Xan Alexander – Ouroborus/Memories of Light

Xan Alexander – Ouroboros/Memories of Light (Ouroboros Music) I first discovered Xan Alexander’s music through the incredible Quantum Waves album on AmbientLive, which pits synthscapes and pure ambience against light percussion and a couple of Berlin School epics.  I therefore found it interesting and enjoyable to hear Xan’s evolution over the years via his two [...]

4m33s – The Four Seasons

4m33s – The Four Seasons (AmbientLive)   In the past I have reviewed some of John Sherwood’s more recent experiments under his 4m33s alias, but here I return to the project’s roots with his Four Seasons collection.  Originally released under the Y-EXP moniker in 2000 as a four disc set – one for each season [...]

Kerkville – Days

Kerkville – Days (Triple Bath) A lot of independent music rests on the fact that it’s independent.  A cassette release, or an album put out by a respected indie label, means a lot to some people.  However, some small scale releases transcend that.  There are albums out there which deserve to be heard by thousands [...]

Jack Anderton – Archives I & II

Jack Anderton – Archives I & II (Jerky Oats Records) In the past year or so, Jack Anderton has become known for his two popular albums, The Moment and The Missing Couple, which combined electronic synth music and sample-based collage ambient with choral vocals and acoustic guitar work. Released in the summer of 2010, these [...]

Full-Source – Full-Source, The Nothing, Empathy’s Last Stand, The Lantern the Ghost and the Sea, Eyes Wide & Empty Hats, Farewell These Unknown Suns

Ten years ago, I stumbled across a fellow Future Sound of London fan who was making music.  His name was Tim Dwyer, and he used the name Full-Source to release this music.  Despite the tracks being lo-fi pieces of little more than demo quality, there was a spark of originality nestled within them that had [...]

Seren Ffordd – Veils, Shadows

Seren Ffordd – Veils, Shadows (Hypnos Secret Sounds) Anybody familiar with the work of Welsh sound artist and ambient fellow Seren Ffordd will find no surprise that Veils, Shadows begins with a slow moving, sinister drone. Like all of the sounds on this album, the opening track, fittingly titled Slow Passing, is sourced entirely from [...]

4m33s – Time

4m33s – Time (AmbientLive) The first thing you’ll notice about Time is its unusual structure: four of the tracks here contain more than one piece of music. The album features twelve pieces of music over six tracks. This format gives the record a more cohesive feel than a fully split tracklist would, and also probably [...]

Noma – Hung by Hair… the Music For

Noma – Hung by Hair… the Music For (Kovorox Sound) Noma, the alias of experimental Scottish sound artist John Cromar, released twelve records on Kovorox Sound (run by Lea Cummings, better known to the UK noise scene as Kylie Minoise). In a moment of madness, deciding to be entirely unlike myself, I decided to approach [...]

EL Heath – A (Rather) Dead Sea Liner EP

EL Heath – A (Rather) Dead Sea Liner EP (Dead Sea Liner Records) One of the joys of buying independent music is the wonderful packaging they often come in – unlike the majority of larger scale releases, despite their larger pot of funds. El Heath’s A (Rather) Dead Sea Liner EP comes housed in a [...]

Off Land – Selected Recordings 06-09

Off Land – Selected Recordings 06-09 (Self-released) Relative newcomers to Off Land who’re familiar with his recent excellent EPs on Resting Bell, Commute and Anniversary, might be forgiven for expecting Tim Dwyer’s earlier ambient records to be a similar mixture of reverberated melodic washes of sound and field recordings. It may be with some surprise [...]