Spring is Springing

Ambient anniversaries, Arabic transmissions, speaker demolishing bass, bold alt-popping rock, the longest deepest house cut ever, art-rock meets folky jazz fusion and a perfect big city soundtrack.

Spring is undoubtedly my favourite season. The fisherman waterproofs (no joke - you need them in the northern Iberian winter) have now been gathering dust for a couple of weeks, and when I walk the dog the countryside is alive with the sounds of full-bellied birds and buzzing insects stretching their wings and legs after their diapause. The weeds are getting in on the early act too: splattering stone walls and untouched land at the side of the roads with Pollock like splashes of colour, whilst more favoured gardeners’ blooms bide their time or remain in seed packets.

I’ve also discovered the joys of the ⓘ button underneath my iPhone photos. Once pressed it identifies the flowers/weeds, shrubs and trees, and gives me a brief rundown of their characteristics. Consequently, in the absence of much of a budget, I’ve dug up some forest dwelling daisies, Cowslips and some edible three-cornered leeks and transplanted them to previous dull, grassy areas at home. I’m also taking cuttings from the neighbours: Japanese quince, rosemary, kiwi, plum and sour cherry. The sticks are now stuck in some potting compost to see what happens, and I just discovered a wild camomile bush that I’m going to dig up next week when I hit that route again.

Not only that, but my vegetable seeds are germinating: three types of beans, red, white and spring onions, peas, mange tout, beetroot, three types of tomatoes and spinach, with another twenty-six varieties of vegetables and all sorts of pollinator-friendly flowers to hit the module trays over the coming weeks. OK, I might have gone a bit OTT, but I’m keen, and this year is all about experimenting and learning, plus I want a return on my €100 seed bill. The dream is to walk into a supermarket in the summer and walk out with just some toilet paper, oats, butter, rice and pasta; leaving the overpriced, often underperforming veg on the shelves for the growing space deprived. Let’s see what the reality is.

So, I’ve finally come out of the gardening closet, and alongside learning how to play and make music and contending with my daughters teenage years,I’m now set for “retirement” - no pot belly, daytime TV and curtain twitching for me.

Anyway, on to the music - don’t worry that’s still a passion too. If you vibed on Hockitay’s latest single from the last newsletter, you should check out the interview with him over at the blog. Being of a certain age I’m always fascinated by where the youth are at, and so far the interviewees have been seriously smart and clued up:

“To be honest, making music a sustainable career seems less realistic every day. It’s obvious that music and art in general are wildly undervalued. So many people just treat it as sonic wallpaper, which couldn’t be further from how I feel about it.”

Right, over to this week’s selections.

øjeRum - arthur & jermias (Fluid Audio)

I used to regularly champion øjeRum a few years ago, and then we parted ways - always a sad moment with a favoured artist, but I wished him well as he gravitated to edgier sounds, and I thought we’d lost touch. But boy is he back on my radar with this latest release for the always worth checking Fluid Audio label out of Bristol.

Known mostly for his ambient work - as well as his great collages, he’s only gone and made the best - definitely the longest, deep/ambient/house/techno (choose your own combination) track of 2026, and possibly a few of other years as well (discuss). If minimalism and repetition aren’t your thing, then you could possibly struggle, but I’d give it a shot anyway; you might surprise yourself.

The few sounds and loops that make it into this hazy, tape-warmed hypnotic house track had obviously been tucked away in a special folder on the hard drive: cherished, listened to, and deliberated over for time; waiting for the right companions before finally revealing themselves via this holistic house music gem. So free up thirty minutes, close your eyes, and sink into the zone.

Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys - Pale Bloom (Unique/Schubert)

I stumbled across Lucy Kruger and the Lost Boys in September last year when the LP teasing “Anchor” was released and have been patiently waiting for the full-length to drop ever since. Well, five months later, it’s here and I’m happy to report that this alt-pop rock outfit and their South African leading lady have smashed it.

