ACL 2024
Top Ten Ambient
Approximately 4000 instrumental albums were submitted for review this year, nearly half of them ambient. To reach the summit is like climbing up the hill on the cover of Hollie Kenniff's For Forever. The competition has never been so fierce - in a field that represents the opposite of fierceness. And yet, the ten albums below managed to stand out, catching the attention of multiple staffers. Each has a distinctive character; each is far more than aural wallpaper. One even includes field recordings of a morning encounter with bears. We're excited about a genre that seeks to calm, which seems counter-intuitive; there's a far greater variety here than many would think possible. We hope that you enjoy the first of our seven big lists, which will be followed by our overall Top 20.
The Balloonist ~ A Quiet Day (Wayside & Woodland)
A Quiet Place is a nostalgic reflection of a child’s view of an unremarkable day with no plans or responsibilities. In some ways, the album sounds like the 80s, with synths and electric guitars that sound fuzzy, faded around the edges. At one point, a staticky television program plays in the background. A Quiet Day takes listeners on a peaceful, meandering tour through one of these seemingly infinite childhood days. (Maya Merberg)
Dalot ~ Aquarium (Same Difference Music)
Aquarium ~ also listed in The Happiest Music of the Year ~ is evidence that music for children need not be only for children, and that a well-composed dance score may break its boundaries to appeal to the masses. It helps to be a parent and to retain or relive a sense of childlike wonder. Both are true of Dalot, whose music scores the life of a lion fish in an aquarium, while allowing the lion fish to operate as a greater metaphor. The album is sometimes cute, sometimes scary, and thoroughly entertaining from beginning to watery end. (Richard Allen)
Ear to Ear ~ AI 36: Live Recordings (Astral Industries)
After his quadrilogy on Denovali, Samuel van Dijk (aka Multicast Dynamics) has been releasing a number of albums on Astral Industries including live collaborations with Sid Hille. This time round he pairs up with Ukrainian artist Yevgen Chebotarenko, and not for the first time. Back in October 2022, van Dijk and Chebotarenko released a fundraising track, Svitaye, an electronic interpretation of the poem ‘It’s Dawning’ by Ukrainian poet Pavlo Tychyna, who composed the lyrics to the Anthem of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Svitaye, which they performed with Renata Kazan was also the first time the two artists collaborated as Ear to Ear, a prelude to AI-36: Live Recordings.
The album is split over four sides. From the outset, one is aware of being led onto a journey and yet it becomes immediately apparent that one is never quite sure of the ground on which one is supposed to be standing, of the direction one is supposed to be facing, or indeed where one is going. The sound of crickets is undermined by the glacial atmosphere conjured up by the opening track, but the journey is yet to become even stranger when organic sounds shed their biological nature to reveal a mechanised core while the listener glides through cosmic space. There is a tension between analogue and digital sounds, animate and industrial. The mapping of the liminal space is subverted by conflicting weather conditions. In the search for concrete geographical markers one is left disoriented which makes this an even more powerful exploration of subconscious states. (Gianmarco Del Re)
floating shrine ~ Connecting (Decaying Spheres)
Brimming with life, Connecting intertwines the serene sounds of unadulterated nature with electronic glitch. Field recordings of birds and flowing water dance over a foundation of gentle piano. The glitches add an extra layer of sparkle to an already shimmering soundscape. Everything culminates in a dreamy sense of surrealism, like a pleasant childhood memory that’s now half-forgotten, or perhaps never actually happened at all. (For me personally, this feeling is particularly striking on the track “Looking Back,” where a looping field recording features a distant voice repeatedly calling out my name,"Maya!" (Maya Merberg)
Hollie Kenniff ~ For Forever (Nettwerk)
