Tomaga – Intimate Immensity

It’s like if you played IDM ambient but with live instruments (which reminds me of the time I attended a Plaid concert played by an orchestra in a concert hall), other times industrial jazz and a touch of experimental music. But it’s rather smooth and pleasant, not harsh.

Flanger – Lollopy Dripper

I had a hard time decoding this record with its extremes ranging from experimental IDM to cool blue jazz. Just thinking about the aspect of this being some weirdly unique and altered jazz sound, gave me associations of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble or even Brandt Brauer Frick. But this was something different still. And then I read this was a duo of Bernd Friedmann and Uwe Schmidt (Atom™) and it all clicked into place. It’s amazing how two artists can blend into one music in a way that you can see who brought what to the table so clearly.

In full honesty though, my favorite track here is Sweet Silence, which has no electrnics to it, but the film noir atmosphere is just irresistible.

Johnny Jewel – Vapor

One of my go-to focus music for the past month. Cinematic ambient with chiming sounds, dark textures, monumental spaces, it’s quite a journey. I see the full movie playing in my mind. Also great for reading, especially something eerie, mystical, or set in outer space.

Klein – Lifetime

This album has been around in my queue for a while, mainly because I love it’s cover art so much but could never get myself listen through the music itself. Today I did and it was not easy. It somehow annoys me and it’s not interesting. I almost never write about albums that I don’t like, so this one is an exception because I wanted to put down that the cover art, that photo is absolutely amazing.

Marie Davidson – Working Class Woman

This album is part hilarious and part fascinating. Work It is something I cannot not re-listen any number of times, it is like a caricature of a motivational speech but it actually does feel motivating. And The Tunnel is creepy like hell, it’s like an audio version of a horror movie and not in a sense that there are horroresque soundtrack elements in it but the atmosphere and words hit nails under my nails. Overall the whole record is that great kind of avantgarde with minimal wave synth sounds where the words deliver meaning even if they sound dadaist at times. It’s artsy but works.

Jambinai – A Hermitage

After listening to ONDA today I went straight on and listened to all releases by Jambinai, and it’s quite a trip. Their latest album is a sophisticated soul toching record and in contrast this first one is an experimental metal road roller beast. I see the journey they took from being this raw revolutionary composition through exploring their own realm that they created and arriving to the final destination where they can control their space with such a fine touch. But I love all stages of this journey. I kept starting to write a sentence about which version of their music I prefer but kept deleting, decided not to say. This may be my top new find this year so far: it is so new, so refreshing, so not like something else, so surprising. I still have some processing and re-listening to do.

Actually this specific record brings up feelings that I had for Karyn Crisis’ Salem’s Wounds in 2015.

Jambinai – ONDA

Korean post-rock played with traditional instruments and musical elements. This ablum is breathtaking. The “totally didn’t see this coming” winner of the month. The kind of experience that is hard to imagine without listening to it and feeling the goosebumps all over me.