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I regard this music as environmental: to be experienced from the inside. Accordingly, I considered releasing a quadrophonic version of it, an idea I abandoned upon realising that very few people (myself included) own quadrophonic systems.However, I have for many years been using a three-way speaker system that is both simple to install and inexpensive, and which seems to work very well on any music with a broad stereo image. The effect is subtle but definite – it opens out the music and seems to enlarge the room acoustically. – Brian Eno

Robert Fripp's second team up with Brian Eno was a less harsh, more varied affair, closer to Eno's then-developing idea of ambient music than what had come before in (No Pussyfooting). The method used, once again, was the endless decaying tape loop system of Frippertronics but refined with pieces such as "Wind on Water" fading up into an already complex bed of layered synths and treated guitar over which Fripp plays long, languid solos. "Evening Star" is meditative and calm with gentle scales rocking to and fro while Fripp solos on top. "Wind on Wind" is Eno solo, an excerpt from the soon to be released Discreet Music album. The nearly 30-minute ending piece, "An Index of Metals," keeps Evening Star from being a purely background listen as the loops this time contain a series of guitar distortions layered to the nth degree, Frippertronics as pure dissonance. As a culmination of Fripp and Eno's experiments, Evening Star shows how far they could go. – All Music

Essential!
Light In The Attic’s Japan Archival Series continues with Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990, an unprecedented overview of the country’s vital minimal, ambient, avant-garde, and New Age music – what can collectively be described as kankyō ongaku, or environmental music. The collection features internationally acclaimed artists such as Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Joe Hisaishi, as well as other pioneers like Hiroshi Yoshimura, Yoshio Ojima and Satoshi Ashikawa, who deserve a place alongside the indisputable giants of these genres. – Light In The Attic

Following on from 2018’s Tape 1 & Tape 2, Dutch producer and musician Eelco Topper returns to Soundway Records for the next two installments of his Felbm project. As before these will be released as two separate digital EPs and then together on one vinyl LP.

Tape 3 & Tape 4 is an intimate, emotional, lilting and melodic solo project with a restorative, therapeutic nature. They were composed and recorded by Topper with just those aspects in mind as a personal remedy for the ailments of modern life. With a breezy and soothing quality these fourteen lo-fi, instrumental, jazz-infused sketches written on guitar, with cascading keyboards, vibraphone and drum machine, seem perfect for the second half of 2020, a year in which we could all surely use some curative and uncomplicated music. With echoes of the dreamier end of 1980s English indie-pop, minimal ambient music and Brazilian bossa-nova, Topper’s musical storybook includes touches of The Durutti Column, echoes of Ethiopian Tezeta, hints of Antônio Carlos Jobim and Baden Powell, whilst all set firmly in the summer fields of Germany and the Netherlands.

In Topper’s own words: “most of the compositions on Tape 3 originated at home, with a small and basic setup of a keyboard, a guitar, a rhythm box and some small instruments lying around the tape deck. Inspiration came from the emptiness after a stranded relationship, finding balance, peace and strength within yourself again. Somehow I feel some optimism can be found in these songs that perhaps reflects how I experienced this process.” - Bandcamp

“Garrett III is more of a swan project. A final installment, if you will. Garrett is now retreating more deeply, as evident by the album cover by @GangCulture into obscurity. The time has come for a landing via this 3rd installment of his ‘private life’. After surviving a lockdown x worldwide pandemic in 1 piece, without going insane, he has finally decided 2 conclude this phase of his tightrope walk between lush Ambient touched Modern-Funk & the choice of no vocals / strictly instrumental aural experiences, for listeners of all hues, backgrounds & taste. The hope is that it’s enjoyed in whatever way feasible for all human (& alien) kind.” – Music From Memory

Désaccord Majeur is the alter ego of French journeyman Jérôme Mauduit, a curious seeker and sustaining presence in Europe's post-industrial underground. Beginning his musical activities in the mid-1980s, Mauduit committed his first recordings to tape in 1989, self-releasing La Théorie Du Chaos on his eponymous label home to fellow travellers Internal Fusion, Largo and Moments Présents. It continued to act as a base for his own endeavours and before discontinuation in 1994, culminated in the release of Ophir, an important document propagating the earthy, ritualistic spores of Ah Cama Sotz, Hybryds, Nightmare Lodge and Muslimgauze - the alias of Bryn Jones who would later become his label mate at Staalplaat.

