October 2024 brought a wealth of standout ambient releases, demonstrating the genre’s continued evolution and its ability to traverse diverse sonic landscapes. From hazy, dub-laden compositions to intricate electro-acoustic experiments, these tracks showcase the genre’s power to evoke introspection, reverie, and even a sense of place.
Whether it’s Mu Tate’s meditative textures on Wanting Less, Nicolás Jaar’s deeply political Piedras 1 & 2, or KMRU‘s fluid soundscapes on Forge, each artist here reimagines what ambient music can be. Spanning a spectrum of emotions and techniques—from field recordings to modular synths—these selections represent the best of ambient music in October 2024.
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mu tate – sweat
Latvian-born Mu Tate joins the Warm Winters Ltd. family with a collection of hazy, dub-infused compositions. Fusing fragmented field recordings, dreamlike tones, deep sub-bass, and fluid synth work, Wanting Less floats in the same reflective space as his acclaimed releases on Experiences Ltd. and Utter, offering a delicately unraveling sense of stillness and weightlessness.
Not Waving, Romance – From The Weary Earth to the Sapphire Walls
Building on the ethereal depths of Infinite Light and Eyes of Fate, Not Waving and Romance unveil Wings of Desire. Drawing inspiration from Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, the album evokes a delicate interplay of beauty and introspection, with its shifting textures hinting at unseen emotional landscapes.
Oliver Coates – 90
Oliver Coates’ new album Throb, Shiver, Arrow of Time feels like stepping into a blurred memory, where light and shadow shift in somatic waves. These ten compositions drift on weightless melodies, stretched across hazy, afterimage-like gradients. . The result is a soundscape that feels alive—like weather moving through the listener, or flames quietly reshaping the edges of the world around them.
Quarterly – Fowler’s Theme
For over a decade, Brooklyn duo Quarterly have carved out a space for themselves in New York and Boston’s music scenes, blending classical and folk traditions through their distinctive guitar-and-cello interplay. Typically, DiPietro’s guitar anchors the rhythm and harmony, while Drymala’s cello carries the melodic weight. On their third album, Adonis, the roles shift and intertwine, with the pair “dancing together” to craft immersive, unexpected atmospheres that push their sound into new, adventurous territory.
Dylan Henner – There Was A Scattered Light Between The Leaves
College Music’s fourth compilation, PhonoSynthesis, delves into the interplay between music and nature, blending solo acoustic pieces with modular synth explorations. The album features contributions from artists such as Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Shopan, and this standout from Dylan Henner.
Doris Dana – tedio
doris dana, the sound project of Colombian-born artist Mónica Mesa, explores the ephemeral and the in-between, crafting abstract sonic meditations on liminal spaces and elusive emotions. The project takes its name from the clandestine love story between Chilean Nobel laureate Gabriela Mistral and her editor, Doris Dana. Through layered field recordings, spectral synths, and vaporous vocals, doris dana creates speculative soundscapes that evoke nostalgia, quiet reverence, and fleeting moments of fragile beauty.
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Just Big Hills – Marimo
Another inclusion from College Music’s PhonoSynthesis comes from Just Big Hills, a project based around Post-Rock with Electronic influences. The music explores themes of space and scenes of nature and Marimo is another fantastic inclusion to his catalogue.
dj +1 – Mamey
Frutas Locales blends the lush, tangy essence of local fruit into a sonic concoction that’s equal parts psychedelic and irresistible. With its pulpy textures and vibrant layers, this album ripens with every listen, revealing new flavors and grooves in its juicy, sun-soaked sound.
Bibio – DINORWIC
Originally released in 2017, Phantom Brickworks marked Bibio’s foray into ambient and drone music, a project deeply rooted in the ghostly traces of human presence at forgotten sites across Britain. Stephen James Wilkinson explored these spaces, observing their slow decay and channeling his reflections into improvised and composed soundscapes. In 2024, the journey continues with Phantom Brickworks (LP II), a 10-track sequel mastered by Guy Davie and cut for vinyl by Hendrik Pauler. This new chapter shifts focus to different sites—some strikingly visible as vast scars on the land, others existing only through fading local memories, archival footage, and historic photos. The result is a deeply immersive work, where the echoes of these places resonate with a quiet, haunting beauty.
KMRU – mago
Howling stretches ebb and flow with subtle shifts across KMRU’s latest album forge, culminating in the amphibian synths of “Mago,” which leap through the fluid, mercurial soundscapes he has perfected with each release.
CS + Kreme – Corey
The Butterfly Drinks The Tears Of The Tortoise marks the third studio album from Melbourne duo CS + Kreme, comprised of Conrad Standish and Sam Karmel. The record features striking contributions from Japanese cellist Yuki Nakagawa (KAKUHAN) and Teguh Permana (of Indonesia’s Tarawangsawelas), blending classical and folk influences in an unpolished yet deeply compelling way. This album extends the duo’s exploration of genre, creating an atmospheric and unpredictable listening experience.
Martyna Basta – Fragile
Diaries Beneath Fragile Glass, recorded during solitary days in Turku, Finland, captures the fluid, shifting essence of time, mirroring the behavior of water. Delicate puddles, sunlight-dappled streams, and the creaks of lingering ice form a soundscape that ebbs and flows, tracing the slow, indistinct rhythm of days blending seamlessly into one another.
Luke Wyland – Voice Valley
While named for a real location on the Oregon coast, Kuma Cove looks far beyond the horizon. Recorded live in the studio, the album dissolves boundaries between computer-based composition and electro-acoustic performance, exploring themes of flow, borders, transience, and refuge. Built from fragmented ripples and shifting repetitions that swell into emotive arcs, it reflects the artist’s experience as a person who stutters, channeling ideas of identity and self-expression. Kuma Cove is ultimately a meditation on the nonlinear energies that shape time and perception.
Nicolas Jaar – 3eee
Nicolás Jaar’s Piedras 1 & 2 is a haunting double album born from a five-hour radio play exploring themes of colonialism, dictatorship, and displacement. Inspired by Chile’s Pinochet regime and Palestine’s erasure, it intertwines sultry, deadpan pop with avant-garde soundscapes.
Tristan Arp, Mabbe Fratti – ways of being
Tristan Arp’s sophomore LP, a pool, a portal, released on Wisdom Teeth, intricately weaves pin-drop rhythms, hushed vocals, and swirling ambience to craft a vivid soundscape bridging the natural and digital realms.
The album features contributions from Guatemalan cellist and vocalist Mabe Fratti, adding depth to its organic textures.
The post The 15 Best Ambient Tracks of October 2024 appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.