The list-ification of ambient into a useful genre associated with the neutered good vibes and bright harmonics of toxic positivity has made it increasingly difficult to find actually thoughtful, sincerely heartfelt soundscapes of genuine emotional heft. Which is why For Forever emerges from a sea of shallowness like a grand wave, crashing into the shore with the full force of a sentimental education that will immediately remind listeners that feeling good takes passion, it takes desire and a love whose sole function is to disarm the self. This is music that is not afraid of the vulnerability of embrace, of the uselessness that is a clear storm of affects, its soft rage the possibility of connecting with something that lies beyond the trickling reach of truth. Let it soothe your ailments, the ailments of the entire world. (David Murrieta Flores)
Loula Yorke ~ Volta (Truxalis)
Coming straight off from noisier, more aggressive productions, Loula Yorke joins the wave of intensive synthscapes detonated by the likes of Ecstatic Computation with an excellent album that plays around similar themes, except the poetics here are perhaps not sourced from circuitry but electrochemistry. Her modular synth is a conductive tool of affect, an expressionist use of modes of transmission. Like the album cover suggests, it is an intermediate state, a music that seemingly stays in place, and yet is bound towards infinity, its energy flaring into casual melodic sequences (to call them melodies as such feels imprecise), expansive harmonies, and meditative cadences. (David Murrieta Flores)
Mary Lattimore & Walt McClements ~ Rain on the Road (Thrill Jockey)
Mary Lattimore is no stranger to our year-end lists, and her latest collaboration, with multi-instrumentalist Walt McClements, is just a confirmation that the US harpist really is one of our favorite artists. Not only has their dialogue brought out the best of both in technical terms, it also sparked a joyful adventurousness we hope to see more of, an experimental strain that has perhaps always been right beneath the surface in the case of Lattimore, and a playful meticulousness that had felt subdued in McClements’ oeuvre. Together, they make densely beautiful work on a molecular level, the kind of art in which you can fixate upon just a few seconds for days at a time, getting lost in the grand textures of singular sounds. (David Murrieta Flores)
Masayoshi Fujita ~ Migratory (Erased Tapes)
Migratory is an album inspired by the borderless movement of birds and Masayoshi Fujita’s return to Japan after 13 years in Berlin. But the music also evokes travel by train or ship, with its undulating rhythms acting as a soothing lullaby for the weary traveller. It’s a feeling expounded by Moor Mother’s vocals on “Our Mother’s Lights”, one of several guest appearances on the album, including Fujita’s father on saxophone. There’s sorrow amid the joy on this album; moments of crushing stillness among the pulsating pieces. The contrasting moods complement each other beautifully. From start to finish, Migratory is undeniably wonderful. (Jeremy Bye)
Taylor Deupree ~ Sti.ll (Greyfade/Nettwerk)
Taylor Deupree and his 12k label are no strangers to these pages, but Deupree's collaboration with Greyfade’s FOLIO series is a particularly special project. More than two decades after its release, Stil. stands as a foundation record in Deupree’s trajectory of granular processed digital loops. In transforming this gentle electronic work into a notated score for chamber musicians, Sti.ll is an odd kind of album, less sequel and more reboot. Transcribed and arranged by Greyfade’s Joseph Branciforte, it's hard to imagine a composer ever writing music like this, making these deep textural and rhythmic compositions all the more enthralling. Sti.ll is further elevated by its format as an elegant linen wrap hardcover book, with beautiful photography and providing deep insight into the production of both albums. (Joseph Sannicandro)
Wound ~ Plasticene (Okla Records)
Plasticene's opening track, “Breaking News 9:00 (New Horrors)” juxtaposes a bright and cheery electronic melody against a news report about the terrifying health effects of microplastics polluting our environment and bodies. This is one of many paradoxes the album contains. It draws listeners’ attention to the dangers of synthetic materials while also being composed of mostly synthetic sounds, and it’s even released on a plastic cassette! The album uses field recordings and various electronic instruments to create soft and gentle melodic loops, while its cultural message is strong. (Maya Merberg)
I’ve skimmed quite a few lists this season. This is the first one I know I’ll be revisiting as a research guide—exploring the branches, following the breadcrumbs. Thank you. Well done!