Treading sensitively through a humid urban decay left by Jorge Reyes and Luis Delgado, Manduit inhabits a strange, sticky world shared by O Yuki Conjugate, Z'EV and Nocturnal Emissions: woodlike percussion, melancholic drift and unclean ambience his markers of identification. Alluding to the atmospheric qualities of mid-90s world-weary electronica and the digitised undulations generated by Paul Schütze, Aubrite-era Thomas Köner and early Microstoria, it's perhaps no surprise that the tactility of Manduit's work has gained pertinence and resonated with a new generation of listeners - in fact, it was Vladimir Ivkovic who first introduced it to us in 2019.

Sourced from a productive period which climaxed in an appearance on Rotorelief's Coilectif - In Memory Ov John Balance and Homage to Coil compilation (2006), the tracks on Sunquake reveal the workings of an idiosyncratic, otherworldly artist drifting through dreams.

"This is a tiny yet remarkable entrance into Désaccord Majeur’s world of beautiful introvert electronics. Delicate yet powerful music that sounds like it was never made to please anyone beyond the place it was made. Never overstated but always inviting for anyone who wants to go for a hike through inner spaces."
—Vladimir Ivkovic, June 2020 (via A Colourful Storm)

For the first time since its inception 36 years ago, Steve Hiett’s elusive 'Down On The Road By The Beach' is finally made available outside of Japan. Most recognized in the fashion sphere as an English photographer and graphic designer, Hiett's transportive audio portraits amplify his serpentine guitar to the infinite blue, recorded across Paris, Tokyo and New York with no coastline in sight. Now widely celebrated as a desert island disc, very little is actually known of its unfathomable genesis.

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A career devotee of Brian Wilson’s ground breaking harmonies, Hiett shot The Beach Boys for Rolling Stone - as well as The Doors, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix (in one of his final performances at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival) - while establishing himself as a fashion photographer. Decamping to Paris in 1972, he began what would become 20-year collaborations with Vogue Paris and Marie Claire, printing his signature warm, saturated and vibrantly hued snapshots.

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In 1982, representatives from Tokyo's Galerie Watari visited him to propose a solo exhibition. Asking if he could insert a 7” of original music into the back of the exhibition catalogue, Hiett laid down ‘Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach’ in a Parisian radio station, playing all of the instruments himself, and two more cuts in New York with Yoko Ono, The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan hired-gun Elliott Randall. Once dispatched, the phone began ringing off the hook with requests for him to fly to Tokyo. Assuming these long-distance callers were wanting him to check proofs for the book, it wasn’t until he arrived that he discovered CBS/Sony had facilitated an entire album. Heitt hastily gripped some petty cash, bought a guitar and retreated to his hotel room to start writing.

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Entering the studio the following day, he was further surprised by a waiting room of session players known as Moonriders - one of Japan's most acclaimed rock bands of the 1980s. Intimidated by their indecipherable sheet music, Hiett suggested Randall join them and with money being no object for major labels at the time, his wingman was on the next plane out of New York to finalise the high production indulgence. Near-ambient arrangements that float in a space between The Durutti Column, Steve Cropper and Ashra, 'Down On The Road By The Beach' also crowns Hiett the master of recontextualization with his zero-gravity blues visions of Roll Over Beethoven, Santo & Johnny's 'Sleep Walk' and the 1967 Eddie Floyd soul hit 'Never Found A Girl'. – Bandcamp

In the process of relocating to Den Bosch's Willem Twee Studios, The Transcendence Orchestra let love slip deftly out of its gate and reverberate around the walls of the studio's main hall, a high ceilinged former synagogue in the city's old town. Working intensively to capture its echoes, they coaxed it to appear in pipes and strings, directed it through resonant circuits and shepherded it round the room with beaters, horns and rattles. Having returned home with the recordings, a purpose began to emerge. Through a process of extensive reconfiguration and testing it became clear that the love contained within could transform perception. Under the right circumstances, and accompanied by appropriate technology, it could serve as a map for navigating beginnings and endings. Like some distant mesmerising chant or a psychedelic folk song, it could connect us and reassure us that we can pass through the boundaries and survive. Perhaps not intact but at least whole. Here is that map, love soaked diligently into its lines, ready to guide those at a loss or reassure those willing to explore. – Bandcamp

The debut Dub Syndicate set from 1982, pre-dating the involvement of mainstay Style Scott. This features various members of Creation Rebel and African Head Charge turning out a wild dub set, with hard-hitting rhythms and FX-mutated melodies phasing in and out of the mix.

