Plus new music from Simon Goff, Alex O’Donovan, Zen Lemon, Dobrawa Czocher and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Simon McCorry

Simon McCorry is a cellist, sound designer, and ambient artist from Gloucestershire in the United Kingdom that spends much of his time in motion, touring the UK as a theatre sound engineer. As one might imagine, life on the road has a distinct feeling of impermanence, an impression that has permeated its way into his work. McCorry is a prolific artist with dozens of releases through Bandcamp — an impressive and expressive catalog spanning the last decade. His latest release “All The Important Things Are Now Connected” is a brooding, contemplative work that’s balanced with a sense of wonder and curiosity — centered around the cello and walking the fine line between cohesion and collapse. There’s something unique about McCorry’s work that sets him apart from other cellists in the ambient genre — it may be the raw vibe he evokes through the way in which he’s captured and manipulated the cello, or perhaps the up-close, intimate, and conversational way in which his melodies sing their truth, or maybe it’s the humble, unassuming nature of his compositions in which they don’t garner for attention or notoriety. Regardless of what it may be, his music invites a close-quarters dialogue, one that I hope you’ll take the time to discover for yourself. From his album “All The Important Things Are Now Connected”, here’s Simon McCorry with the track “Whisper Music”, here on The Relay Station.

https://www.simonmccorry.com/https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/

Cécile Lacharme

Cécile Lacharme is a classically trained, experimental French cellist that’s made her debut with the modern classical label Bigo and Twigetti, entering the scene with a stunning album deserving of your time and attention. Over the last few years she has been developing a critically-acclaimed live show, creating a mind-altering, immersive performance with her solo cello as the foundation, and woven through a loop station and a variety of effect pedals. The result is a unique expression every time, and a performance that is captivating from the very first note, and to the very last as the sound lingers in the air. Her new album “Dérives” captures just that. Lacharme writes, “We wanted to keep consistency between the live performance and the album, so it was important for us to have this immersive feel starting from the recording process. The main challenge came from the fact that I was the only musician layering myself multiple times with the same instrument, within the same register, and in the same room.” But objectively speaking, when I listen to her album “Dérives”, it feels like an epic soundscape painted by the likes of Philipp Glass or Max Richter, like the score to a larger-than-life cinematic experience. The album is stunning and imaginative, the looped patterns and cello layers are engaging, and the space she’s created leaves me no option but to hit that repeat button and listen to her music over, and over, and over again. From her album “Dérive”, here’s Cécile Lacharme with the track “Fugue”, here on The Relay Station.

https://www.cecilelacharme.com/https://bigoandtwigetti.bandcamp.com/

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [00:01:32] “Now Their Pain is Sugar (Masayoshi Fujita Rework)” by Simon Goff from “Sparks” (Grand Chess Records, 2026)

* [00:04:38] “Impermanence” by Alex O’Donovan from “Svalr” (Driftworks/Audiobulb, 2026)

* [00:08:30] “Isolation” by Zen Lemon from “Drift Theory Aesthetic” (Chitra Records, 2026)

* [00:11:57] Featured Artist Segment

* [00:14:08] “whisper music” by Simon McCorry from “all the important things are now connected” (WhiteLabRecs, 2026)

* [00:20:56] “Sehnsucht” by Dobrawa Czocher from “State of Matter” (FatCat Records, 2026)

* [00:27:54] “Reveries” by Henrik Meierkord + Marco Lucchi & Pawel Kobak from “The Book of Dreams” (Whitelabrecs, 2025)

* [00:37:02] “In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness - Part 2” by Clarice Jensen from “In Holiday Clothing, Out Of The Great Darkness” (FatCat / 130701, 2025)

* [00:45:23] Featured Artist Segment

* [00:48:04] “Fugue” by Cécile Lacharme from “Dérives” (Bigo and Twigetti, 2025)

* [00:53:38] “Blue” by Moonlit Reef from “Blue (single)” (Independent, 2026)

* [00:57:05] “Around the Lake, as Time Slows” by Hollie Kenniff from “For Those Who Stay” (Nettwerk Music Group, 2026)

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Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

Plus new music from Isabel Pine, Boreal Taiga, Tristan Allen, Byron Metcalf & Billy Denk and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Francesca Guccione

If the name Francesca Guccione isn’t a familar name to you, well it ought to be. The Italian composer and violinist has a brand new album out now through the Neue Meister label that is deserving of your time and attention, with limited edition, signed companion vinyl and digipack CDs available through Bandcamp. For Guccione, her new album “Panta Rhei: An Ontology of Becoming” represents a natural continuation of the conceptual and sonic paths of her previous release “The Geometry of Time”. For the listener, I might add that she provides a breathtaking encounter with her contemplation of the passage of time and the transient nature of all things, a never-ending flow of transmutative experiences with the universe around us. Guccione collaborated with the likes of Violetta Vicci and Antonella Solimine on violin, Francesco Angelico and Chiara Trentin on cello, Frieder Nagel on synths and electronics, and Robert Gromotka on piano. Together they’ve created an album that is tender-hearted, delicate and ornate, and pensive with an invitation for deep contemplation and attentive listening. Even after each piece comes to a close, the deep-seated feelings conveyed through each composition lingers like an enchanting fragrance suspended in air, enveloping you with an invitation to follow its lead through reality into imagination. From her album “Panta Rhei: An Ontology of Becoming”, here’s Francesca Guccione with the track “Movement V”, here on The Relay Station.

https://francescaguccione.bandcamp.com/https://neuemeister.bandcamp.com/

Mike Lazarev

Ukrainian-born and London-based electronic musician and pianist Mike Lazarev is an artist whose work bridges cinematic soundscapes, advanced synthesis, and reductionist pianism — and his latest work through Bigo and Twigetti reflects that aesthetic. “Gradiscence” is both tender and gently-forceful, almost like the push and pull of the atmosphere before and after a spring rainstorm, and its amalgamation of neoclassical, texture-rich minimalist piano with long swaths of slow-sweeping synthesis have a subdued wistful quality. It feels introspective and ruminative, and has an alluring quality that bids you to gaze out the window, lost in thought with each composition serving as the score for your musings. Lazarev writes about “Gradiscence”, “This release focuses on my natural tendency to bring organic and synthetic sounds together, where each seeks to be heard and recognized amid the rising tempest. This reflects the dichotomy of my emotions in my mind when anxiety tends to take over my body. Breaking out is the only way.” Making his debut with Bigo and Twigetti, this six-song EP is a perfect pairing for those contemplative moments, when you find yourself gazing out blankly into the distance, hot tea in hand, and lost in thought. From his album “Gradiscence” here’s Mike Lazarev with the track “Break Out”, here on the Relay Station.

https://mikelazarev.bandcamp.com/https://bigoandtwigetti.bandcamp.com/

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:40] “Winnow” by Isabel Pine from “Fables” (Kranky / Isabel Pine, 2026)

* [04:35] “Auroral Zone” by Boreal Taiga from “Guovssahas - The Light You Can Hear” (Wayfarer Music Group, 2026)

* [14:11] “Act III: Rite” by Tristan Allen from “Osni the Flare” (RVNG Intl, 2026)

* [18:23] Featured Artist Segment

* [20:03] “Movement V” by Francesca Guccione from “Panta Rhei: An Ontology of Becoming” (Neue Meister, a label of Edel Music & Entertainment GmbH, 2025)

* [23:40] “Essential Peace” by Byron Metcalf & Billy Denk from “Activation” (Billy Denk & Byron Metcalf, 2026)

* [29:58] “Synced Across Static” by Ryan Majoris from “The World Has Become a Great Nerve” (Independent, 2026)

* [33:30] “Confident Wings” by Philippe Deschamps from “Les juifs riches (Bande originale du film)” (Shindo Sea Records, 2026)

* [36:33] Featured Artist Segment

* [38:13] “Break Out” by Mike Lazarev from “Gradiscence” (Bigo and Twigetti, 2026)

* [43:59] “Through that garden gate” by Miguel Otero & Raquel Pavón from “Through that garden gate” (Noray Records, 2026)

* [47:45] “where the hermit-thrush” by Simon McCorry from “all the important things are now connected” (WhiteLabRecs, 2026)

* [54:59] “Deviation V” by Taylor Deupree & Zimoun from “Wind Dynamic Organ, Deviations” (12k Music, 2025)

Become a supporter today!

Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:40] “I Have Worshipped The Wrong Gods” by Glacis with Henrik Meierkord from “We Gape And We Are Healed” (WhiteLabRecs, 2026)

* [04:37] “An Accidental Encounter” by Adrian Lane from “Where Once We Danced” (Whitelabrecs, 2025)

* [07:20] “Movement between Light and Shadow” by Small Chief from “Zero Movement” (Cyclical Dreams, 2026)

* [20:58] “Drifting Ionosphere” by Boreal Taiga from “Guovssahas - The Light You Can Hear” (Wayfarer Music Group, 2026)

* [30:34] “Stoneyman” by Craven Faults from “Sidings” (Craven Faults / The Leaf Label, 2026)

* [44:59] “Pralaya I (Radio Edit)” by Senza Testa from “Pralaya” (Djupviks Elektronik, 2025)

* [49:25] SIDE B

* [49:26] “Gustav” by Hania Rani from “Sentimental Value” (Gondwana Records, 2026)

* [56:23] “SOL” by Le Code from “Something in the Air” (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [01:02:14] “From Tokyo” by Passepartout Duo from “Pieces from Places” (Independent, 2026)

* [01:07:20] “The Long Hallway” by Paul Beaudoin from “Secretly Drawn” (Independent, 2025)

* [01:14:14] “I Spend Time With You (...Clear as Water Textures)” by Alessandro Barbanera from “Nothing Like Home” (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [01:19:48] “Songe” by Cécile Lacharme from “Dérives” (Bigo and Twigetti, 2025)

* [01:23:53] “Midsummer” by Ghostloop from “Almost Autumn” (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [01:28:51] “Through Nebulae” by Ancient Astronaut + Brannan Lane from “Through Nebulae” (Independent, 2025)

* [01:33:20] “Diptyk.” by Rotating Tapes from “3” (Independent, 2026)

Plus new music from Clariloops, Julia Gjertsen & Gustav Davidsson, Gabriele Baldocci, ESH and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Passepartout Duo

Passetpartout Duo is an ambient-electronic group that I’ve had my eyes on for a while now — in fact, they’ve been featured once before on the program (season 5, episode 27) with their collaboration with Japanese ambient duo, Inoyama Land. With my deep and abiding love for Japanese ambient music, anyone that is collaborating with artists in that respective regional influence in the ambient world is worth taking note of. Without a studio to call their own, their work has been shaped by their nomadic experiences, wandering through a series of vignettes from all over the world. Their driving force is artistic reinvention, with each new piece providing an instrumentation cast from agility and creativity. Their brand new album “Pieces from Places” is an exercise in listening to the world around them — from the humid quiet of Taipai’s artistic village to the urban rhythms of Belgrade and Tbilisi, the still waters of Ayvalik to the labyrinthine acoustics of Fes and beyond — each location offering a fragment of an atmosphere from their observations as they travel from place to place. The album was an absolute delight to listen through and savor, a kaleidoscope of sound and a richly complex tapestry of influences from around the world. When I relish in the sonic space created in each and every track, it feels like I’ve been permitted to stow away in their luggage and travel with them, experiencing almost first-hand the beauty of the world, and the bountiful charm of this richly diverse world we call home. It’s an album that would be hard to pass on, and is a must-listen for exploratory listeners like yourself. From their album “Pieces from Places” here’s Passepartout Duo with the track “From Tbilisi”, here on The Relay Station.

https://passepartoutduo.bandcamp.com/

Six Missing & Patrik Berg Almkvisth

TJ Dumser of Six Missing is no stranger to the Relay Station community — an Austin, Texas-based ambient electronic artist that has long captivated us with his beautiful analog synthesis work and his inspiring musical sensibilities. Six Missing has teamed up with Swedish neoclassical artist Patrik Berg Almkvisth to create a stunning seven-song release that can quite accurately be described as a cinematic motion picture experience for the listener. The album provides a vivid, dream-like excursion through a warm and inviting neoclassical piano landscape, enveloped with the comforting and tender veneer of Six Missing’s signature analog synthesis and tape machine artistry. It’s the sort of album that leaves a compelling feeling to hit the “repeat” button and to listen to this tenderhearted musical expression for hours on end, drifting into a beautiful world of your own making. Patrik’s piano is delicate yet unwavering, and TJ’s vintage tape textures, Moog synthesizers, guitar work, and melodic contributions are a perfect paring, providing not just a great listening experience, but also a musical space to truly inhabit. The album’s sheer beauty is what keeps me coming back for more, making it one of my essential albums for 2026. From their transcendent collaborative album “Developments”, here’s Six Missing and Patrik Berg Almkvisth with the track “Development 1: Forms”, here on the Relay Station.

https://www.sixmissing.com/https://luchsofficial.com/https://nettwerk.bandcamp.com

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [00:01:25] “Soft Unfolding” by Clariloops from “The Quiet Below” (WhiteLabRecs, 2026)

* [00:05:44] “Mellomtiden” by Julia Gjertsen & Gustav Davidsson from “Wandering Mind, Drifting Weather” (Whitelabrecs, 2025)

* [00:09:12] “Verde Luce” by Gabriele Baldocci from “Faded Gardens” (MKMA Records, 2026)

* [00:13:42] Featured Artist Segment

* [00:16:08] “From Tbilisi” by Passepartout Duo from “Pieces from Places” (Independent, 2026)

* [00:20:14] “Out-of-Body Travel” by ESH from “Induction Lounge” (Imaginary North Records, 2026)

* [00:23:42] “Lo que queda al final” by Pepo Galán & David Cordero from “Música Invisible” (David Cordero & No Ray Records, 2026)

* [00:28:52] “Frozen Tears” by Eguana from “On The Edge” (Cosmic Leaf Records, 2025)

* [00:31:54] Featured Artist Segment

* [00:34:04] “Development 1: Forms” by Six Missing & Patrik Berg Almkvisth from “Developments (EP)” (Nettwerk Music Group, 2026)

* [00:37:40] “Movement III” by Francesca Guccione feat. Robert Gromotka from “Panta Rhei (An Ontology of Becoming)” (Neue Meister, a label of Edel Music & Entertainment GmbH, 2026)

* [00:41:54] “Light Veils” by Tides from “Sleeplaboratory6.0” (WhiteLabRecs, 2026)

* [00:46:24] “Opal” by Dionisaf from “Fractals” (Ambient Cat Records, 2026)

* [00:54:12] “Where We Disappear” by Grant Beasley from “The Vanishing Point” (Cyclical Dreams, 2025)

Become a supporter today!

Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

Plus new music from Sebby Kowal, Andreas Lutz, Dreamscapist, Ancient Astronaut and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Piscean Daydreams and Michael D. Tidwell

Following up to their 2025 release “Ghost”, Texas-based ambient composer Michael D. Tidwell and California-based ambient electronic artist Piscean Daydreams have teamed up again to create a hauntingly good five-song release. “Ghost, Volume 2” presents five new compositions that explore memory, absence, and emotional resonance through Tidwell’s signature cinematic ambient instrumentation and Piscean Daydream’s expansive sound design. The album is skillfully constructed of a wash of atmospheric veneers, subdued melodic motifs, and an illusory musical story that unfolds at a deliberate and undemanding pace, providing a continuous listening experience for the listener. Each piece emphasizes space and subtle transformation, creating an immersive environment suited for deep listening, reflection, and visual imagination — focusing on tone, texture, and emotional clarity, with its quiet, lingering world shaped by stillness and cinematic depth. From their album “Ghost, Volume 2”, here’s Piscean Daydreams and Michael D. Tidwell with the track “A Realm Without Footsteps”, here on The Relay Station.

https://pisceandaydreams.bandcamp.comhttps://michaeldtidwell.com

Dryft

Mike Cadoo, frontman of the post-punk duo Vague Lanes, returns to his long-running project Dryft with the release of his fifth full-length album “Particle” — a boundary-pushing collection of fractured industrial electronics, muted melodic language, and gritty textural layers fabricated into a pulsing seven-song release. While the album isn’t exclusively ambient in nature, there are atmospheric and ambient elements that grab hold of my attention and captivate me, creating a universe within my imagination as each track unfolds and weaves vivid imagery through its bright synthetic melodic motifs, the gritty post-industrial vibe, the overdriven percussive hits, and the atmospheric veneer that ties it all together. Through his compositions, Cadoo emphasizes clarity and immediacy, favoring tactile sound design and forward-pushing arrangements over density and abstraction — resulting in a work that is exploratory, resolutely forward-looking, and a clear demonstration in the evolution of Dryft. The album is a thrilling ride and engaging from start to finish. From his album “Particle” here’s Dryft with the track “Cupal”, here on The Relay Station.

https://haveyoulostyourway.bandcamp.com/https://n5md.bandcamp.com/

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [00:01:26] “Orbital” by Sebby Kowal from “Glowing Paradise” (Chitra Records, 2026)

* [00:08:00] “trans2” by Andreas Lutz from “Aura Trans” (Kasuga Records, 2025)

* [00:12:26] “The Choice Now Chosen” by Dreamscapist from “The Choice Now Chosen (single)” (Wayfarer Music Group, 2026)

* [00:20:04] Featured Artist Segment

* [00:21:43] “A Realm Without Footsteps” by Piscean Daydreams and Michael D. Tidwell from “Ghost, Vol. 2” (Independent, 2026)

* [00:28:04] “Evaporate” by Ancient Astronaut from “Daydreaming” (Ambient Cat Records, 2026)

* [00:30:52] “Night Drifters” by Logic Moon from “Ashes” (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [00:33:54] “The River” by Andrew Heath and Mi Cosa de Resistance from “Land” (Driftworks, 2026)

* [00:38:08] Featured Artist Segment

* [00:39:54] “Cupal” by Dryft from “Particle” (n5MD, 2026)

* [00:44:44] “Days of Iron and Steam” by Glåsbird from “An Ambient Decade” (WhiteLabRecs, 2024)

* [00:52:35] “Icebreaker” by Atmøsphäre & Dionisaf from “Northern Dreamscapes” (Chitra Records, 2025)

Become a supporter today!

Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

Plus new music from Justin Amphlett, tom eaton, Hiroshi Ebina, Roxani Chatzidimitriou and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Félicia Atkinson & Christina Vantzou

French musician and artist Félicia Atkinson and Belgian composer Christina Vantzou have a remarkably bewitching and beguiling musical work, the third volume in a series of releases on RVNG International, entitled “Reflections”. “Reflections Volume 3: Water Poems” is an album that resonates with intimacy and ritual in its meditative and pensive arrangement of sea-themed field recordings, hushed spoken words, and minimalist instrumentation, almost like stepping into a sacred space for contemplation, and a soft-spoken dialogue with the sea. There is a distinctive sense of flow and ease — a collection of dreams anchored in sea, sky, and stone with the use of electro-acoustic instrumentation, voice, and environmental sound — inviting listeners into a quiet space of intimacy with the oceanic enigma from which all life unfolds. “Water Poems” echoes what marine biologist Rachel Carson reminds us, “To stand at the edge of the sea… is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.” It ritually celebrates this oceanic feeling as a vital source of serenity and intelligence. In a world scorched by fiery opinion and ecological neglect, this album calls our attention to “the sources of sources.” In doing so, it makes space to reconnect with our elemental instincts and tune in to deeper currents. From the album “Reflections Volume 3: Water Poems” here’s Félicia Atkinson and Christina Vantzou with the track “Film Still / The Sea”, here on The Relay Station.

https://feliciaatkinson.bandcamp.com/https://christinavantzou.bandcamp.com/https://rvng.bandcamp.com/

WhiteLabRecs

This featured album quite notably falls outside the norm for the typical featured album and artist segments on The Relay Station, in that instead of highlighting the amazing work of a single artist or the collaboration between a few, I want to take this opportunity to celebrate an entire community of artists that have garnered quite the love and respect from me as a fellow musician in the ambient community. WhiteLabRecs, is an independent record label that was established in 2016 in Lincolnshire of the United Kingdom, and specializes in limited edition vinyl-effect CDrs and digital editions. Founded by Harry Towell, who also records music under the name Glåsbird, WhiteLabRecs supports artists in the drone, modern classical, and electro-acoustic sub-genres within the greater ambient music genre. As part of their celebration of ten years as a label, they’ve released this beautiful 9-song collection of works from artists like Gustav Davidsson, Clariloops, and Andrew Heath to name just a few. “Shades” is a gorgeous tapestry of tracks with soft crackles and particulates, delicately worn tape loops, meditative drone swells, pensive melodic instrumentation, garnishes of ornate minimalism, and pretty much everything we’ve all come to love about the ambient genre. It’s for their dedication and artistry that I wanted to honor WhiteLabRecs and their tenth anniversary. From the WhiteLabRecs compilation album “Shades”, here’s Andrew Heath with the track “The Zener Convention”, here on The Relay Station.

Complete list of artists appearing on “Shades”: Dan Y Wernen, Blochemy, Clariloops, Andrew Heath, Sven Laux, Adrian Lane, Gustav Davidsson, and Glåsbird.

https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [00:01:32] “St. Birinus” by Justin Amphlett from “Sleeplaboratory6.0” (WhiteLabRecs, 2026)

* [00:04:26] “a resting place” by tom eaton from “FOUND: Collected Singles 2024-2025” (Independent, 2025)

* [00:08:16] “Your Mind Is Like the Ocean” by Hiroshi Ebina from “On Solitude” (Kitchen Label, 2026)

* [00:11:34] Featured Artist Segment

* [00:13:56] “Film Still / The Sea” by Félicia Atkinson & Christina Vantzou from “Reflections Vol. 3: Water Poems” (RVNG Intl., 2026)

* [00:19:22] “Entre Ruidos” by Roxani Chatzidimitriou from “Entre Ruidos (single)” (Independent, 2025)

* [00:25:00] “Discovery” by Alanna Crouch from “Fragments” (Bigo and Twigetti, 2025)

* [00:28:20] “Morning at the Edge of Days” by Mike Lazarev from “Gradiscence” (Bigo and Twigetti, 2026)

* [00:30:37] Featured Artist Segment

* [00:32:41] “The Zener Convention” by Andrew Heath from “Shades” (WhiteLabRecs, 2026)

* [00:40:28] “Ethereal” by Lunar Ipona & Jakob Nord from “Silverlake” (Independent, 2026)

* [00:43:30] “Whispers of Hope” by Ancient Astronaut from “New Sincerity” (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [00:47:26] “Timeless Azure” by Chromocode from “Timeless Azure” (Cosmicleaf Records, 2026)

* [00:55:18] “late afternoon” by Peter Bark from “time shelter” (Sound Ghost, 2025)

Become a supporter today!

Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

Plus new music from City of Dawn & Eddy Ruyter, Wil Bolton & David Cordero, Shinren, David Aimone and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Tristan Allen

Tristan Allen is a one-of-a-kind artist, a unique individual with a universe of imagination unfolding through their dreamlike amalgamation of enchanting cinematic music with marionette-style puppetry and other-worldly prop, set, and lighting design. While I generally showcase an artist’s music and the journey from conception to execution, it’s hard to not talk about Allen’s music without talking about the imaginative, highly creative worlds that they build around each and every composition. In fact, to use words like imaginative or creative feel like a discredit to the level of genius with which they express their ideas. To paint a more vivid picture of Allen’s music and imagination, one might think of them as the convergence of the minds of Jim Henson for his mastery and innovation in puppetry, Joe Hisaishi and his imaginative compositional work with Studio Ghibli films, the creative direction of Travis Knight with his amazing film Kubo and the Two Strings, to name just a few. “Act I: Garden” marks the entry into the mythic world of Tristan Allen’s new album “Osni the Flare”. The song begins in a hush, intimate and wispy, before opening into densely layered sound design, with scattered textures picked up by the wind and pulling toward a full form. The album expands from a childlike fairytale into something stranger and rich in mystique, drawing listeners and viewers from the familiar into Allen’s fantastical and deeply imaginative world. You almost can’t experience the music alone without the artistry of the visual story that they tell through puppetry, the folklore inspired set design, and the magical lighting that brings it all together. From the album “Osni the Flare” here’s Tristan Allen with the track “Act 1: Garden”, here on The Relay Station

https://tristan-allen.bandcamp.com/https://rvng.bandcamp.com/

XII Sound

Sound designer Alison DeVille, who operates under the moniker “XII Sound” has released what I believe to be the most imaginative field recording-based album that I’ve heard in my lifetime with their five-song EP “Tube V” released on Driftworks. “Tube V” provides an extremely vivid portrayal of traveling London’s Underground with immersive compositions that explore the intersection of urban and industrial environments, and the natural world — blending ambient textures with personal experience to produce something both musical and moving. DeVille writes, “It’s difficult to know when my phobia of the Tube began. But at some point, something changed, and I began to experience an increasing dread of the Tube. Something about the very shape of it – the enclosure, the beneath-the-ground feeling, the crush of people – and soon, getting stuck in tunnels even for a few minutes would cause me to break out in a sweat. I have noticed that the Tube, with its long windpipe, is a singer like me. At times in ‘Tube V’, I sing a duet with it. I wanted to mix natural sounds into the industrial so that you are not always sure what is a natural sound and what is mechanical or human-made (is it a voice or is it a train?). Almost like mixing paints to form new colours, I mixed these sounds perhaps to find my way back to nature, and to ease that grief of urban disconnection.” Tube V is a sonic maelstrom, a tidal wave of cleverly manipulated sounds and environmental textures — a totally immersive journey on the world’s oldest underground system. It is incredibly dynamic, hard hitting, and at times beautiful. From their album “Tube V”, here’s XII Sound with the title track “Tube V”, here on The Relay Station.

https://driftworks.bandcamp.com/

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:34] “Labyrinth of Air” by City of Dawn & Eddy Ruyter from “Silfira” (Heart Dance Records, 2026)

* [05:00] “As if It Has Already Happened” by Wil Bolton & David Cordero from “How to Make Sense of Downtime” (Home Normal, 2026)

* [08:50] “The Blue (Part 1 & 2)” by Shinren from “The Blue (single)” (Independent, 2025)

* [13:33] Featured Artist Segment

* [16:07] “Act I: Garden” by Tristan Allen from “Osni the Flare” (RVNG Intl, 2026)

* [21:14] “Hall of Columns” by David Aimone from “Eulogy for an American Dream” (Passed Recordings, 2026)

* [28:35] “Space Station Sanctuary” by Dino Pacifici & Brannan Lane from “Imaginary Horizons 2” (Wayfarer Music Group, 2026)

* [32:24] “Acacia” by Theddra from “Inland Sea” (Mare Nostrum, 2026)

* [35:13] Featured Artist Segment

* [37:44] “Tube V” by XII Sound from “Tube V” (Driftworks, 2026)

* [40:38] “Oblique part seven” by yyate from “Société oblique” (Perceptual Tapes, 2025)

* [43:54] “Brittany Pt. IV” by C-Shape from “Brittany” (Independent, 2025)

* [50:03] “39°02’38.7”“N 95°12’21.5”“W” by Austin Williamson + Blanket Swimming from “Horizons” (Dragon’s Eye Recordings, 2026)

* [55:38] “Put Down Your Weapons (a protest song by Annie Schlaefer, Remixed by Stolace)” by Stolace from “Put Down Your Weapons (single)” (Stolace Music, 2026)

Free music download!

As my thanks to you for being a devoted listener, I’d like to provide you a free copy of my latest single “Put Down Your Weapons”, a remix of Annie Schalefer’s ICE protest song that’s been making the rounds in Minneapolis. Enjoy! (To download, view on the web, not in the app)

If you’d like to show your support for the citizens of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, please consider giving to any of the Minneapolis food shelves, to rent assistance programs like any of these fundraisers going to assist at-risk persons held up in their apartments, unable to leave for fear of detainment.

Become a supporter today!

Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [00:00:50] “Sunshine City” by Sebby Kowal from “A Brand New Day” (Ambient Cat, 2025)

* [00:08:56] “Nom Oublie” by Alexis Delozanne from “Acclimatation” (Whitelabrecs, 2025)

* [00:12:00] “Airliner (with Hollie Kenniff) [Slowed-Reverbed-Dubbed-Embellished by Stolace)” by Kilometre Club from “An Alphabet Of Distance (Deluxe Expanded Edition)” (Imaginary North, 2025)

* [00:16:24] “Genesis” by Guentner + Spieth from “Conversion” (Affin, 2025)

* [00:23:26] “Demande Deux” by Akhira Sano from “D-R” (Laaps Records, 2025)

* [00:32:08] “Development 2: Motion” by Six Missing & Patrik Berg Almkvisth from “Developments (EP)” (Nettwerk Music Group, 2026)

* [00:36:01] “Devine Rising” by Naneum from “Dreams Remembered Pt. II” (Heart Dance Records, 2025)

* [00:38:26] “Donde nadie escucha” by Pepo Galán & David Cordero from “Música Invisible” (David Cordero & No Ray Records, 2026)

* [00:45:00] SIDE B

* [00:45:00] “Thesis” by Silence & The Unwinking Minds from “Emulsion” (Soundghost, 2025)

* [00:49:05] “Solitude” by Andrew Heath and Mi Cosa de Resistance from “Land” (Driftworks, 2026)

* [00:54:54] “Daydreaming” by Ancient Astronaut from “Daydreaming” (Ambient Cat Records, 2026)

* [00:57:58] “Aspen Grove” by Steve Pacheco from “Isla’s Calm Cloud” (WhiteLabRecs, 2026)

* [01:07:28] “Xaipe (Markus Guentner version)” by Benoît Pioulard from “Stanza IV” (Disques d’Honoré/Independent, 2025)

* [01:12:58] “the grove” by anthéne & simon mccorry from “wellspring” (Home Normal, 2025)

* [01:17:10] “Beneath the Shade of Trees” by HERE from “Hues of Amber & Rose” (Whitelabrecs, 2025)

* [01:20:44] “Moving, So Slowly” by Thme from “Isla’s Calm Cloud” (WhiteLabRecs, 2026)

* [01:25:30] “Unseen For The Day” by Mosaicist from “The Fog Is Lifting” (WhiteLabRecs, 2025)

Plus new music from Swoop and Cross, The Volume Settings Folder, Rhucle & Arbee, Ulises Labaronnie and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Craven Faults

Following the 2020 debut of Erratics & Unconformities and their 2023 release Standers, Craven Faults is back with their third full-length, double LP release — and it’s an absolute banger of an album that quite instantly made my list of essential albums for 2026. “Sidings” is an eight-song album from Yorkshire-based electronic artist Craven Faults that has an unambiguous thematic posture, vividly capturing the post-industrial landscapes of northern England — beautiful rolling hills and rocky outcroppings, ravaged and despoiled by England’s mid-20th century engineering aspirations. Each track is a slow-sprawling tapestry of richly layered analog electronic synthesis, drawing on influences from the global underground music and arts scene, tracing its roots back to the old mills of Yorkshire where Craven Faults calls home. Every generative note, every unfurling sequence, every evolving phrase builds upon itself and heaps more upon the landscape of the album, mirroring the industrial ambitions of steel production, railway development, and precision manufacturing in the north of England. The album is a masterful time capsule capturing this revolution in engineering in Yorkshire’s history, a masterpiece that deserves a spot in your music library. From the album “Sidings” here’s Craven Faults with the track “Incline Huttes”, here on The Relay Station.

https://cravenfaults.bandcamp.com/https://theleaflabel.bandcamp.com/

Rotating Tapes

Rotating Tapes is an ambient artist from the north of Ireland that I’ve come to know over the past couple years and have been watching his evolution closely ever since the debut of his album “1” on Bandcamp in February of 2024. When I received word from him that he was releasing his third album, you’d think that it was Christmas all over again, rushing right out to reserve my copy. Though I’m sure he’d be content for the album to remain understated, I can’t help but to boast about its beauty. “3” is a dreamy ambient meandering through the mind and musical esthetic of Rotating Tapes. The entire album is thoughtful and sincere, richly layered with starry-eyed dreams carried aloft with a lightly opaque, mist-like veneer of soft noise, and ornately peppered with minimalist felted piano that gracefully dots the landscape with its warmth and subdued edges. Every time I listen to the album, there’s this feeling of emotional weightlessness, drifting at the slow pace of a gently lifting fog. I want a vinyl copy of this album more than you know — but for now I’ll have to settle for the digital album on Bandcamp, and I highly encourage you to check out the album for yourself. From his album “3”, here’s Rotating Tapes with the track “Du är min värld”, here on The Relay Station.

https://rotatingtapes.bandcamp.com

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:32] “Fenestra” by Swoop and Cross from “On the Grounds of Indecency” (Perceptual Tapes, 2025)

* [05:11] “Burning Waters Pt 2” by The Volume Settings Folder from “Corporate Shamanism” (WhiteLabRecs, 2025)

* [10:50] “Mournful Sky” by Rhucle & Arbee from “Plain” (No Ray Records, 2026)

* [13:14] Featured Artist Segment

* [15:16] “Incline Huttes” by Craven Faults from “Sidings” (Craven Faults / The Leaf Label, 2026)

* [21:32] “A deep green” by Ulises Labaronnie from “Cycles de Mémoire” (Cyclical Dreams, 2026)

* [24:24] “Awakening of the Hollow One” by Piscean Daydreams and Michael D. Tidwell from “Ghost, Vol. 2” (Independent, 2026)

* [27:30] “The Sound Leaves (excerpt)” by Brad Rose from “The Sound Leaves” (Room 40, 2026)

* [33:04] Featured Artist Segment

* [35:08] “Du är min värld” by Rotating Tapes from “3” (Independent, 2026)

* [44:40] “Ultraviolet” by Dionisaf from “Fractals” (Ambient Cat Records, 2026)

* [53:21] “Invisible Lightning” by Robert Rich & Markus Reuter from “Incubation” (Robert Rich, Markus Reuter, Amoeba Music, and All Matter In The Universe,, 2025)

Become a supporter today!

Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

In other news in the ambient world

Clarice Jensen on tour, stops at Minneapolis at The Cedar

This past Monday evening, Clarice stopped by The Cedar Cultural Center on her tour and gave us the performance of a lifetime — it was absolutely sublime and a masterful performance of live-looped cello. If you’re able to see her on the remainder of her tour, make it a priority! Upcoming dates include Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, plus a tour with My Chemical Romance through the US, UK, and the EU. You can find more details at claricejensen.com and read about my reflections on her performance, plus view a few photos and a video clip of her improvisational performance. She really was stunning!

Dobrawa Czocher’s “State of Matter” now out

In the running theme of ambient cello, Dobrawa Czocher has released her LP “State of Matter” through FatCat Records, and it’s absolutely stunning — in fact I’d love to see a Czocher and Jensen collab…and while we’re at it get Isabel Pine in the mix, too. Czocher has collaborated with Hania Rani, one of my first exposures to her music and found her to be a captivating cellist.

Tristan Allen’s “Osni the Flare” now available

Available on limited edition vinyl and CD, Tristan Allen’s imaginative LP “Osni the Flare” is out now, an album that helps paint the mystical world they create through puppetry, creative set design, and mystique-filled lighting. You can listen to their album here:

Inner Spaces — the music of Amir ElSaffar and Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch

The Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis brings about some of the most unique and inventive artists from around the globe. Coming this summer is the amazing collaboration between Amir ElSaffar (trumpet, hammered dulcimer, and vocals) and electronic artist Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch. I found a video of a performance between the two of them and was absolutely blown away. Set aside some time and watch this stunning performance from this duo, blending the traditional sounds of the Middle East and modern electronic sensibilities.