First off, she’s got a voice - variously sweet, serious, sensual, scathing and arse kicking depending on her mood, and the LP opener sees her vocals rightfully given pride of place. You’re never far away from a driving bass line with Kruger, and next track up - “Damp” sets off on its gaseous alt-rock course with just the sort of bass line to get heads nodding, even if the tempo isn’t very supportive. The disingenuously entitled “Ambient Heat” is next, with it’s angular, distorted guitar turning off the lights, and Kruger wading in too, overshadowing the sweeter backing vocals.

The album is full of moody, bold but considered guitar and synth declarations - a sound that should unite grizzled, old-school, roll-up smoking Berlin heads and vaping, flea market-scouring hipsters trying to be cool by looking sulky and just living in its gentrified ruins. There are moments of calm in the mix too, with “Nectarine” initially charting an acoustic singer-songwriter course before morphing into ambient post-rock territory, although straight after your hit with the disorienting “Animal/Symbol”, that sounds like it’s had one joint and a doom scroll too many, and if you make it through, you’ll be further swiped with the heavy post-rocking “Reaching”, with Kruger variously rasping and singing over the sonic waves. This is alternative pop, scowling alt-rock and band powered singer-songwriting with attitude. Kruger and crew are saying something, and saying it with style.

Whitelabrecs 10th Anniversary

Whitelabrecs are on a 2026 roll, further cementing them, if any more cement were needed, as one of the best ambient labels around. If I have one complaint, it’s that they’re too prolific. I struggle to keep up with their packed release schedule at times, but I surely try my best to.

They’ve also just hit their tenth anniversary, which in today’s increasingly tough to navigate - especially for niche and small independent labels, music world is a serious achievement. To celebrate they’ve released two great compilation albums, and bossman Harry Towel has finally fulfilled his long held label dream, by releasing one of them - Shades, on vinyl. Whether you’re a plastic collector or not the album is a perfect (by design) introduction to the Whitelabrecs mission: delicate electroacoustic works, deep ambient drift, drones and tones, through to tape saturation, neo-classical compositions and field recordings. Just my cup of tea.

The second anniversary release - An Ambient Decade, charts a historical rather than stylistic path. Structured chronologically, each track represents a year of the label’s existence, each track chosen “because it marked a particular moment, change, or progression - whether this be creative, practical or personal“, a label snapshot if you like. So whether you’re an ambient afficionado, keen enthusiast, or a curious newbie, don’t hesitate to hit play on either, but preferably both.

Jan Esbra - Keep moving forward (Self Release)

OK, disclaimer time. Jan Esbra, with the equally singular and talented Greg Dallas, released a pretty stunning, largely overlooked, free-flowing, improvised electronic album on TSMM a couple of years back, but that aside, if he hadn’t done something special, he wouldn’t be in the newsletter, and he’s really gone and done the business with his new release.

Despite his jazz guitar roots, his recorded output so far has indulged his fascination with electronic music, but this time he’s soared off to art rock meets far-out pop meets acid-folk via tripped-out electroacoustic jazz fusion territory. The EP really covers some ground, and without sounding like the convoluted mess my description might suggest - a testament to Jan’s compositional chops and his tight crew: André Sacalxot on flute and alto sax, Andrew Haug on piano, Dave Strawn playing bass and Daniel Rossi handling drums, whilst Jan takes care of guitar, voice and electronics.

So tune in, buckle up and expect the unexpected whilst the tracks breeze, whirl, eddy, contract and surge; the currents of cultured, seriously crafted yet free-flowing collective endeavour tied together by his dreamy, sensitive vocals. The EP is a real trip, and with his and the band’s jazz chops, I bet the live show would be something to behold. More of the same please Jan, you’re onto something.

Various Artists - gentle voices, vol. 1 (Cloud Collecting/Echo Blues )

Every day should be Women’s Day, but being as long fought sexual equality gains are in decline in even formerly progressive countries these days, it’s a celebration that will for now remain an important and necessary reminder of women’s achievements and the glaringly obvious need for gender equality.

