Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter - SAVED!

Kristin's creative approach to hymns and Appalachian folksong make SAVED! a powerful concept album.

William Basinski - Lamentations

Though some of Lamentations' pieces could have used some fleshing out, it remains one of the year's most emotionally potent ambient efforts.

William Basinski - A Shadow in Time

William Basinski returns with one of his most accessible and compositionally satisfying sets of drones yet.

Lost Salt Blood Purges - Only the Youngest Grave

An enthralling double album by Melbourne artist Lost Salt Blood Purges, mixing elements of ritual ambient, neofolk, tape music, and a bit of jazz. Out now via Art as Catharsis.

Aaron Dilloway & Jason Lescalleet - "Western Nest"

"Popeth" means "everything" in Welsh. It's also the name of the latest collaborative full-length from enlightened noisesmiths Aaron Dilloway and Jason Lescalleet, properly following up their 2012 team-up Grapes and Snakes. Above, find Popeth centerpiece "Western Nest," whose masterful bonding of lulling electronic pulses and high frequencies suggests a peak of unity between the two artists. Truly, the entire project lives up to its name - it is in essence the culmination of Dilloway and Lescalleet's combined efforts in sonic manipulation and the creation of a holistic soundscape up to this point.

Popeth is out now via Glistening Examples.

Last Lizard - "Dickie's Theme" / "Detroit" (Excerpt)

https://soundcloud.com/lastlizard/dickies-theme Last month, Alex Zhang Hungtai announced the laying to rest of his long-running and acclaimed no-wave singer-songwriter alias Dirty Beaches. The recently released Stateless was packed with gorgeous drones and was thankfully an elegant end for the project.

There was a silver lining to this news: Hungtai announced that new music under different handles would be coming as soon as 2015. Lo and behold, he has already delivered over 20 minutes of music under the pseudonym Last Lizard. The 18-minute-long "Dickie's Theme" and the below 4 minute excerpt from "Detroit" are billed as "tenor sax and tape experiments," in a similar vein as some of the material on Stateless. Try to imagine The Disintegration Loops constructed only out of layered tenor sax sounds - if you can, then you ought to have a good idea of what you're in for.

R.I.P. Dirty Beaches. Long live Last Lizard!

https://soundcloud.com/lastlizard/detroit

Deep Magic - "Brighter Days"

This track by Deep Magic, off of his upcoming release Reflections of Most Forgotten Love to be released on Preservation is the sort of babbling-brook ambient music that suggests perfect peace, a monk meditating amid a waterfall. It is not a static song though, musical phrases pass through and are changed over the 6:23 play time. In this way it is similar to the intricate, beat-less ambient music of Brian Eno, but where Eno is crystal clear, this song features a tape-hum, a reminder of its electronic source. Thanks to Tiny Mixtapes for the find!