The Relay Station Mix Tape Vol. 003 dropping March 31st

The third volume in the Relay Station ambient mix tape series drops this week, and I think you’re going to love what I’ve got in store for you. Watch your email for the new volume publishing out later this week!

https://therelaystation.substack.com/p/mix-tape-vol-003

In this program, I’ve got the new album from Japanese pianist and composer Marika Takaeuchi and her memorable neoclassical expressions of loss and wonder woven throughout her new six song LP “Iridescence”, and Norwegian independent ambient artist Lunar Ipona graces our presence with his new expressive album “Fragments”, serving as a fantastic introduction to this new and emerging ambient artist.

Plus music from Piscean Daydreams, Ethan Syann, Chihei Hatakeyama & Jupi/ter and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Marika Takeuchi

Japanese pianist and composer Marika Takeuchi returns to the neoclassical scene with a new album that has absolutely rocked my world. Currently based in Los Angeles, she writes music for film, commercials, music libraries, and video games in addition to her own recordings in the modern classical music genre. Following up her 2024 release “Wandering Notes”, Takeuchi lays out the emotive and transfixing new album “Iridescence” — a six song LP that reflects on loss juxtaposition to the seemingly fixed and unmovable giants of nature that stand equanimous and unmoved by our troubles. Takeuchi writes, “This EP was inspired by the beautiful scenery of Dolomites in northern Italy and a life event that happened to me there... I experienced a loss and was devastated... But the mountains were standing majestically like nothing had happened, and the contrast between the sadness and the beautiful views was something absolutely unforgettable.” Takeuchi’s command of the piano is powerful yet delicate and sensitive, her orchestral arrangements elevating yet poignant and somber — and the manner in which it all comes together in the end leaves you both breathless and pensive. From her album “Iridescence”, here’s Marika Takaeuchi with the track “Returning”, here on The Relay Station.

https://marika-takeuchi.comhttps://bigoandtwigetti.bandcamp.com

Lunar Ipona

Norwegian electronic musician Lukas Ranum Brandt-Gravesen is a newcomer to the Relay Station and an independent ambient musician with promise. While some albums come my way, professionally produced and with the backing and support of a label or a large community of musicians, others come in simply expressing the heart and soul of independent artists, offering their gift back to the universe and to us lucky souls that get to hear their work. Brandt-Gravesen who operates under the name “Lunar Ipona” has released his sixth album on Bandcamp, entering the scene just two years ago with his first single “this is what insomnia feels like.” His new album “Fragments”, though quite simply noted as an exploration of the potential of his Nord Stage keyboard, feels more like witnessing his musical coming of age, like an open invitation to see the world through his eyes and his experiences. This nine-song release is pleasantly melodic at times, laced with soft textures and sweeping synthetic layers, and it’s ornately imbued with wide spatial instrumentation, comforting low end, and a range of spaces — each offering a unique glimpse into his esthetic. I look forward to hearing where his musical journeys take him next, and I encourage you to come along for the ride. From his album “Fragments” here’s Lunar Ipona with the track “c33”, here on The Relay Station.

https://lunaripona.bandcamp.com

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:26] “Neptune’s Requiem (feat. Edoardo Gastaldi)” by Piscean Daydreams from “Unidentified Ambient Phenomena, Vol. 2” (Ambient Cat, 2026)

* [05:41] “IV” by Ethan Syann from “Farewell To The Night” (Iikki, 2025)

* [08:18] “Idyll” by Chihei Hatakeyama & Jupi/ter from “Canopy / Idyll” (Ambientologist, 2025)

* [15:12] Featured Artist Segment

* [17:16] “Returning” by Marika Takeuchi from “Iridescence” (Bigo and Twigetti, 2026)

* [19:56] “Pagan” by BK Pepper from “Pagan” (Bigo and Twitgetti?, 2025)

* [22:40] “Esplanade” by Harry Towell & Guy Gelem from “Isla’s Calm Cloud” (WhiteLabRecs, 2026)

* [25:48] “2,1” by Clarice Jensen from “In Holiday Clothing, Out Of The Great Darkness” (FatCat / 130701, 2025)

* [29:51] Featured Artist Segment

* [31:51] “c33” by Lunar Ipona from “fragments” (Independent, 2026)

* [34:58] “Something in the Air” by Le Code from “Something in the Air” (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [40:12] “Fireflies” by Dionisaf from “Skazka” (Ambient Cat, 2025)

* [47:40] “What Is Left” by Catherine Tang from “Where Do Your Dreams Fly?” (WhiteLabRecs, 2025)

* [52:21] “Geomagnetic Chants” by Boreal Taiga from “Guovssahas - The Light You Can Here” (Wayfarer Music Group, 2026)

Become a supporter today!

Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

Plus new music from Altus, RL Huber, Hania Rani, Rafael Anton Irisarri and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Grant Beasley

Grant Beasley is an ambient and electronic musician from Sunderland in the United Kingdom — a musician whose focus is fixated with space-inspired soundscapes and sequences crafted entirely with hardware synthesizers. His music and distinctive style is richly layered with atmospheric pads, evolving sequences, and deep synthetic bass foundations — there’s a sense of movement, evolution, and the unfolding sequence of events. “The Vanishing Point” is Beasley’s sixth release, but marks his debut with Cyclical Dreams and their rich catalog of artists and releases. The entire album is a masterful amalgamation of analog synthesizers — with Beasley at the helm, commanding the diverse sounds, layers, and sequences to take you beyond a mere destination, but is the package deal. It is the targeted destination, the vehicle to transport you to distant worlds, the seasoned pilot to navigate the uncharted terrain, and the gateway to a new experience upon your arrival. It’s more than just an album, more than just a listening experience — it’s an exotic, space-filled escapade just waiting for you to press play. From his album “The Vanishing Point”, here’s Grant Beasley with the track “Zero Point”, here on The Relay Station.

https://grantbeasley.bandcamp.com/https://www.cyclicaldreams.com/

Chronos

Nick Klimenko, who operates under the name Chronos, is a curator of sorts with a museum filled with over 190 hardware- and 160 software- based tools, all under one roof. At his disposal are an impressive collection of classic, rare, vintage, and old-school Soviet synthesizers packed into his museum in the Chekov district in Moscow. Klimenko’s new release “Synthesizer Museum Live” showcases a live performance of many of these instruments dating as far back as 1978, exploring a truly fascinating vista of synthetic sound, dramatic rhythmic sequences, and expressive uses of classic old school analog and digital synthesizers — it’s truly something to behold. “Synthesizer Museum Live” is filled with creative sequencing and imaginative blends of different voices, textures, and patterns, harkening back to my formative years of late Sunday nights listening to Hearts of Space, or getting lost in an early era Alan Parsons album, dreaming of far-off distant lands beckoning me to come and explore through the gateway of my imagination. It’s an album that synthesizer enthusiasts simply cannot miss. From his album “Synthesizer Museum Live”, here’s Chronos with the track “Gamma Tauri”, here on The Relay Station.

https://chronosmusic.bandcamp.com/https://cosmicleaf.bandcamp.com/

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:34] "Misled Fervour" by Altus from "Symphony for the Sullen" (Independent, 2026)

* [04:27] "Contemplating Flight" by RL Huber from "Themisto" (Independent, 2026)

* [06:52] "Sentimental Value" by Hania Rani from "Sentimental Value" (Gondwana Records, 2026)

* [11:24] Featured Artist Segment

* [13:12] "Zero Point" by Grant Beasley from "The Vanishing Point" (Cyclical Dreams, 2025)

* [21:45] "Breaking the Unison" by Rafael Anton Irisarri from "Points of Inaccessibility" (Black Knoll Editions, 2026)

* [26:37] "As If A Phantom" by Ah! Kosmos & Hainbach from "As If A Phantom (single)" (FUU, 2025)

* [30:22] "Jardins Désertés (1981) (radio edit)" by Costin Miereanu from "Poly-Art Recordings 1976-1982" (Poly-Art International ⁄ Records, 2025)

* [36:30] Featured Artist Segment

* [38:33] "Gamma Tauri" by Chronos from "Synthesizer Museum Live" (Cosmic Leaf, 2025)

* [48:52] "Luz Inexacta" by Pepo Galán & David Cordero from "Música Invisible" (David Cordero & No Ray Records, 2026)

* [54:18] "Music for Migraines (Part 11) (Dionisaf Tape Rework)" by KapTep & Brannan Lane from "Music for Migraines, Vol. 2" (Chitra Records, 2026)

Become a supporter today!

Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

Plus new music from Silence & The Unwinking Minds, Aries Mond, øjeRum, Mr Kit and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

David Cordero

David Cordero is an an ambient musician hailing from Cádiz, Spain, situated in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, and is busy as they come with his time split between his musical ambitions as a prolific ambient musician with roughly 50 releases to his name, and is the driving force behind the ambient music label No Ray Records. He’s the sort of artist that devotes much patience and dedication to his work, as is reflected in his newest release, “Numen”. In Cordero’s own words, “’Numen’ is built upon silence, textures, and suspended atmospheres. Inspired by minimalism, the album explores delicacy and transience... each piece inviting a serene listening experience, opening a contemplative space where the invisible resonates between notes.” And that’s no exaggeration — “Numen” is in absolutely no hurry to express itself, with meditatively slow atmospheric blooms of warm sound, introspective field recordings that help one settle in for the listening experience, and minimalist modular synthesis. In some respects the album bears all the hallmarks of Japanese minimalist ambient music, where the pace of the music’s evolution is like watching a flower unfold to greet the day — and the beauty is well worth the wait. From his album “Numen”, here’s David Cordero with the track “Suspensión”, here on The Relay Station.

https://davidcordero.bandcamp.com/https://norayrecords.bandcamp.com/

CoH & Wladimir Schall

Electronic music polymath Ivan Pavlov (who operates under the project name CoH) and composer, orchestrator, and Musique Concretist Wladimir Schall have teamed up to create a truly unique listening escapade through their Hallow Ground release, “COVERS”. Although an homage to John Everall and Erik Satie, these two multi-faceted artists were not content to merely reinterpret the works of Everall and Satie, but made it their goal to re-imagine their works. This seven-song album was conceived as a series of maneuvers with an ambition to expose the machinery of music in detail and with utter honesty, without making up for the faults of its traditional instruments or of the compositions themselves. The pieces are more than just musical compositions, they are Pavlov’s and Schall’s free-spirited exploration of the relationship between composed sound, abrasive textures, sonic spatial relationships, and the ephemeral space between each musical choice they make. It’s an imaginative amalgamation of neoclassical sensibilities with experimental and avant-garde sound design. Their use of soft noise, minimalist piano motifs, gritty 8-bit like textures, and the wide stereoscopic range makes for a listening experience that I’m certain would captivate the attention of both Everall and Satie — and certainly has left me enamored with their level of imagination and freedom to explore without inhibition. From their album “COVERS”, here’s CoH and Wladimir Schall with the track “Merry Xmas Mr Erik”, here on The Relay Station.

https://cohemego.bandcamp.com/https://wladimir.bandcamp.com/https://hallowground.bandcamp.com/

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:32] "Orator" by Silence & The Unwinking Minds from "Emulsion" (Soundghost, 2025)

* [05:28] "Edge Angles" by Aries Mond from "Edge Angles" (Whitelabrecs, 2025)

* [09:37] "Født Af Ukendt Sol" by øjeRum from "Ensomheden Vi Deler" (IIKKI, 2025)

* [13:24] Featured Artist Segment

* [15:17] "Suspensión" by David Cordero from "Numen" (No Ray Records, 2025)

* [18:25] "Visits From The Shadow" by Mr Kit from "Glimmers" (Heart Dance Records, 2025)

* [20:13] "I'll Stay With You Tonight" by Diogene & Le Code from "Back Together" (Mare Nostrum, 2025)

* [23:46] "Mirach" by Christian Wittman from "Andromeda" (Independent, 2026)

* [29:34] Featured Artist Segment

* [31:38] "MERRY XMAS MR ERIK" by CoH & Wladimir Schall from "COVERS" (Hallow Ground, 2025)

* [36:56] "Chapter V – Discipline" by Michael D. Tidwell and Piscean Daydreams from "Natura" (Independent / Identity Music, 2025)

* [41:47] "Cascades (Horizon)" by Jason van Wyk from "Horizon" (n5MD, 2025)

* [46:22] "Oneiric" by Offthesky from "Nocturnas" (Laaps Records, 2025)

* [54:08] "Modus Operandi" by Sun Rain from "Solar Return: Gollden Hour Mix" (Imaginary North Records, 2025)

Addressing the issue of Carbon emissions and global climate change

Global CO₂ emissions reached a record high of 37.8 billion metric tons (Gt CO₂) in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), driven primarily by rising use of natural gas (up 2.5%) and coal (up 0.9%), particularly in China, India, and the United States.

Emissions from fossil fuel combustion grew by 1% in 2024, while industrial process emissions declined slightly. Despite progress in clean energy deployment, emissions continue to outpace natural carbon sinks, with about half of human-caused CO₂ emissions absorbed by oceans and land ecosystems, leaving the rest to accumulate in the atmosphere.

Atmospheric CO₂ levels hit a new record high of 422.7 parts per million (ppm) in 2024, up 3.75 ppm from 2023—the largest annual increase ever recorded.

This reflects a 50% rise since pre-industrial times (1750), with carbon dioxide now 150% higher than in 1750, far exceeding natural increases seen during the end of the last ice age.

Top contributors to atmospheric CO₂:

* China: Largest annual emitter, with emissions growing 0.4% in 2024, driven by heatwaves, industrial growth, and energy demand.

* United States: Second-largest emitter, with emissions down 0.5% in 2024 due to declining coal use, but natural gas emissions rose.

* India: Fastest-growing emitter among major economies, with a 5.3% increase in 2024, driven by economic expansion and extreme heat.

Join me in supporting these and other highly effective, highly rated organizations that are tackling climate change-related issues. You can also learn more about how you can take practical steps in reducing your own emissions — beyond using reusable grocery bags and energy-efficient lightbulbs. Those are good things, but not nearly enough. Learn more at stolace.com/sustainability.

Other happenings in ambient music

Have you seen Abul Mogard’s collaboration with Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin at Haus des Rundfunks, Berlin? Amazing. Simply amazing. I only wish that it was longer than three minutes and the entirety of the performance.

Related to Abul Mogard, he’s issuing his first physical edition of In a Few Places Along the River as a limited run of 500 vinyl copies. Originally released digitally in 2022, the album now appears in its intended form.

Three long pieces, composed between 2019 and 2022, emerged from Mogard’s meticulous experimentation with analogue and digital instruments. Slowly evolving harmonic fields of layered drones and spectral textures drift across the record, enhanced by reverb from Scotland’s Inchindown oil tanks, which hold the longest reverberation of any man-made structure, giving the music a haunting resonance and a sense of suspended space.

If you were a fan of his album “Quiet Pieces” but failed to get one of the 500 physical copies on vinyl, you can find more copies here at Forced Exposure.

Hammock releases new Blood Moon track

If you’re at all actively following Hammock, this is old news by now. But this past week they released a new single entitled Blood Moon 03.03.26 and released it along with previous Blood Moon tracks.

Steve Roach’s “Sentient Being”

Another great album that’s passed through my feed recently is the new Steve Roach album “Sentient Being”, rich with slow swells and mid/low-range drone goodness.

Isabel Pine’s “Fables” is divine!

If you love string instrument-based ambient and neoclassical music, you’re going to love this one — “Fables” from Isabel Pine. This album crossed my desk and am absolutely loving it — so much so, that I had to own the vinyl!

Become a supporter today!

Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

Plus new music from Rotating Tapes, Akhira Sano, HLow, miska lamberg and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Neighborhood Libraries

Taylor Swindells, the brainchild behind the project name “Neighborhood Libraries” has a sensational new ambient album out now on the Nettwerk Music Group label. While in the throes of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Swindells made a fundamental shift from his indie rock band The Tourist Company, to the advent of his ambient project Neighborhood Libraries. On this change, he wrote: “As the world shut down, I didn’t have the brain space for lyrics anymore. So I dove into this world headfirst, and I’ve been immersed in it ever since.” Marking his third release, the ten-song album “In Our Wake” takes on a metaphorical angle, reflecting on the accumulation of our past experiences and their contribution to where we find ourselves at this present date. Throughout the album Swindells cultivates the motif of a pool of reflective water, with each sound, phrase, and expression being a ripple passing through our life — an experience of change, shifts in perspective, and the evolution of time — revealing new beauty with each passing moment in our lives. “In Our Wake” has this calm, pensive, and mesmerizing quality woven throughout, like truly being lost in thought as one gazes out onto a body of water. It’s dreamy, laced with gentle reverbs and delays, uplifting instrumental phrases, and an undercurrent of hope and optimism — something we could all use more of. From his album “In Our Wake”, here’s Neighborhood Libraries with the track “The Wind Searches for a Weakness”, here on The Relay Station.

https://neighborhoodlibraries.bandcamp.comhttps://nettwerk.bandcamp.com

Mosaicist

Mosaicist is the ambient music project of Adrian Newton, an environmental sound artist based in Dorset of the United Kingdom. Newton makes his WhiteLabRecs debut with his new album “The Fog Is Lifting” — a beautiful mosaic of found sounds, field recordings, and improvisational ambient music with a variety of electronic instruments. They commented on how this album drew inspiration from the words of Japanese poet Basho: “I loved the idea of a moment in time, when the shapes of the landscape around you are gradually being revealed, as the fog dissolves away. A moment of increasing clarity, as the mist dissipates. Suggesting a transition; a moment of hope, even joy.” The album “The Fog Is Lifting” truly matches the experience of watching the landscape slowly being revealed as the sun begins to cause the fog to lift — opaque, densely layered textures give way to fragments of melodic motifs that emerge at an unhurried pace, gradually shifting, changing, and evolving in varying degrees of subtlety. Between the wide stereoscopic field recordings, the soft textures, the deeply soothing drones, the interjection of minimalist piano melodies, and tranquil atmospheric phrases — this album is serene from start to finish. From the album “The Fog Is Lifting”, here’s Mosaicist with the track “Shrouded in Dense Fog”, here on The Relay Station

https://evergreenmusic1.bandcamp.comhttps://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:36] "Såsom" by Rotating Tapes from "3" (Independent, 2026)

* [05:47] "Réponse Deux" by Akhira Sano from "D-R" (Laaps Records, 2025)

* [10:36] "Shore of my heart" by HLow from "Dive In - Chapter 8" (Mare Nostrum, 2025)

* [13:31] Featured Artist Segment

* [15:37] "The Wind Searches for a Weakness" by Neighborhood Libraries from "In Our Wake" (Nettwerk Music Group, 2025)

* [19:35] "I remember the day the world lost color" by miska lamberg from "Evening, window" (Dragon's Eye Recordings, 2026)

* [24:32] "Knowhere (Zen Lemon Remix)" by KapTep & Sebby Kowal from "Ambient Cat Remixes, Vol. 2" (Ambient Cat Records, 2025)

* [29:12] "m12" by Lunar Ipona from "fragments" (Independent, 2026)

* [31:12] Featured Artist Segment

* [33:06] "Shrouded In Dense Fog" by Mosaicist from "The Fog Is Lifting" (WhiteLabRecs, 2025)

* [38:25] "Tovya's Star" by Interstellar Messenger from "Beyond Frontiers" (Cosmic Leaf Records, 2026)

* [45:57] "Ashes" by Logic Moon from "Ashes" (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [49:41] "Emble" by Inn Comming from "Revolt" (Independent, 2025)

* [55:49] "Kaldsår" by Glåsbird from "Isla's Calm Cloud" (WhiteLabRecs, 2026)

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Playlist ///

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [00:00:50] “In a studded procession” by Abul Mogard from “Quiet Pieces” (Soft Echoes, 2025)

* [00:08:09] “Go Slowly, Slowly Go (with E J R M)” by Kilometre Club from “An Alphabet Of Distance (Deluxe Expanded Edition)” (Imaginary North, 2025)

* [00:11:07] “Mount Famine” by The Deccan Traps from “Sentinel of the Moors” (Whitelabrecs, 2025)

* [00:17:05] “West Hunter” by Akira Film Script from “Sleeplaboratory6.0” (WhiteLabRecs, 2026)

* [00:21:23] “destiny #1” by Gollden from “Solar Return: Gollden Hour Mix” (Imaginary North Records, 2025)

* [00:24:39] “Velvet City” by Le Code from “Something in the Air” (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [00:28:00] “Stargazing” by Sun Echo from “Stargazing” (Signal Alchemy, 2025)

* [00:30:46] “Because Spring Has Come” by Mosaicist from “The Fog Is Lifting” (WhiteLabRecs, 2025)

* [00:35:28] “Leaves Remain Drifting” by Michael D. Tidwell & Dellasollounge from “Utopia” (Independent, 2025-06-10)

* [00:38:50] “Unseen Footprints” by The Bird’s Companion from “A Place Outside of Time” (Whitelabrecs, 2025)

* [00:45:00] SIDE B

* [00:45:01] “Development 4: The Shape of Leaving” by Six Missing & Patrik Berg Almkvisth from “Developments (EP)” (Nettwerk Music Group, 2026)

* [00:47:52] “the source of everything” by anthéne & simon mccorry from “wellspring” (Home Normal, 2025)

* [00:51:45] “Agrain” by Stokfisz from “Strona B” (Arise Rekordz, 2025)

* [00:54:24] “The Wintr” by Logic Moon from “Ashes” (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [00:58:19] “Lost Signal” by The Silent Tide from “Memories” (Mare Nostrum, 2025)

* [01:00:46] “Many Moons” by Ian Crawford from “Slow Pull on a Long Thread” (Wayfarer, 2025 2025)

* [01:05:17] “Shibui” by City Of Dawn & Rhucle from “Threads” (Aural Canyon Music, 2025)

* [01:09:12] “Stillwaters” by Ghostloop from “Almost Autumn” (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [01:13:54] “Humility Point” by Ozbolt from “Chasyng Drakens” (WhiteLabRecs, 2025)

* [01:19:38] “until the spring (excerpt)” by tom eaton from “FOUND: Collected Singles 2024-2025” (Independent, 2025)

* [01:23:36] “Nowhere Route” by Grant Beasley from “The Vanishing Point” (Cyclical Dreams, 2025)

Plus new music from Richard James Dunn + Talbert Anthony, IKSRE, Alessandro Barbanera, Paperbark and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Help support the artists in this program by sharing this episode with your network of friends and loved ones! Thank you!

Artist information

s28

I’ve always had a soft spot for this next artist — s28 from Augusta, Georgia. They captivated me with my first introduction to them back in 2022 with their album “Meditations” and a year later took me to atmospheric levels of bliss with their space-themed release “TS-12”. s28’s sweet spot is constructing soundscapes for that ephemeral time of day between high moon and daybreak — music with a mix of ambient and atmospheric textures, soft downtempo rhythms, and the esthetic of the thin-aired high country. That’s just what you get with s28’s brand new album “The Plains Behind Us” — this sense of dissipation into the wispy light atmosphere of the alpine range, standing in the midst of passing clouds with that cool mist enveloping you. Each track is like a unique vantage point, looking off onto different directions in the open expanse, each offering a slightly different view into s28’s perspectives as an artist. I particularly appreciated the wide spatial sound beds, the light artifacts of sound gracing the full stereoscopic range, the airy and atmospheric drones, his slow swells of mesmerizing pads, and the diverse spaces that each track inhabits. It’s a nice ride, and I encourage you to come along for it. From the album “The Plains Behind Us”, here’s s28 with the title track, “The Plains Behind Us”, here on The Relay Station

https://s28musicbandcamp.com

Wilson Trouvé

French Composer Wilson Trouvé is a neoclassical instrumentalist inspired by the likes of Erik Satie, Philip Glass, and Ludovico Einaudi and has amassed a generous number of streams on the music services with over 20 million streams to date. Trouvé has a brand new EP that was composed and recorded in his new home in Bali, and he writes, “I created the new EP [sic] after moving here with my Indonesian wife and our two young children, as we began building a new life together. The five felted piano pieces capture the emotions of this transition; hope and inspiration for what lies ahead, but also a quiet nostalgia for what was left behind.” Trouvé captures the pensive state of change and the reflection that it brings. His compositions are delicate, thoughtful, and have an introspective pace about them, each line offering a brief pause, allowing one’s thoughts to linger for a moment longer. In essence this album is the esthetic of sitting on the sofa with your partner, leisurely flipping through a book of memories and photos, and lovingly reflecting on what was, and dreaming about what could be. From his EP, “Delight”, here’s Wilson Trouvé with the track “Dust”, here on The Relay Station.

https://www.wilsontrouve.com/https://bigoandtwigetti.co.uk/

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:25] "Range Vision" by Richard James Dunn + Talbert Anthony from "Raging Ox / Fate's Melody" (Independent, 2025)

* [03:57] "Granite" by IKSRE from "Solar Return: Gollden Hour Mix" (Imaginary North Records, 2025)

* [07:21] "Morning Voices (Pink Dawn Rising)" by Alessandro Barbanera from "Nothing Like Home" (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [13:42] Featured Artist Segment

* [15:40] "The Plains Behind Us" by s28 from "The Plains Behind Us" (Independent, 2025)

* [21:40] "Frailest Beginnings" by Paperbark from "Light Behind Me" (Laaps Records, 2026)

* [27:26] "Transcendental Vision" by Eguana from "Mindflow" (Cosmic Leaf, 2025)

* [35:03] "The Path" by Giuliano Favata from "Inescapable Reality" (Independent, 2025)

* [37:38] Featured Artist Segment

* [39:19] "Dust" by Wilson Trouvé from "Delight" (Bigo and Twigetti, 2025)

* [42:18] "Inheritance" by Alanna Crouch from "Fragments" (Bigo and Twigetti, 2025)

* [44:54] "Meet me After the Apocalypse" by Tim Linghaus from "Future City Ghosts" (Bigo and Twigetti, 2025)

* [47:25] "Dolomites" by Marika Takeuchi from "Iridescence" (Bigo and Twigetti, 2026)

* [50:55] "Displacement (10th Anniversary Reissue)" by Rafael Anton Irisarri from "A Fragile Geography (Reworks)" (Black Knoll Editions, 2025)

* [56:22] "Deliquesce" by Winter Silhouette from "Abstract Is Real" (Ambient Cat, 2025)

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Other happenings in the ambient world

The incomparable Jacob Collier releases a “sleep version” of his emotionally compelling single “Something Heavy”

Jacob Collier is perhaps one of my all-time favorite artists and human beings on planet earth. He’s quite literally one of the few musicians that I know of that can paint vivid colors in the imagination with his spell-binding music. While his music is typically somewhere between the broad strokes of pop, jazz, orchestral, choral, and neo-folk — is there nothing that this guy can’t do? — well now add ambient “sleep music” to his repertoire.

He released an EP this weekend featuring three different versions of his song “Something Heavy”. There’s the standard single, which in itself is a heart-tugging and emotive track, and then there’s the live symphonic experience he performed with an “Audience Symphony Orchestra” in San Francisco, and then this mind-bending ambient version. He continues to amaze me with the sheer volume and depth of beauty that he introduces into the world with his music.

Sebby Kowal takes us to a Glowing Paradise

If Sebby isn’t on your watch list for new music and up-and-coming ambient artists, well it’s time to get with the program. Check out his brand new release “Glowing Paradise”, which dropped with a celebratory listening party this last Friday.

Shades from WhiteLabRecs now out, celebrating 10 years as an ambient label

My dear friends over at WhiteLabRecs are celebrating 10 years as an ambient label, and as part of their celebrations, they’re releasing a compilation album entitled “Shades” featuring music from Low Altitude, Blochemy, Clariloops, Andrew Heath, Sven Laux, Adrian Lane, Gustav Davidsson, and Glåsbird. It’s a delightful listen! Happy tenth anniversary WhiteLabRecs!

Plus new music from David Aimone, dreamwarper, Eguana, Extremis and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Rafael Anton Irisarri

Ibero-American composer and ambient experimentalist Rafael Anton Irisarri has a new EP available now through Black Knoll Editions* that effortlessly transcends ambient, experimental, and modern classical music. Born in Puerto Rico and now based in both Spain and rural New York, he first emerged in Seattle’s 2000s scene under the moniker “The Sight Below”, where blurred guitar textures and submerged rhythms met the skeletal pulses of minimalist techno. Irisarri spent days working alongside Dutch visual artist Jaco Schilp improvising inside the former Pieter Baan Centre in the Netherlands, a psychiatric prison whose charged atmosphere shaped the project’s sound and tone. His new album, “Points of Inaccessibility”, is the resulting work of his contemplation about how disconnection feels in an age obsessed with connectivity. Irisarri writes, “We are constantly online, constantly visible, yet we drift further apart. The real distance isn’t geographic anymore, it’s emotional.” It’s that emotional chasm that he’s consummately encapsulated with broad-sweeping strokes of washed out guitar, slow evolving soundscapes, ghostly textures, veneers of soft noise, and emotionally charged motifs that reflect the strange loneliness that subverts our need for constant connection. In Irisarri’s own words, “a loneliness that hums quietly beneath the surface of everything.” From his EP “Points of Inaccessibility”, here’s Rafael Anton Irisarri with the track “Signals from a Distant Afterglow”, here on The Relay Station.

*Correction: The representing label is Black Knoll Editions. The voiceover for the segment references “Klang Signals” which is the PR firm. The original information provided was unclear as to the representing label.

https://irisarri.bandcamp.com

KMRU

Joseph Kamaru, who operates under the name KMRU, is a Nairobi-born, Berlin-based sound artist whose work is grounded on the discourse of field recording, noise, and sound art. His work makes the case for expanding our listening cultures of sonic thoughts and sound practices, a proposition to consider and reflect on auditory cultures beyond the norms. His work has earned him international acclaim from the likes of Barbican, Berlin Atonal, CTM festival, and more. Kamaru’s latest work “Kin” is a six-song album that explores a noisier palette of sounds encompassing distortions reminiscent of his guitar playing in his younger years. Layered in with that distortion are complementary warm swaying melodies, glaciers of shimmering drones, clouds of shadowy noir, and euphoric electronic storms of sound. It’s an overall esthetic that encourages further investigation with repeated listens — and it’s those additional sessions that brings out subtleties of colors, texture, and nuance — an album that rewards concentration with magic. From his album “Kin”, here’s KMRU with the track “With Trees Where We Can See”, here on The Relay Station.

https://kmru.bandcamp.comhttps://mego.at

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:41] "RainSong" by David Aimone from "Changes" (Passed Recordings, 2025)

* [05:32] "Midnight Oasis" by dreamwarper from "The Truth is Beautiful" (Independent, 2025)

* [11:00] "Transgalactic Silence (Extended version)" by Eguana from "Antimatter Bloom" (Cosmic Leaf Records, 2025)

* [17:28] Featured Artist Segment

* [19:43] "Signals from a Distant Afterglow" by Rafael Anton Irisarri from "Points of Inaccessibility" (Black Knoll Editions, 2026)

* [28:00] "Inside The Static" by Extremis from "Dive In - Chapter 8" (Mare Nostrum, 2025)

* [31:05] "Golden Pond" by Naneum from "Dreams Remembered Pt. II" (Heart Dance Records, 2025)

* [34:17] "Morphia" by Guentner + Spieth from "Conversion" (Affin, 2025)

* [42:42] Featured Artist Segment

* [44:23] "With Trees Where We Can See" by KMRU from "Kin" (Editions Mego, 2026)

* [47:52] "From A to B" by Clarice Jensen from "In Holiday Clothing, Out Of The Great Darkness" (FatCat / 130701, 2025)

* [55:01] "City Of Dawn - Sapphire Hour" by City of Dawn from "Solar Return: Gollden Hour Mix" (Imaginary North Records, 2025)

Become a supporter today!

Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

Plus new music from MICADO, loscil, Paolo Tortora, RL Huber and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

The classically trained American composer and electronic artist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has followed up her critically acclaimed release “GUSH” with a three-song EP that quite nearly leaves me in a state without words — and appropriately so. If you’ve ever had a friend or loved one who is in the throws of grief, you’ve likely experienced the awkward space you hold with that person, unsure of what words to use to make everything feel, well, less painful. But as some of us have experienced, sometimes the best thing to do is sit with them, hold their hand, and just be with them in silence, a heart radiating love and compassion, and holding a quiet space of support for them — so that they know they’re not alone. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has quite masterfully and creatively composed that space for us all with a wide array of analog synthetic sequences, slow and reassuring moments of warm low end, a wide spatial exposition of evolving motifs, and a progressive re-imagination of the classical chamber orchestra in electronic form. The imaginative beauty represented here cannot be overstated, and to pass up this opportunity for your own moment of reflection with Smith’s new EP, would be to pass up on a moment of contemplative growth, akin to the feeling of holding space with grief. From her EP “Thoughts on the Future”, here’s Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith with the track “Dying is a Normal Part of Life”, here on The Relay Station.

https://kaitlynaureliasmith.comhttps://nettwerk.bandcamp.com

Stray Theories

New Zealand-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Micah Templeton-Wolfe, who operates under the name “Stray Theories” has a brand new album out on n5MD that for me resides on a scale of immense grandeur, yet is approachable, contemplative, and deeply focused. It reminds me, in a way, of my time in the mountains of the Olympic National Forest in Washington state — surrounded by captivating, majestic, and transcendent beauty — yet ever-mindful and focused, hiking along the narrow crests scaling upwards toward the heavens. Templeton-Wolfe shared how the album “Falter” evokes a dichotomy of experiences and emotions — wavering, hesitation, and uncertainty, with intent, unmistakeable confidence, and purpose. He writes, “Optimism is present, but ever cloaked in doubt; moments of contemplative solace sit side-by-side with streaks of melancholia.” With dramatic cinematic ambient vistas, re-imagined and refined perspectives on neoclassical composition, and soul-stretching and near-spiritual apexes found in the post-rock genre, Stray Theories is your ticket to a mind-altering, transformative listening experience. From their album “Falter”, here’s Stray Theories with the track “Have It All”, here on The Relay Station.

https://straytheoriesmusic.comhttps://n5md.bandcamp.com

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:44] "The Berliner Schule Ambient Dream" by MICADO from "MindScapeS [CYD 0146]" (Cyclical Dreams, 2025)

* [08:52] "Silos" by loscil from "Lake Fire" (kranky, 2025)

* [15:30] "From a Memory Part 2 (excerpt)" by Paolo Tortora from "Waves of Fading Memories" (Torto Editions, 2025)

* [20:32] Featured Artist Segment

* [22:24] "Dying Is A Normal Part Of Life" by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith from "Thoughts On The Future" (Nettwerk Music Group, 2026)

* [28:38] "A Flawed Design" by RL Huber from "Glass House Architecture" (Independent, 2025)

* [32:20] "Under the Stars and Dreaming" by Brannan Lane & Billy Denk from "Celestial Lullaby" (Wayfarer Music Group, 2025)

* [38:32] "Fall Again" by Erik Klinga from "Hundred Tongues" (Thanatosis, 2025)

* [42:10] Featured Artist Segment

* [44:06] "Have It All" by Stray Theories from "Falter" (n5MD, 2026)

* [49:50] "trans𑑒" by Andreas Lutz from "Aura Trans" (Aura Trans, 2025)

* [55:46] "6 am" by Le Code & KapTep from "Urban Garden, Vol. 2" (Ambient Cat Records, 2025)

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Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

In this episode of The Relay Station, there are two albums that are essential listens, each with their own unique approach to textured layers, wide vistas of sound, and intriguing sonic spaces for reflection. My first featured artist is the incomparable Silence and the Unwinking Minds with new music from their album Emulsion — an ambient experience that’s made my essentials list; and later on in the program Ed Herbers with the first in a series of four ambient albums exploring the four seasons — a fantastic listening experience with his gorgeous and innovative approach to ambient music composition.