Two women that have been blazing a trail in the ambient world for a while now are Anita Tatlow - vocalist and co-founder of the excellent ambient label Echoes Blue Music, and Cynthia Bernard otherwise known as ambient artist marine eyes and founder of cloud collecting - an outlet that highlights and celebrates women and gender expansive artists. The pair have serious form so you know a collaborative project between the two is going to be worth checking.

The Gentle Voices project pairs up twenty women artists from around the world and tasks them with creating music around the theme of “gentle voices”, and girl, have they delivered. Bristol’s Applefish and the new to me, Líom kick things off with the sort of drifting vocals that you’d imagine would serenade your journey to the light when your game is over, coupled with a suitably distant drone that elevates, rather than distracts from the celestial choir. Gollden and IKSRE, both of whom are no strangers to TSMM, are next up with a delicate, electroacoustic gem full of stray instrumental notes, pleasant sounds and fluttering static that floats through the speakers on a light ambient breeze - genuine sonic serenity. Another new to me artist, Jun Futamata teams up with Tatlow on “silent aura” next, continuing the blissful vibe with a sterling ambient piano lullaby which would lull even the most colic stricken baby to rest. “Choral surrealist” Aphir provides the vocals I presume for her collaboration with the well named Drum & Lace on “resin”, which injects some low key dynamics into the compilation by way of unhurried, pressed rather than stroked synth keys and a transmission that spirals, rather than floats through the speakers.

Pianist and vocalist Asia Dojnikowska teams up with the ever great Marine Eyes on, “that the light is everything”, providing both keys and her blissful vocal tones to compliment Bernard’s light touch atmospheric work, paving the way nicely for “when rain falls” a meeting of neoclassical compositional minds between Alanna Crouch and TSMM fave Freya Arde to pleasantly peaceful, reflective, piano and string fusion ends which have an understated grace. Two more new to me artists, Frogi and Reanne, are next - highlighting the curatorial prowess on show, and they kindly provide a gently ebbing and flowing soundscape with a restful vocal farewell. Aisha Vaughn and Dream Crease are next, opting to soar rather than breeze into the listening space with an impressively detailed, uplifting, glowing ambient transmission that aims for the stars, then shoots past them into a solar storm. Jolanda Moletta and Birds Of Passage take care of the penultimate track, the singing voice blessed pair dispensing with words, their calm vocalisations juxtaposing with the slightly chillier drone undercurrents to fine effect. The experimentally inclined Karen Vogt and the ambient bass loving Inquiri round the compilation off in fine style with the patiently building, low frequency infused “standing start”, a shapeshifting, eventually rousing end to this wonderful compilation and celebration of some of the talented women to be found in ambient music studios around the world.

Make sure you sign up to marine eyes’ newsletter, which regularly shines a light on the talented women of the ambient world.

For further reading around this topic check out my article, Women in Ambient Music and Thoughts on Gender Equality in Music Production from 2020, and its accompanying playlist.

Salwa Jaradat - Nafas نَفَس (Thawra/Tiny House)

I’m so glad I stumbled across this release today. The Arab world has been demonised since the Twin Towers, and more recently the people of Palestine, Lebanon and Iran not just character assassinated but murdered in numbers, often in real time before our eyes, their suffering neatly packaged to feed our doom-scrolling addictions. All of which makes albums like this stunning debut from Salway Jaradat, that oozes Arabic soul, craft, grace and emotional weight, all the more vital and timely.

Although I wasn’t previously aware of Jaradat, she’s a Palestinian vocalist, musicologist and researcher now based in Paris, who is using music as a space of memory, resistance, and continuity - the classic sounds and classic themes of her past given a lick of lyrical paint, alongside some jazz flourishes and even the odd experimental injection. The training and study have certainly paid off and is accentuated by her crack band: Cham Salloum on oud, Ali Hout behind the percussion, Raphaël Haddad on soprano oud and violin, and Makram Aboul Hosn taking care of the low end on double bass, oh, and just for good measure, there’s also a choir and some buzuq in the mix.