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Recorded quickly with track titles cheekily poking fun at the contemporary series by The Scientist which pitted him against various b-movie foes. The tunes themselves however are deadly serious, with version excursions on some classic On-U vocal cuts such as “Bedward The Flying Preacher” and “Across The Red Sea”, and a continuing commitment by producer Adrian Sherwood to take his love of reggae and filter it through his exploratory and uniquely English approach. - Bandcamp

This fall sees the release of Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, an album that brings together styles and approaches from across his catalogue into a single package. Oddly, for a record that comes so late in an artist’s discography, it’s an excellent place to start for those unfamiliar with his work. It features contributions from the Weeknd, Caroline Polachek, and Arca and it’s oddly accessible, but it maintains Lopatin’s affectionate, inquisitive, and subversive relationship to pop. He’s still out there, and still innovating. – Bandcamp daily

Imagine Plantasia was an animated film narrated by Jacque Cousteau and the musical score reminds you of your favourite library record. “Ambitus Of Beauty” invites you on yet another beautiful and timeless full-length journey through various magic moments, scenes and soundscapes by Natureboy Flako. You will be floating on a vast stream of memories, ideas, thoughts, wishes and feelings translated into sound while your mind starts dancing gracefully and is likely to drift into nothing and everything at the same time. Carefully crafted with a great sense of oneness, this album is offering a mind travel to focus and re-calibrate. Music Heals! – Bandcamp

Emotional ambient, soft focus synthesis and pastoral programming from German duo Cass. & Gianni Brezzo on Hamburg‘s Growing Bin. Hopeless romantic with GSOH seeks open minded audiophile for lifelong companionship.

The style might change, but the quality remains the same in the Growing Bin. For this autumnal edition, the Hamburg label looks South West to Osnabrück and Cologne, home to Cass. and Gianni Brezzo respectively. Sharing an appreciation for emotive tonality and expansive texture, the two musicians make the perfect partnership on ‚Masala Kiss‘, Brezzo‘s timeless melodies only serving to intensify the signature sensuality of the Cass. sound. Despite the occasional polyrhythms, you‘re hearing two hearts beat as one... 

Insistent and expressive, well travelled opener ‚Jaybo‘ joins the ethnic and esoteric with a new age optimism before giving way to the detailed ambience and good nature of ‚Umberella‘, a brief pitstop on the road to the meditative ‚Imence Sense‘. Alive with layered guitars, this opiated raga dances like hashish smoke in the evening sky, and then its up into the cloud forms of ‚Instabubu‘ and ‚Autoscooter Love‘, celestial serenades both off and on beat. Cass. and Brezzo set controls for the heart of the sun with the Froesean ‚Out Of Mind‘, a cinematic exercise in precision sequencing and frequency control then start the journey home with the dewy bells and delicate waveforms of ‚Koli‘. If you‘re in need of a little new age funk for your poolside playtime ‚Helge‘ and ‚Der Däne‘ are on hand with the chunky bass and languid grooves, while a last minute interlude provides a prenatal comfort and womblike warmth. I always cry at endings, and ‚Paterson‘ provides pure emotional release in utterly Balearic fashion. Pensive guitar and euphoric synths meet on the waterfront as you stare over the ocean with all the people you love. – Growing Bin | Soundcloud

Machu Picchu is one of the more intimate projects by Tangerine Dream – not planned for a release during the composing and recording process. It is an homage to a man who – like no other person in the business – had ‘created’ TD´s career from a distance many years ago, believing in their talent and extraordinary skills. His name was John Peel. The background story and atmospheric influence of this one-piece, 42-minute composition came to life after this music-driven character and long-time BBC progressive pioneer passed away in October 2004, in the city of Cusco (Peru) close to the sacred Inca site Machu Picchu.  Originally not made available until 2012, and then only on CD/Digital, Machu Picchu will be released exclusively for Record Store Day 2019 on yellow vinyl. Edgar also wrote about John and their 1974 encounter in London in his autobiography ‘Force Majeure’; the chapter in question (‘The John Peel Files’) reprinted in a booklet within this package. Tangerine Dream owe John their international career. Edgar wanted to say thank you with this album, composed especially for John. – Record Store Day

On her first new release in almost 20 years, Japanese composer Midori Takada joins London-based musician Lafawndah on a short but fascinating multimedia project with mythical overtones.

