If you’ve paid even the slightest bit of attention to Chicago music over the past, say, 35 years, you’ve surely heard Douglas McCombs. He’s held down the low end for indie-rock legends Eleventh Dream Day since the mid-80s, acted as the heart and soul of postrock pioneers Tortoise since their founding in 1990, and helmed […]
Tag: ambient music
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Jonn Wallen of Oui Ennui made a torrent of genre-hopping albums while battling long COVID
In the past year or so, whenever a friend has asked me to recommend music, I’ve pointed them at Chicago multi-instrumentalist Jonn Wallen, who creates omnidirectional experimental electronic albums under the name Oui Ennui. A self-described hermit, he’d already spent decades making music largely in private and for his own satisfaction when COVID-19 hit. After […]
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Chicago experimental dance trio Purelink draw ecstasy from echoes on Puredub
As the trio Purelink, Chicago producers Millia Rage, Kindtree, and Concave Reflection explore the seams joining ambient music and dance. The tracks on Purelink’s 2021 Bliss/Swivel EP float like their rhythms are on the edge of dissolving (“Maintain the Bliss”) or transform the hyperactive sounds of drum ‘n’ bass into ghostly apparitions (“Head on a […]
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Hyunhye Seo of Xiu Xiu makes her cryptic solo debut with Strands
Hyunhye Seo, also known as Angela Seo, has been a member of inscrutable experimental-rock band Xiu Xiu since 2009, providing synths, piano, and vocals to flesh out their consistently beguiling, unsettling sound. On her debut solo record, Strands (Room40), Seo conjures discomfort in new ways, trading in Xiu Xiu’s outré pop grotesqueries for two 18-minute […]
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Chicago power-ambient unit Chord spin heavy textures from a single progression on Imperfect Authentic Cadence
Chicago power-ambient unit Chord find their art in small details; for more than a decade they’ve been exploring a single chord in each of their compositions, wringing every bit of depth, power, and resonance out of it. Their new fourth LP, Imperfect Authentic Cadence (Debacle), concerns a common progression that’s been baked into Western music […]
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Bil Vermette continues his galaxy quest on Hunting for Planet 9
Bil Vermette has been making ambient and electronic soundscapes for more than 40 years, and his new album, Hunting for Planet 9, won’t disappoint fans looking for another collection of instrumental, synthesizer-heavy space waves to add to their playlist. The Berwyn musician became known for his hypnotic compositions as a member of late-70s synth collective […]
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Chicago ambient musician Andrew CS harnesses the tranquility of nature on his new EP
Multidisciplinary artist Andrew CS moved to Chicago from Rockton, Illinois, in the mid-2010s to study interaction design at Columbia College, and then began booking intimate Sunday DIY shows—but long before either of those things happened, he’d developed an interest in field recordings by playing indie video games. “The first mode of creation that I got […]
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Harry James of Chandeliers draws from soul, jazz, and ambient on his solo debut
New Jersey native Harry James Brenner found his footing in Chicago’s music scene partly by playing in art-rock group Chandeliers; he joined in the mid-aughts as a percussionist, and he’s since played keys for them too. The sharply defined clatter of Brenner’s drums has kept Chandeliers’ mercurial instincts from running away with them, giving even […]
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Vetus Supulcrum create a beautiful, somber refuge on Windswept Canyons of Thule
When I first heard the term “dungeon synth,” I imagined a style of dance music you’d hear in a subterranean goth club, but it’s actually a dark hybrid of neoclassical music, ambient, and black metal, heavily influenced by medieval lore and fantasy literature. What it lacks in grooves, it often makes up for in atmosphere […]
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New York label Freedom to Spend ventures into the field with the compilation New Neighborhoods
You don’t have to know Ernest Hood’s 1975 album Neighborhoods to understand what’s going on in the new compilation New Neighborhoods, but it doesn’t hurt. Born in 1923, Hood was a Portland jazz musician who kept up with new recording and production techniques throughout his life, and in 1964 he cofounded the listener-supported Portland radio […]
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The instrumental Colorlist returns to the stage after a lengthy absence
The long-running duo of Charles Rumback and Charles Gorczynski perform in support of their new album, Sky Song.
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12 O’Clock Track: Spend the weekend with side A of Eno’s Discreet Music
A half hour of poignant inertia
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The heavy ambient sound of Mario Diaz de Leon
On his new album, composer Mario Diaz de Leon makes a hard turn toward harsh, spooky ambient sounds.
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The introverted majesty of Mountains
Brooklyn duo Mountains quietly demand careful listening–and they’ll go head-to-head with an Empty Bottle crowd on Sunday night.
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Fetal Machine Music
Sigur Ros Agaetis Byrjun (Fat Cat) If we accept Brian Eno’s definition of ambient music (and if not his, then whose?) as music that rewards but doesn’t demand close attention, then I guess Sigur Ros is ambient. Their lush, majestic textures conjure pop maestros of the distant past (Brian Wilson, Phil Spector, Joe Meek) while […]