These are the albums of 2023* that stayed with us and that we will fall back on in the years to come. This year, we are in awe of the introspective projects; albums with a sound design approach, carefully produced, often textural and refined. These releases enabled us to wrap ourselves in the comforts of laidback trip-hop, IDM and ambient, occasionally with an outlier to heavier moods. Enjoy listening.
*The albums are listed in no particular order.
ENA - Stratum
Deep electronics by Japanese producer ENA on Rosa. Operating in the grey area between muffled half-tempo drum & bass and mesmerising ambient trips, ENA creates intensifying sounds that completely indulge the listener.
Rrose - Please Touch
The second full-length solo LP from Rrose is a mind-wrapping, top-notch experimental techno release. Rrose’s compositional process centres on “seed” sounds being fed through elaborate webs of interrelated audio processing. It's deep techno at its finest and most thought-through without feeling over-produced.
crimeboys - very dark past
Special Guest DJ & Pontiac Streator make up crimeboys, here delivering a debut album on 3 X L; a volley of ambient jungle and trip-hop dub. ‘very dark past’ is the pair’s immersive debut, with eight cuts that firm up a flux of etheric inspirations into a translucent body of aerosolized ambient and writhing rhythms primed for the back rooms. Train your hearing system and subconscious with this scientific release.
Toki Fuko - Spirit Medicine
Astral Industries seems to be the gift that keeps on giving. This time the gift entails Toki Fuko's two 20-minute-pieces of psychedelic soundscapes going by the name 'Spirit Medicine'. Usually mastering deep techno, this time, he impresses with peaceful ambient atmospheres.
alva noto - HYbr:ID II
Building on his characteristic minimal IDM sound, alva noto’s second episode of the ‘HYbr:ID’ series draws inspiration from resonance and elasticity. Here, spacious sound design meets cinematic and communicative depths, often menacing and occasionally light.
Nadia Struiwigh - Birds Of Paradise
‘Birds of Paradise’ is the 4th album by synth sorcerer Nadia Struiwigh, and it’s just as colourful as the title implies. The expansive ambience the album upholds rests upon an experimental, fluid flow that not only stretches across genres but also echoes a free-spirited hardware approach. Struiwigh’s precision and boldness shine through this contemplative yet uplifting album.
exael - Vanishing Act
This is avant-garde drum and bass that may require some focused attention. Raging cyber tracks make up a big part of exael’s ‘Vanishing Act’, presenting a contemporary sound of an exultant kind. The storm calms occasionally, but the ominous restlessness dominates the scenes.
Ryuichi Sakamoto - 12
‘12’ is the fifteenth and final studio album of Ryuichi Sakamoto, and was composed during a difficult and fatal time when the musician was living alongside cancer. This fairly sombre and introspective album reckons with the finality of life and was a harbinger of what was to come. However, Sakamoto' goal always was to be ‘deconstructing the past, and the present, in order to lead us into the future with a greater scope’, which his music will keep on providing us.
Harald Uunk - Unseen
After five years in the making, ‘Unseen’ unveils Harald Uunk’s sound vision to the world. The record is based on his experiences in nature and personal surroundings, resulting in a reflection of energies in a spatiotemporal play. Where some tracks sway and stretch from side to side, others drive forward through the trees. An immersive and contemplative trip.
exael - Vanishing Act
This is avant-garde drum and bass that may require some focused attention. Raging cyber tracks make up a big part of exael’s ‘Vanishing Act’, presenting a contemporary sound of an exultant kind. The storm calms occasionally, but the ominous restlessness dominates the scenes.
Ryuichi Sakamoto - 12
‘12’ is the fifteenth and final studio album of Ryuichi Sakamoto, and was composed during a difficult and fatal time when the musician was living alongside cancer. This fairly sombre and introspective album reckons with the finality of life and was a harbinger of what was to come. However, Sakamoto' goal always was to be ‘deconstructing the past, and the present, in order to lead us into the future with a greater scope’, which his music will keep on providing us.
Harald Uunk - Unseen
After five years in the making, ‘Unseen’ unveils Harald Uunk’s sound vision to the world. The record is based on his experiences in nature and personal surroundings, resulting in a reflection of energies in a spatiotemporal play. Where some tracks sway and stretch from side to side, others drive forward through the trees. An immersive and contemplative trip.
Dregs - Dregs
Dregs is the formation of Sina, Drop Dylan, Ossian, and Rip Van Hippy from Melbourne. On their debut album ‘Dregs’, they present a distinct sound on the crossroads of indie rock and experimental bass that could’ve only come alive in the progressive tropical hemisphere of Australia. Hauntingly dark yet in angelic beauty, this album is a cinematic trip through Naarm’s deepest and untold stories - evoking a sense of nostalgia that’s hard to put into words.
NAP & Linear Flux - Aloneptu
NAP and Linear Flux hum along to ancient vibrations on their latest album ‘Aloneptu’. Releasing with NAP’s label Isla, this experimental and often a-rhythmic IDM treasure lives up to the strong and steady output of the label (make sure to also listen to this year's Caveman LSD EP release on the label).
DJ Trystero - Castillo
DJ Trystero, a Tokyo-based producer and City-2 St. Giga label head, unveiled his remarkable debut album ‘Castillo’ on Incienso this year. With a finely tailored arrangement of ambient, electro, and house, Trystero navigates the spaces in between, infusing each of the nine tracks with spontaneous nuances of rhythm and sound.
opheliaxz - 11-11
’11-11’ is a collection of music opheliaxz had been sitting on for the past few years and decided to let go of. The US-based producer aimed to showcase hazier, dubbed-out melancholy sounds in light of more material coming via other labels this year. Initially, she wasn’t planning on letting these tracks see the light of day, but with encouragement from close friends, she changed her mind. We are happy she did.
Maara - The Ancient Truth
Maara unveils her debut full-length LP ‘The Ancient Truth’; a deep dive into the sensually charged inner workings of the already prolific producer’s mind. Via the Step Ball Chain label, the Montreal-based producer showcases twelve dynamically diverse and emotive soundscapes of downtempo bliss, spine-chilling drum and bass, and elevated electronica.
Purelink - Signs
Chicago trio Purelink guides minds to roam freely with fractal ambient and dusted dub on ‘Signs’. A masterfully honed album filled to the brim with lush auditory sceneries, formed by a blend of droning warmth and atmospheric intricacies.
VA - 10
2023 marks two things for the renowned label Music from Memory: their 10-year existence and the year label co-owner Jamie Tiller tragically passed away in a sudden incident. In retrospect, this VA album functions as a tribute to him, and it's a good one. Organically developed, with submissions coming in one by one, finding a spot between a careful selection of productions from the past, they all find themselves in the realm of ambient and downtempo beats with here-and-there jazz influences and a fair amount of perfect peace.
VC-118A - Waves of Change
On his fifth album as VC-118A, Dutch producer Samuel van Dijk explores the notion of change; a universal constant that keeps us barrelling towards unknown futures. Over the years, his electro practice moved away from electro as we know it, and finds itself, like here, in the machinery sound design corners of IDM. Also ideal for home listening.
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