This time I have a focus on uniqueness. There’s a lot of ambient releases who – let’s be honest – sound a lot like each other. And the more you listen to ambient, the more that fact strikes you. There’s a lot and lot of long lush drones in slow harmonic evolution, and little else.
Not so here. These two excels in all their originality and eye for details.
Dolorum – Compos Mentis
The details in the sound design here is impressive. A million things going on, from concrete sounds to abstract synth sounds, all building a universe that really can be pretty much anything.
Are we in deep space here, or deep in the jungle? Or, are we submerged into the deep seas? It’s totally up to you.
The ever changing energy level is another thing that makes this one really special. At times it threatens to break out in a beat driven creation – and thus render itself unsuitable for our ambient coverage – but it always baaaarely saves itself on the right side of the ambient border.
But above all it’s the sound design here who is the main attracktion for me. There’s just so much work and attention put into the various layers of sounds, it’s amazing.
This is a massive inspiration for my own ambient work, no less!
Kinnie Starr – They Found Me
If the first one were a bit too energetic for your taste, then welcome to the sound of desolation and solitude. A much darker landscape unfolds as we enter the world of Kinnie Starr.
And, as often is the case whenever I am served ambient as dark as this, my mind instantly drifts off to a post-apocalyptic world.
And again we have are served a fantastic, unique soundscape. Details are stacked, waiting to be explored. What separates this track from more typical drone-based ambient is the mix of synthesised and sampled/recorded sounds. And especially that vocal chanting/singing on top – how about that for uniqueness!
Both tracks are added to our ambient playlist on Spotify, “Ambient Universe” where we collect only the finest ambient releases as we discover them.