Based out of Bandung, Indonesia, Anggung Kuy Kay and Ryan Nobie Adzani create electronic ambient works under the collective name Bottlesmoker. Using an extensive array of modified/customized synths and keyboards (which can be seen in this live version of Frozen Scratch Cerulean) the duo record most of their work at home and, at least at first, released CDs primarily through a burn-on-demand system. Their music can also be found on the website for the netlabel Dystopiaq, which seems to have stopped releasing new music for the time being. The website appears to still be supported so the downloads work, for those who wish to download the album through them. Bottlesmoker have a bunch of photo diaries and other music to check out on their website as well.

Tanner Garza is a Houston-based producer of ambient/drone music who often utilizes a combination of guitar, synth, and various tape manipulation techniques. As a child he began playing music on the electric bass and moved from an early interest in metal towards more experiments with ambient/drone music. Eventually he approached Richard Ramirez, who had been involved in forming the harsh noise collective Black Leather Jesus a few years earlier, to see if he could perform at one of their shows, which happened with some frequency around the Houston area. He would go on to join Black Leather Jesus a few years later. Much of his output is created by taking signal input from an electric bass, guitar, or synth and running that through a variety of effects pedals and a four track cassette recorder. He founded Bookend Recordings, where much of his material is released. Digital downloads are available for sale at the Bookend Recordings Bandcamp page while physical releases may be available if you cruise his Discogs to see if any labels he’s released with are still selling them new, although they seem to go fast.

El Huervo is the moniker of Swedish producer/painter Niklas Åkerblad. This track comes off a cassette titled World’s End that was put out by Swedish Columbia earlier this year. In addition to painting and releasing his own music, El Huervo also created soundtracks to accompany video games, including Kometen for iOS, else { Heart.break() }, and Clairvoyance. He also had a few tracks appear on the soundtrack to Hotline Miami as well as the sequel. As a result of these appearances, he produced an instrumental for Mega Ran and The Regiment that led to the track Venting. For a few of those games he is also the primary artist, if you couldn’t tell from the similarities between the game screenshots and the cover for World’s End (and his other releases). The soundtrack for else { Heart.break() } is available on Bandcamp, also through Swedish Columbia.

Michael Stearns has been composing ambient electronic music since around 1975, when he met Emily Conrad and Gary “Da’oud” David, who were running meditation workshops with live music composed on a Minimoog synthesizer during each class. Stearns moved to California and became the resident composer at these Continuum workshops. He began releasing solo records on his own Continuum Montage imprint. This track comes from his fourth record, Planetary Unfolding, released in 1981. Around that time he became friends with Kevin Braheny, who had a talent for creating modular synthesizers, which inspired Stearns to create his own soon after. In addition to these electronic instruments he was introduced to an instrument ominously called The Beam, which he explains the construction of in this video. Essentially it has a large aluminum body with pickups underneath 24 piano strings, and is played by moving a large metal cylinder, similar to a guitar slide, up and down the strings while striking the cylinder, among other methods.

He used his modular synths and The Beam to create the score for Ron Fricke’s documentary films. Fricke worked as a cinematographer on Koyaanisqatsi and would go on to direct his own series of abstract documentary features: Chronos (Full movie), Baraka (Trailer), and Samsara (Trailer). All three are absolutely stunning and feature beautiful original soundtracks composed by Michael Stearns. These works were shown in IMAX, which is as expansive in audio capabilities (in many cases) as it is visually. He subsequently established Michael Stearns Productions, which works on sound installations and producing soundtracks for IMAX films. Some of his credits include the Back to the Future Ride at Universal Studios, Star Trek The Experience for Paramount, and sound installations at various planetaria around the country. As the Earth Kissed the Moon appeared in excerpted form on the 2013 Light in the Attic compilation I Am The Center (Private Issue New Age Music In America, 1950-1990), which I highly recommend. Those interested in purchasing digital files will find them on Stearns’ Bandcamp. As for physical releases, Discogs is your best bet although you might have to pay through the nose for the LPs.

회사AUTO makes his debut on the London-based electronic/vaporwave label Dream Catalogue with 仙Android. According to an interview with Neon Vice 회사AUTO aims to create

Something that when people hear it, it’s like seeing a new color; that feeling when you first heard a French horn or saw abstract piece of art—this is what I strive towards. … I grew up listening to a lot of R&B; I love how it draws from two inverse sounds—the holy and the earthly. I find this heterogeneity to be a perfect balance of tension and relaxation.