Le Renard Bleu is something different: a series of collaborations in both content and form. Sonically, Takada has joined forces with the London-based singer/producer Lafawndah, best known for her 2016 pan-global (or even post-global) pop EP Tan. Visually, the pair took up with filmmakers and artistic directors Partel Oliva for an accompanying film, of interest mainly as a chance to see how Takada creates her sounds, and a one-sided 12" with a flip etched by Parisian illustrator Neila Czermak. Logistically, the crew found funding and distribution from cult fashion house KENZO, whose runway shows Lafawndah has soundtracked. - Pitchfork

This album is a result of Cantu-Ledesma finding himself at a sort of crossroads. When his marriage ended, he moved in with filmmaker Paul Clipson at the Headlands Center For The Arts near San Francisco. The experience let Cantu-Ledesma devote himself to these compositions in a very organic but time-intensive way. Recorded on reel-to-reel tape, the album uses synthesizer, drum machines, field recordings and electric guitar. The results, while not so far from Love Is A Stream, exude a confidence of composition and simple songwriting that's sometimes been missing in Cantu-Ledesma's past work. Stringing together dream pop touches, wall-of-sound shoegaze and poignant noise and drone passages, The Year with 13 Moons might best be described as an ambient pop album, one whose passages are knotted with keenly-crafted melodies.

With its cozy LinnDrum pattern and buzzing blurts of noise, "The Twins/Shadows" is the musical equivalent of staring at a cloud-hidden moon. "Pale Flower" and "Disappear" both use a similar drum pattern, curling electronic sounds and a slow, ascending guitar to create a strange and beautiful blur of sound. Opener "The Last Time I Saw Your Face" is blissful, droning guitar left to echo for over eight minutes. "Agate Beach" opens with the kind of grainy, wind-blast noise that Yellow Swans used to make before rippling into another of the album's distant guitar melodies. And yet for the melodic songcraft that dominates The Year with 13 Moons, Cantu-Ledesma closes the record on the wind-howl sounds and explosive, scattered noises of "Remains"—a clamorous finale for an album that finds Cantu-Ledesma orchestrating perhaps the most gorgeous ambience of his career so far. – Resident Advisor

One of the most fascinating and peculiar works from the golden era of Japanese ambient, #Notes of Forestry was initially released in 1988 by Newsic, the cult label started by Tokyo’s Wacoal Art Center (also known as Spiral), home, notably, of Yoshio Ojima who co-produced the album. Conceived by Jazz bassist turned experimentalist Motohiko Hamase, the magnum opus offers an enchanting mix of free-form pastoral electronics, otherworldly percussions by Yasunori Yamaguchi, and delightfully allusive piano played by none other than Satsuki Shibano (Sound Process’ Wave Notation 3). Vibrant, sometimes eerie, and absolutely captivating, #Forestry captures Hamase’s quest for musical freedom, he explains:

"Inside the body of a musician, music is always transcendentally resonating. More than language, music reigns. When creating music overlaps with the moment my body performs, I strive to be as close as possible to the feeling of musical freedom. I feel that this notion lies at the foundation of this album".

Musical freedom, here, provides an essential escape, extending the path uncovered by pivotal releases such as Midori Takada’s Through The Looking Glass, Satoshi Ashikawa’s Still Way, and Yutaka Hirose’s Nova. – Bandcamp | WRWTFWW

A seamless mix of the organic and inorganic, the recent past and distant future, and the possible and impossible, Japanese multi-media artist Masumi Hara’s sophomore album arrived like a fish on the moon in 1984. An album filled with contradiction and purpose, 4 X A Dream is both balearic acid folk and damaged steel drum dub, hi-tech new wave balladry and ambient synth pop. Classical and neoimpressionist vibes haunt and entrance. Quite possibly the most unique LP you’ll ever add to your collection. – Numero Group

Originally released in 1981 as a limited vinyl pressing of 300 copies on Agi Yuzuru’s fabled experimental label Vanity Records (R.N.A. Organism, Dada, Sympathy Nervous, Tolerance…), Lady Maid is a testament to the creativity of the early 80s’ Japanese electronic and experimental scene, encapsulating a prolific era when audio gear became affordable for musicians to explore sounds in the comfort of their home, free from studio time pressure and major label rules.

Entirely imagined and brought to life by an inspired Yukio Fujimoto, the 6-track opus was conceived with a Korg MS-20, a Korg SQ-10, a Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-55, and…a Texas Instruments Speak & Spell! It’s elegantly minimalist, honest and witty, very playful, cleverly pop, and downright fascinating. The a-side captures the fun side of avant-garde electronica, lo-fi wave, proto-glitch, and IDM, a joyful ride beautifully interrupted by the cinematic mood switch of the b-side - a 20 minute ambient piece flirting with sci-fi, melancholy, and hints of metallic darkness. Unclassifiable and marvelous! – Bandcamp

More from the label We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records 

 The trumpeter and composer’s 1977 solo debut, reissued on remastered vinyl, retains its uncanny narcotic power and elemental beauty decades on. 