Plus new music from Stray Theories, Ancient Astronaut, Tim Linghaus, andarctica and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable. Join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Silence and the Unwinking Minds

Let’s talk about one of the recent releases to come from Soundghost Records from US-based artist Silence and the Unwinking Minds — the fruits of composer and producer Derek Pearson. In a vast expanse of ambient and atmospheric music, there are pockets of artists and albums that stand out from the crowd and have something unique to bring to our collective quest to grab hold of the ephemeral and ride the wave of an artist’s imagination. The new album “Emulsion” from Silence and the Unwinking Minds is that oasis in a sea of noise and legitimately finds a spot in my personal list of essential albums in the ambient genre. Pearson graces us with a soft wash of noise, delicate and wide-ranging spectral particulates, the subtle kiss of distressed tape, an embrace of warm ambient guitar, immersive spatial sound beds, and this feeling of being baptized into an all-encompassing vista of warmth, nostalgia, and the stuff of daydreams. In all sincerity, I cannot say enough good things about this album. From the album “Emulsion”, here’s Silence and the Unwinking Minds with the track “Impermanence”, here on the Relay Station.

https://silenceandtheunwinkingminds.bandcamp.com https://soundghost.net/

Ed Herbers

There’s one ambient artist who’s been on my radar for the past few years, watching his growth and progression as an artist, musician, and sound designer — one that you may wish to keep your eye on as well. Ohio-based electronic artist Ed Herbers has been blazing his own trail with his unique approach to music composition, employing the use of the app “Renoise”, a grid-based music tracker to sequence all of his ambient compositions. Add to his creativity and musicianship, he’s quite the humanitarian as well — more recently he was centrally involved in a charitable compilation album of ambient and atmospheric artists to help the underserved flood victims in Asheville, North Carolina. The latest album from Ed Herbers — which is the first part in a series of four reflections on the seasons — is worth the addition to your ambient playlists. There is this deep spatial bed of pad synthetics with Gilmour-inspired minimalist guitar motifs, ushering in this feeling of becoming entranced and lulled into a state of reflection. Each track has varying moody motifs layered with a veneer of mystique, an homage to the dark wintry months with wind-swept textures and soft noise. It’s a gorgeous listen. From the album “Season Cycle: Winter”, here’s Ed Herbers with the track “Full Moon’s Light on Fallen Show”, here on The Relay Station.

https://herbers.bandcamp.comhttps://passedrecordings.bandcamp.com/

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:36] "Reverie" by Stray Theories from "Falter" (n5MD, 2026)

* [06:26] "Dreaming (Winter Silhouette Rework)" by Ancient Astronaut from "Flowing" (Mare Nostrum, 2025)

* [10:18] "You Were an Owl and I Was A Polar Bear" by Tim Linghaus from "Future City Ghosts" (Bigo and Twigetti, 2025)

* [12:54] Featured Artist Segment

* [14:34] "Impermanence" by Silence & The Unwinking Minds from "Emulsion" (Soundghost, 2025)

* [18:50] "mina" by andarctica from "measures of the old earth" (Stereoscenic Records, 2025)

* [23:42] "Tendril6" by Leafblighter from "Growth Ring" (Independent, 2025)

* [26:04] "Autumn Ghosts" by The Silent Tide from "Memories" (Mare Nostrum, 2025)

* [29:44] Featured Artist Segment

* [31:38] "Full Moon's Light on Fallen Snow" by Ed Herbers from "Season Cycle: Winter" (Passed Recordings, 2025)

* [36:46] "Siphonophore" by Yearns from "Fata Morgana" (Room 40, 2025)

* [39:26] "Glowing like Gold" by Michael Brückner from "A Sequence of Colours [CYD 0147]" (Cyclical Dreams, 2025)

* [47:58] "Far Closes (Radio edit)" by Craven Faults from "Far Closes" (The Leaf Label, 2025)

* [53:54] "Water's World" by Mr Kit from "Glimmers" (Heart Dance Records, 2025)

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Join our community and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

Playlist ///

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [00:50] “Into the Light” by Danielle Nia from “A New Light” (I U WE Records, 2025)

* [04:44] “The Dust” by Logic Moon from “Ashes” (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [06:54] “Nameless Ancient” by Interstellar Messenger from “Beyond Frontiers” (Cosmic Leaf Records, 2026)

* [14:47] “Reveries Such As You” by Adrian Lane from “Desire Paths” (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [18:24] “Neptune’s Embrace (Whalesong Mix)” by Piscean Daydreams from “Dive In - Chapter 8” (Mare Nostrum, 2025)

* [22:53] “Elba” by Schoeffler from “Elba (single, long-form)” (Independent, 2026)

* [32:42] “A gradual decline” by miska lamberg from “Evening, window” (Dragon’s Eye Recordings, 2026)

* [38:38] “Spark” by loscil from “Lake Fire” (kranky, 2025)

* [45:00] SIDE B

* [45:00] “Sonika” by Henrik Meierkord from “New Sincerity” (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [51:08] “Golden Transmutation” by Paul Beaudoin from “Alchemies” (Independent, 2025)

* [54:10] “Divine Light of Grace” by Ashot Danielyan from “Awakening” (Heart Dance Records, 2025)

* [59:10] “Oort Cloud Research” by Interstellar Data Unit from “Crossing The Heliopause” (Wayfarer, 2025 2025)

* [1:05:49] “La Ligne Verte” by Aiko Takahashi from “The Grass Harp” (Laaps, 2025)

* [1:11:25] “Where We Began” by Madeleine Cocolas from “Syndesis” (Syndesis, 2025)

* [1:17:08] “Film Still / The Sea” by Félicia Atkinson & Christina Vantzou from “Reflections Vol. 3: Water Poems” (RVNG Intl., 2026)

* [1:21:44] “mellanting[i]” by Rotating Tapes from “3” (Independent, 2026)

* [1:24:38] “Green Island” by Ghostloop from “Almost Autumn” (Chitra Records, 2025)

Plus up ahead, new music from Marco Lucchi, Franco Robert, Jack Quinn, William Thomson and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Atmøsphäre + Dionisaf

The artists Atmøsphäre and Dionisaf are no strangers to collaborations — in fact one of the hallmarks of both Ambient Cat Records and their parent label Chitra Records, is that their artist roster quite frequently participates in collaborations and remixes with one another. It’s the sort of collaborative community that makes it more exciting to be a part of the collective ambient community, seeking to work with one another to create amazing new works. Well Atmøsphäre and Dionisaf have paired up to create an immersive album submerged in wintry-like textures, muted and opaque resonance, and various degrees of noise, marked with the intent to create the impression of a snow-packed vista. If you’re looking for a complimentary soundtrack for the bleakness of the wintry months, this just may be your ticket.

https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com

Paperbark

Laaps Records is one of those labels that never ceases to amaze me, and this next featured album and artist is of no exception. In this instance the surprise was that this next artist lives in the same metropolitan region as me, in the Minneapolis area. Paperbark is the ambient project of Jon Mulville, who has been shaping rhythmic and textural soundscapes since 2016. His music is rooted in memory, as a way to process emotional fragments. His work is frequently guided by his time spent in nature in a response to a culture that often feels devoid of empathy, with the hopes of creating a space for reflection and deeper contemplation. His new album “Light Behind Me” marks his ninth release on Bandcamp with this latest one issued through Laaps Records on limited-run and hand-numbered CDs and vinyl. It’s sonic landscape is marked by varying levels of texture, brightly lit layers, dreamy atmospheric veneers, and other intriguing elements that make for a fantastic listening session.

https://paperbark.bandcamp.com/https://laaps.bandcamp.com

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:34] "Alina" by Marco Lucchi from "New Sincerity" (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [05:52] "Black Waltz No. 1" by Franco Robert from "10 Waltzes, Vol. 2" (Bigo and Twigetti, 2025)

* [08:26] "Pastoral" by Jack Quinn from "Music For Painting" (Astral Oak Records, 2023)

* [12:22] Featured Artist Segment

* [14:10] "Fjords" by Atmøsphäre & Dionisaf from "Northern Dreamscapes" (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [18:44] "Rest" by William Thomson from "Inside Out" (Heart Dance Records, 2025)

* [22:16] "Glow" by Christian Alsemgeest from "New Sincerity" (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [25:04] "Latencia Oculta" by David Cordero from "Numen" (No Ray Records, 2025)

* [29:04] Featured Artist Segment

* [30:44] "Light Behind Me" by Paperbark from "Light Behind Me" (Laaps Records, 2026)

* [37:08] "Look out the Window" by Neighborhood Libraries from "In Our Wake" (Nettwerk Music Group, 2025)

* [39:42] "Abyssal Isoration (feat. Luziluu)" by Chikara Aoshima from "Abyssal Isoration (single)" (Independent, 2025)

* [41:42] "the setting sun" by Samara from "Playing With Light" (Independent, 2025)

* [49:52] "Pilgrimage" by s28 from "The Plains Behind Us" (Independent, 2025)

* [55:44] "Field of Light" by dreamwarper from "The Truth is Beautiful" (Independent, 2025)

Show your support for Minnesotans

It’s been really tough here in Minnesota as of late with all of the recent and extremely aggressive, unconstitutional, and illegal activity of ICE agents in Minnesota. They’ve been targeting persons of color (even United States citizens, including off-duty officers of color). The citizens and the organizations representing them and their legal and constitutional rights is critical, and it feels like the court system is our last line of defense against the madness. While I’d never ask you to go against your political ideologies, what we’re facing here in Minnesota is criminal and unconstitutional. ICE needs to be held accountable for failing to observe law enforcement protocol, for disregarding citizens’ constitutional rights, and for recklessly putting people in danger.

Please consider giving to one of these organizations providing grass-roots, legal and constitutional support to marginalized citizens (including American citizens of color who are being indiscriminately detained simply because of the color of their skin and without probable cause and a signed judge’s warrant.

Thank you!

American Civil Liberties Unionhttps://www.aclu.org/

Immigrant Defense Network https://immigrantdefensenetwork.org/

Minnesota Immigration Rights Action Committee https://www.miracmn.com/

Plus up ahead, new music from Andrew Lozano, Christian Alsemgeest and Metric System 1981, Beyond Sensory Experience and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Barry Cleveland and Robert Rich

Robert Rich carries near legendary status among ambient music lovers to almost no exception — there’s a sort of signature sound to his compositions bearing the influence of mystical traditions, contemplative drones and sound beds, flute motifs that beckon to the heavens within us, and rich layers of sound to provide a near endless sonic vista for exploratory listening sessions. Robert is also no stranger to collaborations with nearly a dozen to his name, working with the likes of Steve Roach, Luca Formentini, Faryus, and our two other featured artists today, Markus Reuter and Barry Cleveland. This particular collab with Barry Cleveland involved the two collaborating over Barry’s decade-old guitar improv sessions, adding numerous additional instrumental layers, trimming a variety of sections down, and them mixing into a seamless experience. The resulting album is an enrapturing passage through musical terrain, ranging from the ornate and delicate, to contemplative and meditative spaces, and majestically expanding to near cataclysmic vistas of sound. It’s an amazing journey to be had, and my privilege to share a small leg of this journey with you. The track we’re featuring is the opening sequence to this six-song trek through the minds of Barry Cleveland and Robert Rich.

https://robertrich.comhttps://barrycleveland.com

Robert Rich and Markus Reuter

What do you do when your tour gets unexpectedly cancelled and you’re left with nothing but time on your hands? Well if you’re Markus Reuter and happen to be passing through northern California, you bunk up with Robert Rich and spend numerous long days and late nights experimenting, drafting ideas onto tape, following trails of intrigue, and see where the musical exploration takes you. Fortunately for us, this led to a deeply pensive, subterranean musical quest for equanimity within the dark days in which we find ourselves within. Their album “Incubation” uncannily resemble the sort of awkward incubation period we find ourselves at this time in history, straddling the gaping distance between comfort and distress. It’s a dark, but beautiful and transcendent blend of washed out guitars, near shamanic flute patterns and motifs, slow swells of sound resembling the slowed breathing we experience in deep contemplation or meditation. It’s an album that is worth coming along on the journey with — an alchemical process and shamanic ushering in of the process of creating a reflection of their unique and intertwined journeys through life.

https://www.markusreuter.com/

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:52] "Purity (Ancient Astronaut Remix)" by Andrew Lozano from "Ambient Cat Remixes, Vol. 2" (Ambient Cat Records, 2025)

* [06:00] "Cathree" by Christian Alsemgeest + Metric System 1981 from "Everything Glows" (Mare Nostrum, 2025)

* [10:16] "Numb to It" by Beyond Sensory Experience from "In This Our life" (Cyclic Law, 2025)

* [15:38] Featured Artist Segment

* [17:52] "Tangible Silence" by Barry Cleveland & Robert Rich from "Elliptical Passage" (Robert Rich, Barry Cleveland, ElevenEleven Music, 2025)

* [24:58] "Open Safe Space 2" by Rising Galaxy from "Open Safe Space" (Cosmic Leaf, 2025)

* [33:58] "Chapter I – Nature" by Michael D. Tidwell and Piscean Daydreams from "Natura" (Independent / Identity Music, 2025)

* [38:40] "Alter Ego" by Dellasollounge from "Minimal Meditation" (Ambient Cat Records, 2025)

* [40:38] Featured Artist Segment

* [42:50] "Erased In Shadow" by Robert Rich & Markus Reuter from "Incubation" (Robert Rich, Markus Reuter, Amoeba Music, and All Matter In The Universe,, 2025)

* [49:18] "Participation Mystique" by Dionisaf from "Participation Mystique" (Ambient Cat Records, 2025)

* [54:40] "ninetwentyone" by Peter Bark from "time shelter" (Sound Ghost, 2025)

Join our community!

Go the extra mile and become a monthly supporter of The Relay Station. Your financial support helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts for the program to reach carbon neutrality. Join us at https://stolace.com/support/

Plus up ahead, new music from Atmøsphäre & Dionisaf, BinJa, Adrian Lane, Ambiente Solstice, and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Alanna Crouch

Brace yourselves for Alanna Crouch — she’s an eighteen-year-old pianist and composer from the United Kingdom, a composer of classical, contemporary, and electronic music, and has a captivating new four-song EP out now on Bigo and Twigetti. The EP is this beautiful story filled with drama, intrigue, sadness — layered with piano and delicate strands of cello woven throughout. Alanna writes about her EP, “It unfolds like a myth. A tremor stirs beneath the earth, awakening a soul of light long forgotten. It rises as a false crown, chaining the villagers to its shadow. The roots that once held life and memory now twist into bonds, binding them to a fate they cannot escape.” I’m captivated already.

https://www.alannacrouchmusic.co.uk/

Chris Wood + Albert Sapsford

Long-distance collaborations never cease to amaze me — I’ve heard some pretty fantastic works, imaginative releases by two or more souls from across the globe coming together to create something new and original… and something new and original is what we hear from Cape Town-based musician Chris Wood and the electronic composer Albert Sapsford from Johannesburg. The two have put together an imaginative album that pushes the boundaries of the ambient music genre to produce a work that is sonically inventive. Itn their own words, this album “embodies a shared search for a future state of wholeness — where opposites meet, where doubt gives way to presence, and where listening becomes an act of crossing into the beyond.” The album is gritty, liminal, at times abrasive, laced with percussive swells, compelling atmospheres, and experimental motifs that create something to behold.

https://pharmafabrik.bandcamp.com/

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:25] "Behind the Waterfall" by Atmøsphäre & Dionisaf from "Northern Dreamscapes" (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [05:07] "Sunny Morning" by BinJa from "ShaktiMan" (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [10:25] "Memories Become Treasures" by Adrian Lane from "Where Once We Danced" (Whitelabrecs, 2025)

* [13:17] Featured Artist Segment

* [14:59] "Roots" by Alanna Crouch from "Fragments" (Bigo and Twigetti, 2025)

* [18:55] "His Name in Every Breath feat. Dashmesh" by Ambiente Solstice from "The World Above The Clouds" (Wayfarer, 2025)

* [22:19] "Flores Veritatis (Rework)" by Edoardo Gastaldi + Le Code from "The Sleeping Oceans Vol.1" (Mare Nostrum, 2025)

* [26:42] "Transient Clouds" by Alessandro Barbanera from "Nothing Like Home" (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [31:05] Featured Artist Segment

* [32:48] "I Remember" by Chris Wood / Albert Sapsford from "Pristine" (Pharmafabrik, 2025)

* [36:34] "Inner (Horizon)" by Jason van Wyk from "Horizon" (n5MD, 2025)

* [40:57] "Akira Film Script - D" by Akira Film Script from "Live at the Modern" (Whitelabrecs, 2025)

* [51:00] "Spire" by Michael D. Tidwell & Suseti from "Glow EP" (Independent?, 2025)

* [56:07] "Dreaming of the Stars" by Ancient Astronaut + Brannan Lane from "Through Nebulae" (Independent, 2025)

The Relay Station is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts, support the program, and help us strive towards carbon neutrality, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Plus up ahead, new music from Shedir, Ghostloop, Hollie Kenniff and Goldmund, Six Missing and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist Information

Sebby Kowal

Sebby Kowal has a gorgeous, atmospheric dreamscape in store for you. It’s a four-song EP, beautifully layered with minimalist textured drones, subtle audio artifacts, and a wash of surface grain to bathe it all in soft noise. It’s beautiful, emotionally resonant, and contemplative, capturing the fragile beauty of morning light and the quiet promise of renewal. Sebby produced and mixed this album earlier in the year with Dionisaf at the mastering helm, and together produced a beautiful mix of atmospheric ambient music.

http://ambientcat.bandcamp.com

Treman & Tristan François de Liége

Josh Jacobson (also known as Treman) and Tristan François de Liége have come together to create a memorable EP in the neoclassical genre through Bigo and Twigetti, which is a U.K.-based label. Tristan is an LA-based composer and producer in the electronic music genre; and Treman, also based in LA, is a composer and electronic music producer who has graced the stages of Coachella, Seoul Jazz Music Festival, and more. Their new EP “Sparks” marks their first collaboration creating intimate and personal compositions for piano — and it’s so beautiful, intimate, and delicate through and through.

https://joshjacobsonmusic.comhttps://tristandeliege.bandcamp.com

Playlist

* [0:00] INTRODUCTION

* [01:19] "Old Oak" by Ghostloop from "Almost Autumn" (Chitra Records, 2025)

* [06:49] "Arranged Shapes" by Hollie Kenniff & Goldmund & Harbors from "When We Are Free" (Nettwerk Music Group, 2025)

* [09:56] "Hollowtide" by Shedir from "We Are All Strangers" (n5MD, 2025)

* [18:14] Featured Artist Segment

* [19:48] "Brand New Day" by Sebby Kowal from "A Brand New Day" (Ambient Cat, 2025)

* [28:43] "Distant Fading" by Drift from "Fragments of a Distant Now" (Ambient Cat, 2025)

* [32:11] "Any Road North" by Andrew Land from "Any Road North" (Bigo and Twigetti, 2025)

* [36:42] "Mod Det Hvide Øje" by øjeRum from "Ensomheden Vi Deler" (IIKKI, 2025)

* [40:39] Featured Artist Segment

* [41:59] "Frost Fires" by Treman & François de Liège from "Sparks" (Bigo and Twigetti, 2025)

* [45:33] "Into The Voids" by Offthesky from "Nocturnas" (Laaps Records, 2025)

* [53:34] "Try Too" by Six Missing from "Without Mind" (Nettwerk Music Group, 2025)

Join our community of supporters!

