing by the light of the moon and stars, Boat is framed for the listener as a postcard of a 2022 coastal retreat along the Pembrokeshire coast and seeks to capture an essence of nature as well as encounters with seals, dolphins, and seagulls along the way. 

Boat was released March 16, 2024, by Whitelabrecs on limited edition vinyl-effect CD and digital.

Marine Eyes – To Belong

Info: https://pitp.bandcamp.com/album/to-belong?from=embed

As Marine Eyes, Cynthia Bernard makes a particularly lulling sort of ambient music that exudes kindness and empathy. That has never been more the case that on to belong where she intertwines gossamer synth textures, silvery guitar, and ethereal voice with field recordings of friends and family each of which was chosen very purposefully. It is a lovely tribute to the people and places she cherishes, and while that makes it a very personal record, you will find the sounds to be as hospitable and welcoming as they can be. A respite for troubled times in musical form.

to belong was released April 17, 2024, by Past Inside the Present on limited edition CD and 7-inch vinyl as well as digital. The album features artwork by Cynthia herself.

Mars Smith – Faroe Islands: Echoes on the Wind

Link: https://orcd.co/sparse

Located halfway between Scotland and Iceland in the Northeast Atlantic, the Faroe Islands are an archipelago of 18 islands that encompasses less than 1400 square kilometers amidst an area of ocean nearly 200 times larger. The mountains, valleys, steep cliffs and narrow fjords of the Faroes present some of the most rugged landscapes and breathtaking vistas on the planet. Faroe Islands: Echoes on the Wind is the debut album from a new outdoors-inspired project by flautist Daniela Mars and conductor/composer Paul Smith (VOCES8, Apollo5, Lyyra) who spent time exploring, writing together, recording and filming different locations on the islands resulting a in a transportive audio/visual journey.

Faroe Islands: Echoes on the Wind was released by VOCES8 Records. A full documentary about the album and its creation featured in the LIVE From London digital festival held by the VOCES8 Foundation over the summer.

Info: https://modernarecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-shoe-factory

Originally from the small town of Lucerne in the foothills of the Swiss alps, composer Oliver Patrice Weder has traveled extensively extensive across Africa, North and South America, as well as making home in various places around Europe. The latest of these turned out to be the location of a former shoe factory in a small village nestled in the Tramontana mountains of Spain. It was a region of the world where shoemaking once thrived with over 100 factories operating as recently as the mid 20th century. With microphones in hand, Weder decided to go and visit some of the factories nearby that were still intact so as to capture the sound of the machines and the overall ambience of the setting while getting to know the locals some of whom he learned had been operating the same machine for over 40 years. The Shoe Factory is an inventive blend of contemporary classical, jazz, and electronic music which pulses to the rhythm of the machines which may be fewer in number these days but still form the heartbeat for many lives.

The Shoe Factory was released on January 19, 2024, by Moderna Records. The album features artwork by Richard Caldicott.

Olivia Belli – Intermundia

Info: https://oliviabelli.com/intermundia

Composer Olivia Belli has always felt a deep connection to the natural world. Settled now with her family in the picturesque countryside of Italy’s Marche region, she has used the piano as the primary vehicle for creating music that incorporates the elements of that world, often referencing light, wind, water, and the heavens above. on her expansive 2024 release entitled Intermundia (or the space between worlds) she offers a serene collection of pieces inspired by specific places of mediation and silence close to home where she goes to “become freed of everything non-essential, everything in the modern world”, places of which Belli says, “it is only you and your soul”. Interwoven with these main tracks are six “breaths” or short piano interludes which represent peaceful moments of reflection in the musical journey. The compositional structure Belli chose was inspired by the Ochtoechos, an eight-mode system originating in the liturgical music of the Middle Ages, a choice consistent with her intent to elevate the album into a call to her listeners to reflect on their spiritual nature.

Intermundia was released February 23, 2024, on XXIM Records.

Seaworthy & Matt Rösner – Deep Valley

Link: https://12kmusic.bandcamp.com/album/deep-valley

Deep Valley was composed and recorded by Australian artists Seaworthy (Cameron Webb) and Matt Rösner during a week-long residency at Bundanon Art Museum on the south coast of New South Wales. The property, which was gifted by the great Australian painter Arthur Boyd and his wife Yvonne as a place for artists to immerse themselves in the native landscape, sits on the banks on the Shoalhaven River surrounded by sandstone cliffs, dense forests and historic studio buildings such as the Musician’s Hut where Webb and Rosner spent a week exploring the surrounding wildlife sanctuary. All the pieces featured on the album were composed using recordings of sounds of the outside environment and weaving them with guitars, piano and electronic processing to create a new work inspired by Boyd’s wise adage that “you can’t own a landscape”. Ther instrumentation is delicate and subdued allowing the vivid field recordings to give the listener a sense of the rich ecosystem in which they are being immersed.

Deep Valley was released September 20, 2024, by 12k on CD & digital. The album features cover art by Marcus Fischer.

Simeon Walker – Landscape: Four Suffolk Sea Scenes

Link: https://simeonwalkermusic.bandcamp.com/album/landscape-four-suffolk-sea-scenes

The origins of this album go back about five years to a week pianist & composer Simeon Walker spent in residence at Butley Priory at the invitation of fellow artist & composer Frances Shelley who was custodian of the 12th-century Augustinian abbey turned country house at the time. As the title implies, however, it was the nearby landscape of Shingle Street, however, that inspired Four Suffolk Sea Scenes, an impressionistic survey of a montage of coastal scenes distilled into music embellished with field recordings captured on location. The landscape Walker encountered on a late-February morning was one of unusual calmness for the Suffolk coast, a result of unseasonal high pressure that created a unique set of atmospheric and temperate conditions which created a setting he described as “other-worldly”. And while he captured those scenes in a stunning collection of photographs some of which can be seen here, it is Walker’s impressionistic piano style that remains the most potent form of expression for vividly bringing to life a sense of the stillness and beauty that was clearly on display.

Four Suffolk Sea Scenes was released digitally on February 28, 2024, and features photography taken by Walker himself.