If you haven’t paid any real attention to Arabic music, then you’re in for a treat. Jaradat’s vocals are clear, true, powerful and poignant; I’m sure she has a sweet side, but not this time round. The musicianship is formidable - full of passion and intensity, with even the quieter passages oozing intrigue. So ditch the doom scrolling and instead sink into the sounds of civilisation’s cradle..

Matryoshka - Blasé Saint (sferic)

Don’t be fooled, Matryoshka is not Russian, but double agent Jaqueline Lawson from Seattle - just don’t tell the GRU. She’s been floating around underground electronica’s shadowy and credible labels for a while, finally seeing fit to release her debut album, and I’m happy to report that it’s the perfect soundtrack for our flickering, small-screen lit and shaped, tech overlorded, autocratic creep and doom-scrolling angst-ridden, twilight zone.

The ghost of Burial’s early productions looms large over the recording, but there’s not too much music that doesn’t stand on someone’s shoulders, so that’s alright with me, although I’m sure her urban sonic sensibility will probably appeal more to rat-racing big-city dwellers, especially the nocturnally inclined.

So if that’s you, try hitting play whilst driving home along empty roads after a club - the bass and beats will be a welcome, relaxed echo of what you just heard. Or possibly on your headphones during an aimless day off wandering around new parts of the city with time to marvel at, rather than instinctively block out the urban intensity, and perhaps even enough headspace to comprehend the millions of untold, real-time stories swirling and perpetually updating around you; Lawson’s low-frequency throb and hypnotic ambient gloom will make all sorts of sense.

Simo Cell & Abdullah Miniwy - Dying Is The Internet (Dekmantel)

I wasn’t aware of either of these artists before this release, but it appears that Simo Popp started off in eclectic electronic fashion, before deciding that putting cheap, ill-chosen speakers and headphones to the sword with fierce bass frequencies was his calling - I don’t envy his neighbours. Egyptian Abdullah Miniwy is a lot of things: expressionist, writer, singer, composer, trumpet player, 3D generalist (programmer) and actor, who has gamely teamed up with Cell to ride the future bass riddims whilst imparting his Arabic take on the internet’s corporate, surveillance capitalism-driven enshittification.

I would have liked the album anyway, just for its obvious quality and digital fatigue premise, but after the events in Iran, Lebanon and Gaza in the last couple of years, the vocal ambiguity afforded by the Arabic vocals, coupled with the speaker-worrying bass, contemporary and futuristic riddims plus the take-no-prisoners vibe, has afforded this album of perfect club fodder, the dual quality of being a pretty perfect soundtrack to my ears for the present day Middle-Eastern shit show.

The mood is menacing; the riddims - rather like our unrelenting, catastrophe-laden newsfeeds is urgent and insistent. This is next-generation Fourth World music for smoke machine (are they still a thing?) filled dance floors in abandoned, brazenly squatted clubs. To my uneducated Western ears, the autotune twisted vocals variously sound like cries of despair from war-displaced refugees, defiant bellows from proud people affected by the decisions of politicians near and far, shouts for help and demands for vengeance that will echo through the generations; as the beats pierce the speakers and the low frequencies turn the listening space to rubble. It’s a heavy album. Turn it up.

Don’t Forget TSMM’s Playlists and Podcast.

From ambient sound baths and wellness imbuing new age vibes to underground house via jazz, neoclassical, folk, dub and more, the twenty one TSMM playlists and podcast cover a lot of ground, and are updated regularly.

They’re available on Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon, Youtube Music, Youtube, Deezer, Soundcloud and Spotify (if you don’t worry about them not paying most of the artists on the playlists).