I want to express my sincere gratitude to my supporters who help fund the programming. Your donation helps cover operating expenses and our collective efforts to reach carbon neutrality.  If you enjoy the free weekly programming, join our community of monthly supporters today at https://stolace.com/support/. Thank you! 

Plus up ahead, new music from Ed Herbers, Twilight Sleep, Paul Beaudoin, City of Dawn and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next hour for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Artist information

Clarice Jensen

Were it not for my relationship with the Jensen Group and their artist representation, this next track and the amazing collection of works from which it comes, would have likely gone unnoticed in my world. Cellist and improvisational composer Clarice Jensen has taken a more avant-garde approach to contemporary classical music, adding other tools and layers to her live compositional approach to neoclassical music. Clarice considers the solo cello works of J.S. Bach as a central backdrop to her new album, displaying a rich range of voices created by one instrument alone. Having found ways to expand the sound and voice of the instrument through various electronics, Clarice found it fitting to return to Bach’s works — music that she’s played for many years — as a way to connect back within the tradition of the instrument. In addition to her instrument, she affects the sound only through a few effects including octave displacement, delay, tremolo, and looping.

https://claricejensen.com

Louis Gardner

Louis Gardner is a singer-songwriter and artist based in London and has garnered my attention through his spell-binding and emotive new album “Emotionally Suited to be a Solo Pianist”, out December 20th, 2025 through WhiteLabRecs. The album unmistakably falls outside the norm for programming on the Relay Station, but it’s his delicate coalescence of neoclassical music, ambient minimalist sensibilities, and experimental lo-fi folk songwriting that has me absolutely enamored. I’m a huge fan of José González and his minimalist, loop-like approach to songwriting in the neo-folk world — and I’m ceaselessly on the lookout for artists that carry that same esthetic in their artistry. Well Louis Gardner blends improvisational piano, muted acoustic guitar with decades-old guitar strings, accordion, dulcimer, and soft, hushed vocals performed with a feeling of contemplation, longing, and melancholic solitude. The album is a must-listen, even with it falling just outside the bounds of the ambient genre.

https://louisgardner.bandcamp.com/https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/

Playlist

* “The Lights Turned Down Low” by Twilight Sleep from “The Ghost Of Christmas Passed” [Passed Recordings, 2025, 5:36]

* “The Joy On Their Faces That Morning” by Asha Patera from “The Ghost Of Christmas Passed” [Passed Recordings, 2025, 6:10]

* “A Tibetan Path” by Ashot Danielyan from “Winter Whispers - Soothing Holiday Melodies” [Heart Dance Records, , 6:41]

* “1,2” by Clarice Jensen from “In Holiday Clothing, Out Of The Great Darkness” [FatCat / 130701, 2025, 4:08]

* “Hearth” by City of Dawn from “Winter Whispers - Soothing Holiday Melodies” [Heart Dance Records, , 2:33]

* “The Moon (How Bright It Is)” by Ed Herbers from “The Ghost Of Christmas Passed” [Passed Recordings, 2025, 4:31]

* “Moonlight on the Bare Winter Trees” by Paul Beaudoin from “A Deep Winter’s Snow” [, 2025, 4:28]

* “I Can’t Wait To See You This Christmas” by Louis Gardner from “Emotionally Suited To Be A Solo Pianist” [WhiteLabRecs, 2025, 8:29]

* “Entropy” by Tapemoth from “The Ghost Of Christmas Passed” [Passed Recordings, 2025, 2:57]

* “Branches, Leaves, and Dirt” by Kilometre Club from “It Doesn’t Snow In Toronto Anymore” [Imaginary North, 2025, 15:13]

Thank you for your ongoing support of The Relay Station. If you’d like to go the extra distance, become a monthly supporter today to help offset operating expenses and contribute towards my goal of making the program entirely carbon neutral. Thank you!

Season seven begins January 4, 2026!

Plus up ahead, I’ve got ground-breaking music from JARR, Philamelian + Elif Yalvaç, Leafblighter and so much more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Relay Station.

Thank you for listening! Please share!

Featured artists

KapTep + Sebby Kowal https://ambientcat.bandcamp.com

Benoît Pioulard https://pioulard.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// "Switch" by KapTep + Sebby Kowal

Ambient Cat Records is out with a new cross-collaboration between KapTep’s Derek Carter and ambient artist Sebby Kowal that flips all the right switches to produce a placid and soothing listening session. “Switch” is the new four-song EP between the pair of artists, a beautiful recording laced with soft atmospheric textures and field recordings, gently sweeping pad synthetics, minimalist instrumentation, and delicate ornamentals. The vibe is calming, spacious yet cozy and subdued, and is just what the doctor ordered for times of high anxiety and stress — a worthy addition to your ambient playlists. While I feel the album could have been tripled in length to appease my craving for long-form recordings, the album repeat button will suffice just fine, listening over and over again! "Switch" by KapTep + Sebby Kowal is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://ambientcat.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// "Stanza IV" by Benoît Pioulard

It was quite difficult to curb my enthusiasm when I heard multidisciplinary artist Thomas Meluch, who operates under the alias Benoît Pioulard, was releasing another ambient album on limited edition vinyl. “Stanza IV” bears all the hallmarks of Pioulard’s general esthetics — like meandering through a blurry-eyed dream, passing from one weathered photograph to the next, lingering long enough to fall under the spell of its seducing tones and textures. If given the opportunity, I could talk nearly ad nauseam about the listening experience alone, especially when seated comfortably in front of my turntable listening to the limited edition “yellow pollen” vinyl and paging through my memories like flipping through the accompanying pensive Polaroid photographs. It’s the sort of album that you cannot pass up and has made my 2025 essentials list of ambient albums. "Stanza IV" by Benoît Pioulard is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://pioulard.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* JARR "Little Becka"

* Philamelian + Elif Yalvaç "Apátheia"

* Leafblighter "Soundscaping"

* Julia Gjertsen + Gustav Davidsson "Vinden"

* Adrian Lane "Your Eyes Lift"

* Six Missing "We Took Control"

* KapTep + Sebby Kowal "Knowhere"

* John Oreschnick "History"

* BK Pepper "I Love You"

* Samara "caustics"

* Eguana "Ethereal Atmosphere"

* Akira Film Script "Akira Film Script - E"

* Michael D. Tidwell + Morning Haze + Le Code "Mind Over Matter"

* 't Geruis "continue à pied, ne reste pas loin"

* Dionisaf "Distant Shores"

* Celestial Trails "Rapture of Deep Blue"

* Benoît Pioulard "Fog dialect"

* Winter Silhouette "Pull Out, Pull Back"

* Kilometre Club "Drifting Landscapes (with Ghost In The Loop_"

* The Deccan Traps "Kinder Ascent"

* The Album Leaf "Carousel"

* Stolace "Sonoro III"

Thank you for listening! Please share!

I’ve a little something to say about YouTube and my pending move to a different platform. Please take a moment to listen and send me your thoughts at therelaystation@stolace.com. Thank you!

If you’d much rather just read, I’ll summarize:

YouTube’s interrupted and blocked yet another stream despite having written or expressed permission from the artists, their promoters, and or their record labels. They offer no way to mitigate this and have a policy that requires copyright holders be of a certain popularity level in order to whitelist my channel. So screw them. I’m moving the show to a different platform and I would appreciate your thoughts, opinions, and perspectives. The options I’m exploring:

* Substack only — pre-produced, audio-only weekly programs delivered to you via email and the Substack app.

* Substack + Bandcamp — pre-produced, audio-only weekly programs with the added component of Bandcamp's live listening party, allowing us to chat with one another live.

* Substack + [MixCloud OR HearThis.At] — live weekly programs (MixCloud provides live video streaming, HearThis.At only provides live audio streaming) plus the email delivered episodes via Substack app and email.

Out of the question: Twitch and Soundcloud. Twitch has no proactive remediation process to show proof of permission. Soundcloud is a dumpster fire and has also given AI platforms permission to train off of all content on their platform. No thank you.

What's your opinion, suggestion, or thoughts? Send them my way at therelaystation@stolace.com. I will likely be switching in two to three weeks, so send me your feedback now!

Now onto this week’s show. Oh…and don’t miss the link to my latest single out on Bandcamp at the very bottom. Give it a listen!

In today's program I’ve got some fantastic mixes and sets in store for you and two featured albums that I’m sure you’ll find to be an outstanding addition to your library. In the first hour, I have the cross-collaboration between Swedish pianist and composer Julia Gjertsen and Norwegian sound designer and trombonist Gustav Davidsson with an album that breaks new ground in the neoclassical and ambient jazz genres. And later on in the program, a featured album from UK artist The Deccan Traps, capturing the mystique and beauty of the eastern midlands of England.

Plus up ahead, I’ve got new music from Arcane Trickster, Logic Moon, Hiram, and so much more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on this special mixtape edition of The Relay Station.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help fund the programming and continued improvements. Thank you my friend!

Featured artists

Julia Gjertsen + Gustav Davidsson https://juliagjertsen.bandcamp.comhttps://gustavdavidssonmusic.bandcamp.comhttps://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com

The Deccan Trapshttps://thedeccantraps.bandcamp.comhttps://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// “Wandering Mind, Drifting Weather” by Julia Gjertsen + Gustav Davidsson

Available now on Whitelabrecs, the cross-border collaboration between Norwegian pianist and composer Julia Gjertsen and Swedish trombonist and sound designer Gustav Davidsson has resulted in an album that is dreamy, wistful, and so perfectly reflects the title. “Wandering Mind, Drifting Weather” by Gjertsen and Davidsson is the sort of album made for those contemplative days, staring out the window as the weather passes from one dioramic presentation to the next. I might never have guessed that I’d see a neoclassical blend of felt piano and trombone cross my desk, but I’m so very glad that it has. It’s a heart-felt blend of ambient, neoclassical, and melodic jazz that leads me along in a contemplative state of mind with the desire to hear it over and over again. “Wandering Mind, Drifting Weather” by Julia Gjertsen and Gustav Davidsson is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// “Sentinel of the Moors” by The Deccan Traps

New from UK electronic artist Phil Frodsham, who operates under the name The Deccan Traps, comes a six-song release out on Whitelabrecs that is beguiling with its modest depiction of wonder and awe. “Sentinel of the Moors” is a collection of musical snapshots of Derbyshire in the East Midlands of England — portrayed with its wash of soft noise and textures, the blurry and often fog-like layers of synthesis, and light embellishments and ornamentals dotting the sonic landscape like softly-lit cottages. The album is gently understated and devoid of garish and ostentatious elements — weathered and beautiful from start to finish in its own subdued and unassuming way. It’s a dreamy album that will be at home in your ambient playlists. “Sentinel of the Moors” by The Deccan Traps is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "Maelstrom Juice" by Arcane Trickster from "Argos"

* "Ascent" by Logic Moon from "Ashes"

* "Blossom Song" by Hiram from "Blossom Song (single)"

* "Neptune's Embrace (Whalesong Mix)" by Piscean Daydreams from "Dive In - Chapter 8"

* "Voyagers" by William Basinski from "Pod Tune"

* "Altus" by loscil from "Pod Tune"

* "Info The Night" by Julia Gjertsen + Gustav Davidsson from "Wandering Mind, Drifting Weather"

* "Elixir of Dreams" by Paul Beaudoin from "Alchemies"

* "Un Beau Matin D’Été" by Aiko Takahashi from "The Grass Harp"

* "Trance" by Uuxe + Gollden from "Dupont"

* "Emerald Vapour" by Altus from "Terraform"

* "Theory of Divination" by Madeleine Cocolas from "Syndesis"

* "Trace 4" by KapTep + Sebby Kowal from "Switch"

* "Steeples writhe" by Benoît Pioulard from "Stanza IV"

* "Let (City Of Dawn Remix)" by City Of Dawn from "Rhucle - Cycle (City Of Dawn Remix)"

* "Behold" by Morning Haze from "Still Exists"

* "Twenty Trees" by The Deccan Traps from "Sentinel of the Moors"

* "Sen'nyū - Yon-no-yu" by Meitei from "Sen’nyū"

* "Wear" by Soloi Sounds from "Pictures"

* "Celestial Spin" by The Album Leaf from "ROTATIONS"

* "Participation Mystique (Philippe Deschamps Remix)" by Dionisaf from "Participation Mystique"

* "It's Tuesday and I'm still alive, I'm still here" by Stolace from "It's Tuesday and I'm still alive, I'm still here"

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New music from STOLACE

There’s a new single out now on Bandcamp for free — “It’s Tuesday and I’m still alive, I’m still here.” This single was a mix of composition and improvisation at 4:00am on a Tuesday while I was in the throws of a panic attack and suffering from anxiety. The track sonically explores the feeling of mortality, coming to terms with the feelings and sensations that have arisen, and attempting to find peace, calm, and serenity in the midst of very troubling circumstances.My wish for you is that this will aid you in finding your own serenity through whatever arises in your life. Remember, it's all transient and impermanent — what you feel rises in the right causes and conditions, it may persist for some time, but eventually will pass, giving way for something else entirely.The field recording was captured in my front yard while having my morning coffee, and spending time in contemplation and meditation.

DOWNLOAD THE TRACK FOR FREE!

Up ahead, I’ve got new music from The Void Wanderer, Brannan Lane & Billy Denk, Jaffe, The Silent Tide and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on this special mixtape edition of The Relay Station.

Playlist

* "Angel's Derealisation" by The Void Wanderer from "Angel's Derealisation (single)"

* "Echoes of the Past" by Brannan Lane + Billy Denk from "Celestial Lullaby"

* "Dark Skies" by Jaffe from "Depth"

* "Salt and Earth" by The Silent Tide from "Dive In - Chapter 8"

* "As Seen Through a Hollow Sky" by E J R M + Unusual Cosmic Process from "Incandescence"

* "Ripples in the Current" by Celestial Trails from "Observation of Transcendence"

* "Chimera" by Morning Haze from "Imaginary North Transmission 011"

* "Shine" by Giannis Gogos from "Light Within"

* "Tundra" by Dionisaf from "Lost Rarities"

* "Flutter" by loscil from "Lake Fire"

* "Eat Hair" by ab9st8 from "Glory to the Victor"

* "Looked Me Right In The Eye" by Purelink from "Faith"

* "Ryden Nova" by Dreams in Infrared from "Interstellar Kiosk"

* "Morse Code" by Dionisaf + KapTep from "Modem Punk"

* "like the sky spread over everything" by Ben Kaya from "Advanced Comp"

* "Kviten" by Bohdan Stupak from "Microvariations"

* "Jumping Backwards (with Retland)" by Kilometre Club from "An Alphabet Of Distance (Deluxe Expanded Edition)"

* "Illuminated Expanse" by Carl Lord from "Illuminated Expanse"

* "Lantern Pike" by The Deccan Traps from "Sentinel of the Moors"

* "Grass" by Arrival In Eden from "Field of Memories"

* "From Place to Place" by Flying Tulpa from "Forever Lost"

* "Deja Vu" by Ozbolt from "Chasyng Drakens"

* "three" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

Plus our conversational topic for today: music and social change. What are some notable albums or songs that come to mind that stirred up tangible signs of social change? And how do you think Ambient music could play a role in affecting our cultural landscape? Let’s strike up a conversation!

