Frans Friederich – Ambient 1998 – 2013

Frans Friederich is a dutch trumpet-player, musician, composer and music teacher living in Zierikzee, Holland.

Friederich’s Bandcamp page displays an extensive overview of his work, all compiled by their different styles and downloadable for free (!).
All these compilations present a large array of adventurous experiments, but there are two specific release that justify recommendation here on Ambientblog: “Ambient 2002 – 2013” and “Ambient 2 – 1998 – 2013” , respectively (- you probably guessed thát).

Jeff Bridges – Sleeping Tapes

Imagine Jeff Bridges – or The Dude, if you prefer – sitting right next to your bed, telling you stories like a granddad to his grandson would do … bedtime stories, memories he just seems to improvise on the spot, or even guided fantasies to help you doze off…
Would you be able to fall asleep?
Or would you fight off sleep to make sure you can listen to all he has to tell you?

John Kannenberg – Cordolium

“Cordolium” – literally: ‘Heartfelt grief’: from cor (“heart”) + dolor (“pain, sorrow”) – is a (digital download only) album presenting seven “Laments for the heart in flux”.

The basic material comes from field-recordings from all over the world but they are edited and processed in such a way that the track become true compositions:
“Audio poems of love, loss, longing and heartache in all its forms”.

DreamScenes 2015-02

The february edition of DreamScenes, with some great tracks from new and forthcoming releases.
This editions presents new music from Monty Adkins, Loscil, Sonmi451, Hessien, K. Novotny, Sonae, Ricardo Donoso, Eric Holm, Sankt Otten, Second Moon of Winter, Lost Trail and Alio Die & Lorenzo Montanà.

Jam Karet (Elastic Time) (Mix)

“Jam Karet” is Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) meaning “Elastic Time” (or “Rubber Hours”).
To me, this concept also applies to mixes that include ambient and drone fragments… where the listener gets immersed in sound in such a way that all notion of time is lost; where music could last for minutes, or for hours.

(Created for – and also published on – Headphone Commute)

Stephan Mathieu – Nachtstücke

The ink of the cover of his previous release “Sacred Grounds” had barely dried when Stephan Mathieu announced his new release called “Nachtstücke“.
(metaphorically speaking of course: these are both download-only releases).

The first thing to notice is that the full release of these “Night Pieces” is 260 minutes in length – that’s about a half night’s sleep!
For most – if not all – listeners, four hours and twenty minutes of extended droning is simply too much for concentrated listening. So that obviously is not what this music is intended for.