Ambientologist Vinyl, CD & Tape 4 Items

‘Nine Spells’ is a collection of vocal-only compositions by experienced vocalist and multimedia artist Jolanda Moletta, a musical tribute to nine of her female ancestors. Having fronted the folk band She Owl for over a decade, releasing two full-length albums and playing more than 300 concerts across Europe and the US, Jolanda turns the isolation of the past two years into an undeniably personal project of ancestral connection and healing. Her solo venture first appeared in 2021, contributing vocals for the Pepo Galán & Karen Vogt album ‘The Sweet Wait’, as well as a loop for the Thesis Recurring project. Nine Spells, however, sees her delicately arresting voice take centre stage for the first time. The Turin-born, Berlin-based musician found the urge to rediscover her origins while traveling with her band. Collecting photos of her female ancestors, she uncovered their stories. She learned of her great grandmother, a herbalist and healer, who defied the dangers of Wwii to gather medicines to help the people of her hometown; she learned of her grandmother the violin player, who gave up after marrying, the only other musician in her family; she learned of her great-great-grandmother, the nomad, who ended up settling in what is now their hometown of Turin; and she learned of her great aunt, the first woman to receive a literature degree in the city’s university. Though her intention was to connect with and heal the past of her ancestors, what transpired was the reverse: their stories of courage gave her strength, imbuing her present experience with healing echoes. Channelling these formed the basis of the Nine Spells, from the ethereal, haunting opener ‘Let the Wave In’, through the melancholic reverberations of the inner cages of loneliness in Spells III and IV, right through to the sacred, choir-like conclusion in ‘Your Wildfires Light Up the Darkness of Your Heart’. Each musical composition, written from each spell, drawn from each collage, has been evoked from a place of healing intention, that can be enjoyed together as a full practice. Along with the accompanying videos, supplementary limited edition ornaments, boxes and Giclée prints, Nine Spells presents a fruitfully holistic, multimedia approach to musical healing. Unencumbered by instruments, and unfiltered by words, Jolanda’s heartfelt radiations emanate with each Spell. And why a spell? This is perhaps best left to the poetic words of Jolanda herself: Because of their evocative intent: singing beyond words is a way to express an entire lifeline in one single breath, a way to represent and move emotional mountains, clouds full of tears and winds of laughter, infinite gardens where memories and desires intertwine and work together. The purpose is to break the frame and let the paint spread throughout the wall.

Venusia is the first official output of friends and collaborators Henrik Meierkord (cello), Pawel Kobak (flute), Marco Lucchi (electronics) and Rocco Saviano (guitar). What started as an overseas passing of ideas between Meierkord and Saviano, eventually blossomed into a full collaborative effort with Kobak and Lucchi. Having all collaborated extensively with each other (such as Meierkord and Kobak’s Marhia project), it felt more like finishing each other’s sentences, despite being geographically isolated. Venusia, both a genus of moth and a town in Italy, also refers to Venus, the Roman goddess of beauty, love, and charm – and the mother of the Roman people. The planet Venus was so named because, after the Earth’s moon, it was the brightest natural object in the sky, bright enough to cast shadows. This album, stunningly complemented by Valerii Bogorod’s , reflects this charming yet fragile beauty. ‘Indigo Moon’ opens the album with an outstretching, gently swirling overture. And yet, rather than a brief introduction of the instrumentalists, it stands as the longest piece on the album. As if diving into an all-consuming trip, seeing the earth and heavens spin around each other, it unfolds in harmony but without structure. Saviano’s spirited guitar, Meierkord’s earthly cello, and Kobak’s heavenly flute are welded together within Lucchi’s electronic vision. From here, clarity shines through with a series of shorter, brighter pieces. The album’s title track, ‘Venusia’, now invokes the album’s main theme: beauty, love, and charm. The three ‘Eranthis Hyemalis’ pieces then mimic the nature of the plant species after which they’re named. A spring ‘ephemeral’ plant, eranthis hyemalis briefly flower at the time of most sunlight, before dying back for the remainder of the year. These three blossoming yet fleeting compositions evoke the transitory nature of love and beauty, its form never static but in constant change. ‘El Duende’, in Spanish, is to possess a heightened state of emotion, expression, and authenticity. Led by Saviano’s Spanish guitar, Meierkord’s cello flourishes with emotive expression. Finally, the album is brought to a close with ‘Sunshine (Stilla Natt)’, a dually-themed piece playing the Sun’s beauty off the stillness of nighttime. Venusia is an album dedicated to the concept of beauty, both in its Classical representation as ornate and delicate, and its boundless, loving capacity. Through its delicate melodies and glimmering tone, it marries expansive emotion with simple charm, evoking fields of flowers beneath vast, open skies.

anthéne, one of ambient drone’s most recognised names, presents ‘maritime’. A shift from his usual expansive, time-stretching soundscapes, maritime is something altogether more grounded, more present. It signals the call of the open ocean, of its vast possibilities and terrors, as a similitude for the night. In both, one faces the peace, the limitlessness, the reverence, and the promise, while at the same time the uncertain, the uncontrollable, the danger and the fear of the unknown. In such a way, maritime is presented in two parts: Side A demonstrates the beauty and inspiration of ocean views and night time explorations, while Side B addresses the vulnerable nature of vast, boundless experience. An artist with an astounding workrate, Brad Deschamps has worked with such artists as Ian Hawgood, James McDermid, Andrew Tasselmyer and Fossil Hunting Collective (as Still Harbours), and releases the likes of Hakobune, Moss Covered Technology and Forest Management on his own Polar Seas Recordings. His patient style is clear throughout the album, shimmering guitar tones overlaying with warmth and stability, yet the addition of more troubled melodies and subtle vocal parts make for something far more poignant. The duality of awe and terror, of the two primary elements of the sublime, channel through as one in one of anthéne’s most thoughtful offerings to date.

An immersive, dystopian, even nightmarish exploration, Fionnlagh’s ‘What Came Before’ drops the listener into an unfolding flashback. Soaring synths over dark, brooding sub tones crescendo in a style that already seems a unique hallmark of the artist, with an immediacy that is as transfixing as it is unsettling. An album to be listened to, to be bravely thrown in front of, and one that stands out boldly amongst its contemporaries. The album’s narrative is one of previous shared experience, shared burden, as a guiding light in dark times. Though a seemingly far stretch from the menacing timbre and haunted frequencies, What Came Before goes further than nostalgia, placing emphasis on the more apparent experience of history’s true nature. Glimpses of light appear at times, but the honesty is laid bare that, for the most part, darkness remains. To construct this echo of the past, Fionnlagh makes use source material, own recordings, synthetic sounds and manipulated external artefacts. ’The Art of Disguise’ presents itself as an impassioned rallying cry, after the album’s bleak and uncertain exposition, while ‘Across the Pacific’ delivers the emotional resolve to be carried through the remainder of the story. Pieces like ’The Villa on the Cliff’ and ’This Storm Will Pass’ continue the thread of enthralling darkness, but with a greater clarity and direction. Nevertheless, the turbulence of the album as a whole could be met with any number of experiences, and what arises will be unique to each listener. His debut album under this alias, and in this genre, Mark Findlay has released numerous techno and drum & bass singles, transposing the darker side of his production into something more cinematic and thoughtful, a bold step backwards in time.