Also up ahead, new music from Willebrant, Eblo, Akhira Sano and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Featured artists

Uuxe + Golldenhttps://ageofleisure.bandcamp.comhttps://gollden.bandcamp.com

Yann Novakhtttps://yannnovak.bandcamp.comhttps://room40.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// “Dupont” by Uuxe + Gollden

New from ambient promoter Age of Leisure comes a collaboration that will guide you to a state of meditative bliss with this three-song EP. “Dupont” is a new release from Australian artist Uuxe and Toronto ambient artist Gollden, along with additional instrumentation provided by Canadian artist Nirvana Sagar. Created over the cold winter months in Toronto, Uuxe and Gollden blended together stunning ambient guitar and keyboards, mesmerizing singing bowl layers, and dreamy saxophone lines to create a work that is perfect for a short meditation sit or unwinding and letting go of the day. The vibe feels like a cascade of serenity pouring over me when I invite this music in, and I highly encourage you to do the same. “Dupont” by Uuxe + Gollden is available now on limited edition cassette, on most streaming music services, and at https://ageofleisure.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// “Continuity” by Yann Novak

Out now on Room 40 Records is a consequential three-song EP that ought not be overlooked. Los Angeles based multidisciplinary artist Yann Novak has masterfully created a poignant work that reflects our times and serves as a sobering lens through which to view our modern era. “Continuity” is a stunning blend of field recordings and looped synthesizer phrasings, depicting the often paradoxical and nefarious sides of technology that we’ve become dependent upon — from the illusion of freedom and privacy, to government transparency, social media, and more. With a wash of abated noise, near-dystopian ambient layers, obscured digital recordings, and ghostly ear candy, I find “Continuity” to be a fantastic backdrop for which to reflect on the state of the world in which we live. “Continuity” by Yann Novak is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://yannnovak.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "La Fonte (Solo Version)" by Domy Castellano from "Among the Trees"

* "It Comes To Us All (Solo Version)" by Winter Silhouette from "Left For History"

* "Demande Un" by Akhira Sano from "D-R"

* "When Fearful Waters Trembled" by The Bird's Companion from "A Place Outside of Time"

* "Hibernation" by First Snow of the Year from "Hibernation"

* "The Damage Done" by RL Huber from "Dagos"

* "Flyover" by Uuxe + Gollden from "Dupont"

* "Cicada Song" by Hiram from "Green Green Earth"

* "Luminous Bardo 1" by Dashmesh from "Luminous Bardo"

* "Respite" by Ed Herbers from "Confluence"

* "Todo se fue quedando" by Raúl Cantizano + David Cordero from "Aunque llegue la mañana"

* "Shoreline (Meditation Version)" by Niclas Lundqvist + Christian Alsemgeest from "Streams and Dreams"

* "Overseas" by Lane + Gregorius + Smith from "Lost Desert Highway"

* "Wandering Through a Canopy of Stars" by Brannan Lane + Billy Denk from "Celestial Lullaby"

* "Peaceful Waters" by Metric System 1981 + MS Carina from "Dive In - Chapter 8"

* "Listening Tree" by Willebrant from "Imaginary North Transmission 011"

* "Context Collapse" by Yann Novak from "Continuity"

* "The Light of Day" by Eblo from "Dive In - Chapter 8"

* "Chapter II – Commodity" by Michael D. Tidwell and Piscean Daydreams from "Natura"

* "lodestone" by andarctica from "measures of the old earth"

* "Night Rain" by Sineko + The Void Wanderer from "Night Rain (single)"

* "5" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

Plus our conversational topic for today: using ambient music to self-regulate your nervous system. What are some of your go-to albums and artists that you can reliably plug in to help you stay calm, collect, and equanimous? Let’s strike up a conversation!

Also up ahead, new music from Flying Tulpa, Cecilia Quinteros, Giannis Gogogs, and more. Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Featured artists

Henrik Meierkord, Marco Lucchi, Powal Kobak https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com

Abul Mogard https://abulmogard.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// "The Book of Dreams" by Henrik Meierkord, Marco Lucchi, Pawel Kobak

Whenever Swedish cellist Henrik Meierkord and Italian ambient composer Marco Lucchi team up, it is the stuff of dreams. Well they’ve added the talented Swedish flutist Pawel Kobak to the mix and their latest collaboration is absolutely sublime. “The Book of Dreams” is fitting as a title for this full-length release from WhiteLabRecs — an exploration of sleep and dreams, delicately drifting through varying degrees of consciousness. With somber drones as the foundation, enchanting cello melodies and phrases, and awe-inspiring flute motifs — the trio has magically layered together an unforgettable trip, drifting effortlessly through a listening experience perfect for that sleepless night. The album is ambient perfection. “The Book of Dreams” by Henrik Meierkord, Marco Lucchi, and Pawel Kobak is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// "Quiet Pieces" by Abul Mogard

The Italian ambient music community never ceases to amaze me with the high caliber music they produce and share with the world — and the new album from Abul Mogard maintains that standard of excellence. “Quiet Pieces” has a visceral quality that reaches deep within me when I give this album my full, and undivided attention. It’s gritty and intensely textured, deeply emotive, and grabs hold of the senses, ushering you through an innovative listening experience fueled with Mogard’s unique, creative sensibilities. Blending old 78 rpm classical and opera records with unfinished sketches from his archives, v “Quiet Pieces” by Abul Mogard is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://abulmogard.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "tryptophan" by PJ HEN from "Rather sleep"

* "No Expectations" by Flying Tulpa from "Forever Lost"

* "Hidden ocean beneath the ice" by Spectrical from "Among Lunar Glaciers"

* "An Eternal Embrace" by Arrival In Eden from "Field of Memories"

* "The Quiet Pulse" by Edoardo Gastaldi + Jay Brewer from "Atlantic to Adriatic"

* "Vista" by Michelle Qureshi from "Be In This World"

* "Sova" by Henrik Meierkord + Marco Lucchi + Pawel Kobak from "The Book of Dreams"

* "Los Arrepentimientos" by Raúl Cantizano + David Cordero from "Aunque llegue la mañana"

* "It Doesn't Snow in Toronto Anymore" by Kilometre Club from "It Doesn't Snow In Toronto Anymore"

* "Amor Fati" by Giannis Gogos from "Light Within"

* "into that deep sleep" by Paul Beaudoin from "1514 Lee Street"

* "Cool Breeze and Cloud Shadows" by Adrian Lane from "Desire Paths"

* "Harkerville Costal Trail" by Ozbolt from "Chasyng Drakens"

* "Like a bird" by Abul Mogard from "Quiet Pieces"

* "Fading (into) horizons" by Stokfisz from "Aether Drift"

* "Qadira 8" by Cecilia Quinteros from "Qadira"

* "Arrhythmia" by loscil from "Lake Fire"

* "IV-i" by Daren Keck from "Moonlit Home"

* "Atmos II" by Stolace from "Atmos"

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Playlist

* "Under Foot" by Six Missing from "Without Mind: Identify (EP) - Part One"

* "Utopia" by Vermilion Rhombus from "You'll See Me Through The Fog"

* "Rest Now" by Tides from "Where Her Flowers Still Bloom"

* "A Lesson in Impermanence [Daydreamers]" by observable universe + Piscean Daydreams from "Zenscapes"

* "Structural Eternal (Abridged Mix)" by Loneward from "Abridged Dimensions"

* "和と調 ( wa to shirabe )" by Tomoyoshi Date from "『Piano Triology』- Tata -"

* "Livet börjar idag" by Rotating Tapes from "2"

* "towards my longing" by Jörgen Gustafsson from "a darkened harbour"

* "prism of my senses" by Ludvig Cimbrelius from "a summer yet to come"

* "Toran" by Aries Mond from "Edge Angles"

* "Lunar Conjunction" by Paul Beaudoin from "Alchemies"

* "PERSISTENT STATE" by sonaura from "SNOWGLOBE"

* "Sketch #22" by Kilometre Club from "An Alphabet Of Distance (Deluxe Expanded Edition)"

* "Shimmering Lights (Le Code Remix)" by Ancient Astronaut from "Ambient Cat Remixes, Vol. 1"

* "standing silent" by anthéne + simon mccorry from "wellspring"

* "Soft Cloud Caress" by Le Code from "Vol de Nuit"

* "Ensō" by City Of Dawn + Rhucle from "Threads"

* "melatonin" by PJ HEN from "Rather sleep"

* "Qadira 1" by Cecilia Quinteros from "Qadira"

* "14" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

The Relay Station is a listener-supported program. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber today!

Plus our conversational topic for today: tell us about the most transcendent moment you’ve had with ambient music! Where were you? What were you listening to? And what was the culmination of your listening session? Let’s strike up a conversation.

I’ve got some fantastic tracks ahead — new music from Andrew Lozano, Kilometre Club, Observable Universe & Piscean Daydreams and many more ahead.

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Featured artists

Aiko Takahashi https://aikotakahashi.bandcamp.comhttps://laaps.bandcamp.com

Loscil https://loscil.bandcamp.comhttps://kranky.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// “The Grass Harp” by Aiko Takahashi

Aiko Takahashi is back with another captivating release through the awe-inspiring French label, Laaps Records. Aiko does not disappoint with the delivery of their most recent album “The Grass Harp” — a soothing release rich with heavily manipulated loops woven together in a dreamy tapestry of truly inventive sound design, minimalist piano, and delicate textures. Aiko’s intentional use of silence and elongated pauses feels like a pensive, meditative walk through story-like groves of old trees whispering a gentle wisdom through the rustling leaves, in every drop of falling rain, and every blade of grass rising to meet your bare feet. It’s that beautiful, and has made my essentials list for 2025. “The Grass Harp” by Aiko Takahashi is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://laaps.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// “Lake Fire” by Loscil

Vancouver-based artist Scott Morgan who operates under the name Loscil, is out with another stunning release available through Kranky. “Lake Fire” reflects the vast expanse of Morgan’s creativity, ingenuity, and deeply artistic prowess for sound manipulation and texture design. The album’s esthetic feels like a sort of dystopian David Lynch-inspired film, rich with mystique and intrigue, densely layered textures, and a lightly opaque veneer that ties it all together into a cohesive story. The instrumentation with both their compositional and stereoscopic arrangements are inventive and extremely well done, and makes for a truly rewarding and memorable listening experience, worthy of your undivided attention. “Lake Fire” by Loscil is available now on most streaming music services, as well as on vinyl, CD, and digital media at https://loscil.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "param" by Alexis DElozanne from "Abréviation"

* "X-Mark (with Marie)" by Kilometre Club from "An Alphabet Of Distance (Deluxe Expanded Edition)"

* "Till we meet again" by Tamer Elshabrawy from "Clown code"

* "A Beacon" by Giuliano Favata from "Inescapable Reality"

* "Field of Memories" by Arrival In Eden from "Field of Memories"

* "Yoke" by Purelink from "Faith"

* "La Leçon" by Aiko Takahashi from "The Grass Harp"

* "Voyager" by Andrew Lozano from "Voyager"

* "Reflections of the Pure Land [Daydreamers]" by observable universe + Piscean Daydreams from "Zenscapes"

* "Covered In Noise" by Hara Alonso from "touch•me•not"

* "Not Alone" by Six Missing from "Without Mind: Accept (EP) - part two"

* "Heartwood" by Hiram from "Green Green Earth"

* "Harmony in Chaos [Live] Part 1" by City Of Dawn from "Harmony in Chaos (Live from Run Pony Run)"

* "Apparition" by RL Huber from "Hafgufa"

* "Walk on the Roof" by Dionisaf from "Lost Rarities"

* "Everyday Dread" by Gregory Paul Mineeff from "Exhumed"

* "Lake Fire" by loscil from "Lake Fire"

* "After the Sun Has Set" by HERE from "Hues of Amber & Rose"

* "Warden's Bacillus" by ab9st8 from "Glory to the Victor"

* "Still Visible" by Jason van Wyk from "Inherent"

* "Incandescence" by E J R M + Unusual Cosmic Process from "Incandescence"

* "Low Motion (Dionisaf Remix)" by KapTep from "Exhale"

* "Kafka" by First Snow of the Year from "Hibernation"

* "Yielbongura" by Ozbolt from "Chasyng Drakens"

* "sixteen" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

Plus our conversational topic for today: What are some of your favorite settings to enjoy ambient music in? Do you have a sweet setup? Or throw on some ear buds and go on walks with it? Where do you enjoy ambient music? Let’s strike up a conversation.

I’ve got some fantastic tracks ahead — new music from Ben McCarthy, RL Huber, Rose Riebl, and many more ahead.

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Featured artists

Tides https://t1d3s.bandcamp.comhttps://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com

Jason van Wyk https://jasonvanwyk.bandcamp.comhttps://n5md.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// “Where Her Flowers Still Bloom” by Tides

New from Whitelabrecs comes an eight-song album from Scottish ambient artist Tides. “Where Her Flowers Still Bloom” is a response to his mother’s diagnosis of early-onset dementia, the sort of plight that is difficult to express in words. Through his exploration of grief, fading memory, and the changes in relational dynamics, the album respectfully invites you to sit, and listen to his story conveyed through distressed audio, intimate sound manipulation, sculpted textures, and tarnished instrumentation. There’s a tangible feeling of grief coupled with love and longing, clinging desperately to that which cannot be held — it’s beautiful and heart-breaking, and leaves the listener in a state of reflection and gratitude. You’d be remiss to let this album pass you by. “Where Her Flowers Still Bloom” by Tides is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// "Inherent" by Jason van Wyk

South African electronic ambient artist Jason van Wyk has a new album out now on n5md that is inventive, intricate, and intense. “Inherent” is his sixth album, displaying a continued sense of progressive evolution and compositional prowess. The album escorts you through epic soundscapes, sinuous patterns and motifs, satisfying textures, and other meticulously woven elements throughout. Every listening session affords you with a perennial listening experience, picking up new strands of intrigue and fastidiously placed details in the wide stereoscopic space he’s created. It’s an album full of pleasant surprises, intrigue, and electronic bliss — one that you simply can’t afford to miss. “Inherent” by Jason van Wyk is available June 13th on most streaming music services, limited edition vinyl, as well as at https://n5md.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "Echoes from away" by Stokfisz from "Aether Drift"

* "eileen myles unrung phase" by Ben McCarthy from "decorative arts ii"

* "Telos" by RL Huber from "Dagos"

* "Hores" by Aries Mond from "Edge Angles"

* "Into Night" by William Thomson from "As It Goes"

* "Skies Have Fallen - Rose Riebl" by Rose Riebl from "DUST"

* "Fade" by Tides from "Where Her Flowers Still Bloom"

* "Begin Again [single]" by Six Missing from "Without Mind: Accept (EP) - part two"

* "Aerosol" by Vermilion Rhombus from "You'll See Me Through The Fog"

* "a sacred name" by anthéne + simon mccorry from "wellspring"

* "Particles" by Diogene from "The Ocean in Our Minds"

* "Untitled 2 [theme for a film]" by Brady Cohan from "Wash"

* "Memory Loss" by Edoardo Gastaldi + Le Code from "The Sleeping Oceans Vol.1"

* "Wisdom Of The Sky" by Ambiente Solstice + Billy Denk from "Stone Eclipse"

* "Poissons Rouges" by Aiko Takahashi from "The Grass Harp"

* "By The Gates" by Henrik Meierkord + Marco Lucchi + Pawel Kobak from "The Book of Dreams"

* "Shine" by Jason van Wyk from "Inherent"

* "Vara" by Sons of Melancholia from "Hyperliquid"

* "Remain, True" by ILUITEQ + Eraldo Bernocchi from "Fade, Remain"

* "Postcards" by First Snow of the Year from "Hibernation"

* "The Sun Erases Wet Footprints" by Adrian Lane from "Desire Paths"

* "Sketch #10" by Kilometre Club from "An Alphabet Of Distance (Deluxe Expanded Edition)"

* "Momentum" by Christian Alsemgeest from "End of Summer"

* "Surfacing to the iridescent firmament" by Spectrical from "Among Lunar Glaciers"

* "30" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

I’ve got some fantastic tracks ahead — new music from Thme, HERE, Spectrical, David Cordero & Rhucle, and many more ahead.

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Playlist

* "those who saw him dance saw his soul" by Paul Beaudoin from "1514 Lee Street"

* "Anti Atlas" by Thme from "Anti Atlas"

* "Saturn" by Ashot Danielyan from "Awakening"

* "So Close" by David Cordero + Rhucle from "So Far, So Close"

* "Remain, Behind The Shadow Of Time" by ILUITEQ + Eraldo Bernocchi from "Fade, Remain"

* "Light of Another World" by Danielle Nia from "A New Light"

* "Humility Point" by Ozbolt from "Chasyng Drakens"

* "Calming Shadow" by Michael D. Tidwell + Piscean Daydreams from "Ghost"

* "N-acetylserotonin" by PJ HEN from "Rather sleep"

* "The Pianola Dreams of Its Former Glory" by The Bird's Companion from "A Place Outside of Time"

* "Energy" by Ed Herbers from "Confluence"

* "Tainted Moon" by HERE from "A Quiet Unease"

* "Threading glacial depths" by Spectrical from "Among Lunar Glaciers"

* "Losing Yourself in the Answer" by KapTep from "Exhale"

* "Cascades" by Jason van Wyk from "Inherent"

* "Melancholic Night" by Eguana from "Melancholic Night"

* "29" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

The Relay Station is a listener-supported program. Consider becoming a free or paid subscriber today!

Also in the chat, our conversational topic for today… what’s your origin story with ambient music? When did you first learn about it, and who were you listening to? Let’s strike up a conversation!

Plus new music from Eguana, Flying Tulpa, Sonic Dream Machine and plenty more ahead.

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

I hope you’re enjoying The Relay Station! Please share this with your fellow ambient fans.