Hassell’s trumpet is at the center of everything, as bent out of recognition as everything else. His elaborate effects chains create speech-like sounds, and his tone often becomes overwhelmed by the sound of his breath. On heavily processed tracks like “Hex” and “Viva Shona,” ping-ponging electronic dots and dashes nearly crowd him out of the mix. However, both “Blues Nile” and the album’s main event—the 21-minute long title track—distill Hassell’s artistry to its most fundamental elements: percussion, drone, and trumpet. He embellishes one or two notes insistently, creating tiny, detuned flutters that evoke a call to prayer for a non-existent religion. The simplicity and intimacy of these compositions is unusual in Hassell’s catalog. - Pitchfork

His journey began in 1972, leaving home in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Heading west to Northern California, Arthur studied Indian classical composition at the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music followed by western orchestral music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, before ending two years later in New York at the Manhattan School of Music.

Traversing the popular and the serious, Arthur composed “Instrumentals” in 1974, inspired by the photography of his Buddhist teacher, Yuko Nonomura, as Arthur described, “I was awakened, or re-awakened to the bright-sound and magical qualities of the bubblegum and easy-listening currents in American popular music”.

Pitchfork lauded “Instrumentals” Vol. 1 as a masterpiece and one of Arthur’s “greatest achievements”. Americana touching on Copeland, Ives, and maybe even Brian Wilson. “Instrumentals” Vol. 2 is a moving, deeply pastoral work performed by the CETA Orchestra and conducted by Julius Eastman. - Bandcamp

Perte d'identité, which translates to “loss of identity,” is the debut LP by composer, singer and poet Marie Davidson, one of the finest artists rising from the electronic dark-synth scene in Montreal. Her voice is a stark half-spoken monotone which will tell you stories from which you can’t escape unchanged. With this release, she refines her storytelling with suffocating tales that are both intimate and melancholic. Meanwhile, her miraculously human electronic rhythms are as frantic and hypnotic as an intense stare. In her premier full length album, she invites you to take a look in the peephole, revealing a fascinating cinematic picture. What you will be shown are the parts of yourself which you're scared and ashamed of, but also the ones that reveal a haunting and glamorous sensuality. Not only will she spin you a tale, but her music will immerse your soul in images of sweet anxiety. "This album is about romance and a quest for meaning." - Bandcamp

O$VMV$M do one very specific thing: loops. After releasing a motley collection of tapes and EPs, where they typically lock samples into elegant slow-mo repetition, they stick to this humble remit on their follow-up EP. Despite its simplicity, O$VMV$M's straightforward sound lends itself to a surprising variety of moods, packing in abundance with the bluest after-hours Bristol vibes.

Like many electronic artists, Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles spent his early years experimenting with IDM, glitch and dance, but one consistent element in his musical journey has been his desire to create a more organic, humanised sound.

Through these experimentations he has found a process of producing electronic music that feels close to this urge. West engages his hands directly with instruments and is very selective about what he then records into the computer. He reduces musical parts even further, leaving enough space around the sound for it to breath. Odyssey is a reflection of West’s quest to create atmosphere and space from minimal arrangements. ‘I don’t like music to sound overly laboured, so I restrict how much is going on. I’m kind of obsessed with the idea of reduction.’ This 5-track EP was mastered by Naweed.

An experiential listen throughout - cinematic and majestic with its lush synth sounds and a strong focus on sound design. 180g Vinyl, mastered by Rashad @ Dubplates & Mastering Berlin. Cited by Boomkat as the most important release on the Bedouin Label. Highly recommended

Tarquin Magnet is an album by Tarquin Manek (F ingers, Tarcar, LST. A unique synthesis of time-dilating folk-jazz romanticism, brittle chamber dub and plasmic post-techno electronics, it’s the Australian’s first full solo release on Blackest Ever Black.– Bandcamp

Originating from Australia but currently stationed in Berlin, recent years have seen Tarquin Manek rifle through DIY junkyard marginalia (Fingers Pty Ltd’s compelling scrawl Broken Fingers), dire swampland dub (Tarcar’s Mince Glace) and frayed dead-end somnolence as a member of F ingers. With Hide Before Dinner, the first release under the F ingers guise, Manek and his conspirators assuaged those previous instincts for dishevelment and density and turned them into bewitching, heavily blurred nocturnes.

As opposed to those collaborative efforts, Tarquin Magnet is Manek’s most significant solo release yet, revealing individual indulgencies which centre on an open-ended suite of strident clarinet soloing and claustrophobic wormhole FX. In some ways, he remains true to the notions which inform his work with Blackest Ever Black label cohorts and Melbourne associates Carna Del Forno and Sam Karnel. But in place of the soused silhouettes of those collaborations, the focus here is purely on Manek’s free moving instrumentation. – Crack Magazine