회사AUTO released two cassettes with Illuminated Paths, -Q- and new​.​age∮86, before this cassette. The title of this release was inspired by both Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and the Chinese character 仙, which translates to “immortal.” It can be purchased on cassette from Dream Catalogue on Bandcamp.

Pulse Emitter, aka Daryl Groetsch, is a Portland-based creator of electronic music, primarily ambient synth works both improvised and composed. This is the lead track off his Equinox album, which was initially released on cassette through Constellation Tatsu in addition to Pulse Emitter’s Bandcamp. On September 23rd, the autumnal equinox, he made it free to download for a day. It was truly an equinox miracle. His music also appeared on the tremendous 4 Way Split release from Immune Recordings, which featured Expo ’70, Date Palms, and Face Plant. He records most of his music on a modular synthesizer he built himself. He discusses his instrument in process in this interview:

I want to start taking data from nature and patching it into my synthesiser. I have done that a little bit with photocells, you know, I can stick it out of the window and the sun setting will go from a higher voltage to a lower voltage and it can control the synthesiser. But I want to be able to take a topographic map of Mars and convert it into a voltage… and then have entire pieces of music based on data. I just like the idea of taking the human element out of music. Lots of times when I play at home especially, I’ll set up the synthesiser so that its playing by itself. Really complex patches, using really slow oscillations, that aren’t synchronised with one another so that they change over time really slowly, and it kind of creates this long- form type of piece where you could listen to ten minutes of it and never realise that no-one is touching the instrument.

Cassettes and LPs can be purchased from his Bandcamp. I’d check out Longing Thresholds, Crater Lake, and Lava Lamp if you’re looking for a place to start.

The Sea and Cake formed in the early 1990s following Sam Prekop and Eric Claridge split from Shrimp Boat. These two joined forces with Archer Prewitt, whose earlier group The Coctails was splitting at the same time. Rounding out this quartet is John McIntire, who is also a founding member of the Chicago post-rock group Tortoise. “Parasol” comes off The Sea and Cake’s sophomore release, Nassau, which came out in 1995. They would go onto release four more albums after Nassau before going on hiatus in 2004. The group reformed in 2007 and has released four more, also on Thrill Jockey. Both Prekop and Prewitt have released solo records on Thrill Jockey, which Prewitt focusing on more traditional songwriting and Prekop venturing into more electronics-based ambient and experimental works. Prekop’s most recent solo release was The Republic, which came out earlier in 2015.

Expo ’70 is the recording name of Justin Wright, who began recording his own experimental material while performing with the now-defunct Living Science Foundation. Today’s track comes from Belgium’s Aguirre Records and features two long form improvisations recorded live during a 2010 tour. Hypnotic Brain Cloud Float was recorded live to accompany footage from a 1973 animated film Fantastic Planet. I was lucky enough to see him perform in a similar style accompanying the Kenneth Anger short film Scorpio Rising. He releases many of his recordings on his own imprint Sonic Meditations. Though much of his output has been solo, he has begun performing on occasion with bassist Aaron Osbourne and drummers Jim Button and Mike Vera. He creates his unique drone sounds with a combination of guitars and synths and also creates most of the album artwork for his releases. Digital downloads are available on his Bandcamp page and physical releases are available through Sonic Meditations. I haven’t heard a release I didn’t like, and he’s got plenty of stuff to check out. If I had to recommend one release in particular it’d have to be Beguiled Entropy which I bought from the man himself and have proceeded to nearly wear out.

Electric is the lead track off Föllakzoid’s third release, the aptly titled III. The album arises out of a collaboration between the group and German-born electronic musician Atom^tm, who is responsible for many of the synth sounds appearing on the record. According to the album page on Bandcamp, they recorded and mixed the album at BYM studios, which also released their self titled debut, and then brought it to Atom^tm to add various electronic and synth sounds. One of those sounds was a Korg synthesizer used by Kraftwerk in the 1980s. In many ways their third record is a study in repetition, or as the band puts it, “a four-part minimal sound voyage” but is a continuation of the space rock and krautrock influences that have persisted throughout their career. Check out the hypnotizing video for Electric here. Their catalog is available in digital download form on their Bandcamp while physical copies of this and their previous release, II, can be purchased through Brooklyn’s Sacred Bones records.

Hailing from Barcelona, 1886 burst on the hard psych scene, at least for me, with their self titled debut EP. Today’s track comes from their first full length debut, Before the Fog Covers the Mount which is available now on CD from their Bandcamp. It was announced in May that Helmet Lady Records will be releasing Before the Fog Covers the Mount on vinyl later this year. Here’s a link to their webstore.