Also in the same vein is Ever So Blue, smooth piano-based that I really enjoy. Its composed by the artist Jakob Ahlbom, who also releases music under his own name.
Cool Maritime dropped a new collab album. This one is more chill and drifty than his recent one. Really enjoying it this morning (for some reason it's not available on BC so here is the Spotify link)
A few things here: farewell, alaska - piano songs. There's plenty of lo-fi piano ambient now but I like this a lot. There's a haunting life in those piano sounds. From the guy who does Fog Lake. Haruhisa Tanaka - Views. Warmly drifting drone record. Milieu - The Flower To Disappear. Ambient techno-y record. Pretty, colourful haziness grounded with beats and rhythms. Really has that thing that Brian Eno talks with ambient - "as ignorable as it is interesting"; can be background music or focused on more intently. A track like Pinewheels could easily be imagined as fully-fledged "song" with a different approach. And one older one that was uploaded to YouTube two or three weeks ago - really odd, eclectic ambient album from 1987. Never quite heard a record like this one. Bookended by bird sounds, includes a track of spoken word poetry (in French on the left channel, English on the right - really disorienting), some piano shit, a brass band track recording, another track called Hindu Temple. Almost feel drunk listening to this album, but it's been luring me in.
Just a single track here but this is a piano version of the closer on the last Bing & Ruth album. I prefer this version actually; been playing it quite a bit in the last week or so.
I enjoyed that Fog Lake side project, though I wish he'd put out a straight up drone album. I love early Fog Lake and they have a few droney tracks that rule. Some of the tracks on that Milieu record are totally influenced by early Helios and Susumu Yokota, I can tell. Not a bad thing at all, but I can't help but make the comparison haha. I really enjoyed it. Still have to listen to that Cameron Allan but it sounds cool. Also want to share this serene beauty. Recently dropped in May but feels reminiscent of 80's ambient/environmental new-age.
Yeah everyone should be influenced by Susumu Yokota. I think Helios and Milieu first started releasing stuff around a similar time. Some definite similarities. Helios much bigger obviously. I'm yet to do a proper Milieu discog run but there are a couple of records I really dig of his and have done for a while. There's a record he released in 2007 called Remodelled which was a bunch of different versions of old tracks he'd made, mostly beyond recognition from the originals. There are a few great tracks on there.
This one has been holding my attention for a while. Minimal dance with some ambient elements, RIYL Yu Su:
This is a pre-order one - comes out in September - but I'm really looking forward to it. Think of those alva noto/Ryuichi Sakamoto collabs if you want something in the way of a comparison.
Gonna be honest here, the Alanis Morissette ambient album is seriously great. Highly recommend for fans of SoTL, Kyle Bobby Dunn, (newer) Hammock.
Really enjoying the new picnic album while working right now: New claire rousay is also great (though fair warning that it gets into some heavy subject matter on the last track): Haven't listened to the new Humble Bee and Thme albums yet, but I trust they're worth looking into: A Grasp of Wonder, by Thme