Featured artists

Arrival in Eden https://arrivalineden.bandcamp.comhttps://ambientcat.bandcamp.com

The Bird’s Companion https://thebirdscompanion.bandcamp.comhttps://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// "Field of Memories" by Arrival in Eden

Arrival in Eden is out with a brand new full-length album out now on Ambient Cat Records. “Field of Memories” is the sort of cinematic album that so delicately captures the liminal spaces found only in the contents of our dreams and half-wakened imaginings of the mind. Maximillian, who operates under the name Arrival in Eden, has done a splendid job with his somber mix of cinematic string arrangements, delicate melodic felt piano, soft textures and atmospheres, and other evocative elements that tie it all together into a brilliantly moody album. This also serves as his first release with Ambient Cat Records, a fitting outlet for Arrival in Eden’s enigmatic brand of ambient music. For cinematic ambient fans, be sure to add this album to your playlists! “Field of Memories” by Arrival in Eden is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://ambientcat.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// "A Place Outside of Time" by The Bird's Companion

New from Whitelabrecs comes the transcendent nine-song neoclassical album from The Bird’s Companion. “A Place Outside of Time” is a discreet blend of neoclassical and ambient music with a hint of post-rock sentimentality — ornately layered with unconcealed and expressive felt piano, spacious guitars that weave in and out of view, and held together with a delicate minimalism. When I find myself immersed in “A Place Outside of Time”, I feel like I’m looking over the artist’s shoulder as they linger from page to page in a photo book of precious memories — each song a page from another place in time. It’s an album that you simply cannot pass up and is a must for neoclassical fans. “A Place Outside of Time” by The Bird's Companion is available now on limited edition gatefold vinyl-effect CD, on most streaming music services as well as at https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "Broken Heart" by Eguana from "Doomed Love"

* "Accepting This Gift" by Flying Tulpa from "Forever Lost"

* "Fragile Forest - Solo Version" by Sonic Dream Machine from "Fragile Forest"

* "Deceitful Star" by RL Huber from "Hafgufa"

* "Willow" by First Snow of the Year from "Hibernation"

* "Secrets Are Behind Us (Solo Version)" by Winter Silhouette from "Left For History"

* "The Wind on Your Skin" by Arrival In Eden from "Field of Memories"

* "A wish for stars" by odysmod from "Reminiscence"

* "Event Horizon" by Ben Bertrand from "Relic Radiation"

* "February 6, On the Shore of Lake Ontario" by Kilometre Club from "It Doesn't Snow In Toronto Anymore"

* "Take Me To Somewhere Liminal - Remastered" by Ghost In The Loop from "Selected Soundtracks For Lost Media"

* "Soft Materials: Permanent Rose" by Sadie Powers from "Souvenir"

* "Pomegranate" by Moonfeld from "Spectral Worlds"

* "Northern Lights (Dionisaf Rework)" by Brannan Lane from "Northern Lights"

* "Chapter VI – Idealism" by Michael D. Tidwell and Piscean Daydreams from "Natura"

* "Tendril 4" by Leafblighter from "Vine"

* "Poudre a Couleurs" by Alexis Delozanne from "Acclimatation"

* "Take Shelter" by Morning Haze from "Between Wake and Sleep"

* "Lost Light" by Danielle Nia from "A New Light"

* "Unseen Footprints" by The Bird's Companion from "A Place Outside of Time"

* "Oscillating Perspective" by Philippe Deschamps from "Endless Vanishing Lines"

* "Vanishing Point" by Loneward from "Gossamer Wings of Illusion"

* "Flowing (Brannan Lane Rework)" by Ancient Astronaut from "Flowing"

* "Peaceful Glen" by Carl Lord from "Illuminated Expanse"

* "Zehn (10)" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

The Relay Station is a listener-supported program. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Also in the chat, our conversational topic for today…new and emerging techniques and technologies used in ambient music — have you been exploring new ideas and techniques in your music, or as a listener have you heard something new and different that piqued your interest? Let’s strike up a conversation!

Plus new music from Jason van Wyk, Six Missing, Aiko Takahashi and plenty more ahead.

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Enjoying The Relay Station? Share this episode with your friends and aquaintances!

Featured artists

First Snow of the Year https://firstsnowoftheyear.bandcamp.comhttps://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com

ILUITEQ + Eraldo Bernocchi https://iluiteq.bandcamp.comhttps://eraldobernocchi.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// "Hibernation" by First Snow of the Year

Drop what you’re doing, and give this artist your full attention. Belgian electronic artist First Snow of the Year has a new album out now with Whitelabrecs that is unmistakably enthralling. “Hibernation” is the type of album you’d listen to on repeat while watching the moon rise over the horizon, or day-dreaming on the shoreline, or pretty much any act that calls for a contemplative, dreamy soundtrack — I know, because I’ve done the very same. Though content to serve as placid background music, this album is captivating and lures your senses in effortlessly. The subdued piano, the near melodic bass, the mesmerizing synthetic layers, and the subtle intangibles that bring it all together — it’s the sort of album that you simply cannot pass up. “Hibernation” by First Snow of the Year is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// "Fade, Remain" by ILUITEQ + Eraldo Bernocchi

ILUITEQ is back with a new collaboration with renown Italian artist and composer Eraldo Bernocchi. “Fade, Remain” is a stunning eight-song album that will take you on an existentialist sojourn through the liminal spaces of departure, exploring the themes of one’s own egress to a new state, and the vacancy that’s left behind. ILUITEQ and Bernocchi musically escort you through deeply contemplative spaces with an album that is intimate, somber, and profoundly pensive, receding back to their drone-driven roots, and together with Bernocchi craft layers of rich textures, gritty veneers, ruminative bass lines, immersive field recordings, and wistful analog synth phrasings — a compelling album that is deserving of your time and attention. “Fade, Remain” by ILUITEQ + Eraldo Bernocchi is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://iluiteq.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "If Only" by Jason van Wyk from "Inherent"

* "Become Am" by Six Missing from "Without Mind: Identify (EP) - Part One"

* "Vases À Iris" by Aiko Takahashi from "The Grass Harp"

* "The Near Edge Of Forever" by Ian Crawford from "Slow Pull on a Long Thread"

* "Sweet Silence (Solo Version)" by Fjordscape from "Inner Joy"

* "Myria" by Sons of Melancholia from "Hyperliquid"

* "Sail" by First Snow of the Year from "Hibernation"

* "Sacre" by Hiram from "Green Green Earth"

* "Serenity" by Ed Herbers from "Confluence"

* "Muselet" by Ghostmarble from "Bestmarble"

* "Electromagnetic pools" by Spectrical from "Among Lunar Glaciers"

* "The Battle Cave Biltong Robbery" by Ozbolt from "Chasyng Drakens"

* "Pulse of Light" by Danielle Nia from "A New Light"

* "Fade, In The Wind" by ILUITEQ + Eraldo Bernocchi from "Fade, Remain"

* "Hollow" by Michael D. Tidwell + Suseti from "Glow EP"

* "Moments of Shared Silence" by HERE from "Hues of Amber & Rose"

* "Through The Prism" by Ben Chatwin from "KLASIS"

* "Slow Rise" by Giannis Gogos from "Light Within"

* "Relapse" by Ross Christopher + Eddy Ruyter from "Neue"

* "Doux" by loscil from "Lake Fire"

* "Luminous Heart" by Arrival In Eden from "Field of Memories"

* "19" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

In today's program, we’re going to be celebrating the spaciousness created in ambient music. Yes, May the Fourth may have influenced today’s choice in music, but you won’t find any John Williams anthems here — just fantastic new ambient music. My two featured artists have some pretty fantastic music in their own right, creating a spaciousness of their own: M. Cross Dougherty has a new EP out on Heart Dance Records that brings a new interpretation to ambient music, and German artist Ozbolt hits my essentials list with his new album issued out through Whitelabrecs, it’ll take your listening session to new heights!

Also in the chat, our conversational topic for today… space soundtracks. What are some of your most favorite science fiction composers and film scores? Dune, Interstellar, and Star Wars have some of the most iconic scores — what are some of your favorites? Let’s strike up a conversation!

Plus new music Ben Kaya, Sinemis, Arrival in Eden, Will Bolton and plenty more ahead.

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Are you enjoying The Relay Station? Consider becoming a monthly supporter today! Your financial contributions help advance the programming!

Featured artists

M. Cross Dougherty https://m-cross-dougherty.bandcamp.com https://heartdancerecords.bandcamp.com

Ozbolt https://andyaquarius.bandcamp.com https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// "Interpretation" by M. Cross Dougherty

New from Heart Dance Records comes an experimental, four-song EP from electronic artist M. Cross Dougherty. “Interpretation” is a short collection of electronic compositions that were created and recorded on a vintage four-track cassette recorder, paying homage to ambient music’s electronic roots but with the modern era’s love and obsession with warm, analog tape. The album is rich with soft noises, warbles and tape flutters, variable pitch shifts, and all that you’d expect from cassette tapes, and the compositions have a drone-like quality, inviting you to sit back and absorb the synthetic resonance. The overall vibe of the EP is a slow burn, with a molasses-like evolutionary stride and patiently introduces progressive changes at a meditative pace — a perfect companion to your next flow state. “Interpretation” by M. Cross Dougherty is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://heartdancerecords.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// "Chasyng Drakens" by Ozbolt

New from Whitelabrecs comes a unique seven-song album from German harpist Andy Ozbolt, who operates under the moniker Ozbolt. “Chasyng Drakens” is one of those ambient albums that surprised me with each layer that bloomed, revealing itself the more I listened and the further I probed into the album’s history. Inspired by the Drakensberg mountains and the coastline of South Africa, along with some experimental field recordings involving a harp, a tree, and coastal winds, Ozbolt has crafted a truly unique listening excursion, a ‘time capsule’ of his travels. Along with field recordings, a wind-blown Celtic harp, and a variety of other instrumentation, Ozbolt has left us with an album that is worthy of your time and attention, and is an essential addition to your ambient music library. I can’t recommend it enough! “Chasyng Drakens" by Ozbolt is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "grasp" by Ben Kaya from "Advanced Comp"

* "sleight of hand" by anthéne from "frailty"

* "It's Not Fate, It's You" by Sinemis from "Farewell"

* "Childhoods End" by Arrival In Eden from "Field of Memories"

* "Sumerian Green" by Arborra from "Mind Over Matter"

* "Solitude's Labyrinth" by Loneward from "Gossamer Wings of Illusion"

* "Interpretation III" by M. Cross Dougherty from "Interpretation"

* "Floating" by Ancient Astronaut from "Flowing"

* "Voyager 1 Departs Solar System" by Interstellar Data Unit from "Crossing The Heliopause"

* "Beneath the Peaceful Sky feat. Sean O'Bryan Smith" by Billy Denk from "Beneath the Peaceful Sky"

* "Liminal Space (feat Leif Wyn)" by Flying Tulpa from "Forever Lost"

* "talents" by andarctica from "measures of the old earth"

* "Quill" by Wil Bolton from "Slow Shapes"

* "If" by Federica Deiana from "Fragments"

* "Social Distance" by David Cordero + Rhucle from "So Far, So Close"

* "Exhumed" by Gregory Paul Mineeff from "Exhumed"

* "Peace Rain Prosperity" by Ozbolt from "Chasyng Drakens"

* "The Fairies of FernGully" by Michael D. Tidwell + Natureland from "The Fairies of FernGully - Imaginary North Transmission 010"

* "The Lights Below" by Le Code from "Vol de Nuit"

* "You Don't Have To Smile" by The Choir from "Translucent"

* "Forgotten" by Tides from "Where Her Flowers Still Bloom"

* "18" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

Spread the love and share this episode with your friends and conspirators!

Also in the chat, our conversational topic for today… memorable albums in the ambient genre. Most of us know the famous Brian Eno quote — ambient music being both forgettable and memorable — what have been some of the more memorable ambient albums that have stuck with you over the years. Let’s strike up a conversation!

Plus new music from Leafblighter, William St. Hugh, Thorny, The Bird’s Companion, Henrik Meierkord and plenty more ahead.

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

The Relay Station is a listener-supported program. Consider becoming a monthly sustainer and help the program grow!

Featured artists

Federica Deiana https://federicadeiana.comhttps://homenormal.bandcamp.com

Ian Crawfordhttps://iancrawford.bandcamp.comhttps://wayfarermusicgroup.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// "Fragments" by Federica Deiana

New from the Home Normal label comes the four-song EP from Sardinian-Italian composer and electronic artist Federica Deiana. “Fragments” is Federica’s third album with the UK-based label and feels like vivid moments suspended in time for us to experience in our listening sessions — each track with its own unique signature. The EP leads you through dreamy, contemplative moments of reflection, richly textured genre-defying motifs, evocative and overdriven peaks, and soft moments of introspection. Federica’s sense of freedom and the open landscape of her musicality shows in the end-to-end uniqueness of each track, approaching each composition with its own unique storyline. Perhaps that’s why I was left wanting for more, to hear more of her story in each unique phrase and line. “Fragments” by Federica Deiana is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://homenormal.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// "Slow Pull on a Long Thread" by Ian Crawford

Where to begin with the latest release from Ian Crawford? Ian’s latest release, “Slow Pull on a Long Thread” is some seriously high-end ambient guitar work. In fact, this album — in my opinion — sets a higher bar for ambient guitar music. Ian displays masterful levels of creativity in his compositional skills — every instrument, ever note and phrase has purpose, there’s a deep cohesiveness woven from start to finish, and the care and attention that he shows in the spaces between notes leaves me feeling at complete ease. There’s a sense of magic and wonder in this alluring and mystique-rich album that expresses itself with virtuosic levels of guitar, evocative and expansive ambient layers, and a beauty unparalleled in the ambient guitar genre. “Slow Pull on a Long Thread” by Ian Crawford is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://wayfarermusicgroup.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "Streams And Dreams" by Niclas Lundqvist + Christian Alsemgeest from "Streams and Dreams"

* "Strange Beach" by Diogene from "The Ocean in Our Minds"

* "again a stranger" by anthéne + simon mccorry from "wellspring"

* "Vine" by Leafblighter from "Vine"

* "Concave" by William St Hugh from "To Forge a Darker Path"

* "Thoughts Mingle In Rain" by City Of Dawn + Rhucle from "Threads"

* "Departure" by Federica Deiana from "Fragments"

* "Crystals gleaming amidst cavern mists" by Spectrical from "Among Lunar Glaciers"

* "Unheard, Unseen" by HERE from "A Quiet Unease"

* "A Long Dusk (radio cut, part one)" by Thorny from "A Long Dusk"

* "An Imaginary Reality" by The Bird's Companion from "A Place Outside of Time"

* "By the Fire Safe and Warm" by Paul Beaudoin from "A Deep Winter's Snow"

* "Spatial Relation" by Naneum from "Dreams Remembered"

* "Fade, In The Dusk" by ILUITEQ + Eraldo Bernocchi from "Fade, Remain"

* "Go Home" by KapTep from "Exhale"

* "Savikalpa" by Ashot Danielyan from "Awakening"

* "The Long Thread" by Ian Crawford from "Slow Pull on a Long Thread"

* "String Drone Adagio V" by Henrik Meierkord from "String Drone Adagios"

* "Improv Session 20250313" by Stolace from "Improv Session 20250313"

BONUS Download!

Enjoy one of my improv sessions from March of 2025 — I think you’ll like this one. You can stream it right here, or download the mp3 file with the link provided. Have a great week!

Download the MP3

Thanks for listening to The Relay Station! Please share this episode with people you think might enjoy the programming!

If you wish to show your financial support for the program, please consider becoming a monthly supporter today — head over to stolace.com/support/ and give at whatever monthly amount seems prudent to you. Your financial contributions go a long way toward helping me keep this truly independent programming afloat.

Thank you!

In today's program we’re showcasing the collaborative space in ambient music, turning the spotlight on some notable compositions in the ambient, atmospheric, and neoclassical space. My two featured collaborations both have captivating results from working together over vast distances. I’ve got a new album from David Cordero and Rhucle that is beautiful through and through, worthy of your attention. And Edoardo Gastaldi and Jay Brewer bridge the divide between ambient and neoclassical with their memorable album!

Also in the chat, our conversational topic for today riffs off our theme of collaborations. What in your mind are some of the essential components to producing an effective collaboration? What are some of your favorite artists that have worked together? Let’s strike up a conversation!

Plus new ambient music from City of Dawn & Rhucle, Ambiente Solstice & Billy Denk, Robert Rich & Luca Formentini and many, many more....

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

The Relay Station is listener-supported. Subscribe for free, or become a supporter today with your monthly donation!

Featured artists

David Cordero & Rhuclehttps://davidcordero.bandcamp.comhttps://rhucle.bandcamp.comhttps://homenormal.bandcamp.com

Edoardo Gastaldi & Jay Brewer https://edoardogastaldi-music.bandcamp.comhttps://jaybrewer.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// "So Far, So Close" by David Cordero & Rhucle

New from the Home Normal label comes a mesmerizing ten-song release from the collaboration between Spanish electronic artist David Cordero and Japanese ambient artist Rhucle. “So Far, So Close” is one of those ambient albums that seems to stand apart in a league of its own — the synthesis has a voice unique unto itself, the minimalist piano feels more like rain drops falling from a tree after a storm, and the warmth of the album radiates a tangible connectedness — between the pair of artists, their relationship with the world around them, and their relationship with music itself. One of the things I appreciate most about this album is the delicate use of minimalism and taking great care to only present that which is truly necessary — to speak volumes with the fewest of words. Suffice to say, I love this album! "So Far, So Close" by David Cordero & Rhucle is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://homenormal.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// "Atlantic to Adriatic" by Edoardo Gastaldi + Jay Brewer

There’s a new collaboration out between ambient artist Jay Brewer and Italian composer Edoardo Gastaldi — and it is absolutely sublime. “Atlantic to Adriatic” takes us through a musical communion between two artists from near opposite ends of the world with extraordinary ambient and cinematic music that has a deeply contemplative vibe, introspective with every note and phrase, and is in no hurry to lead you to the finish line. With delicate minimalist piano motifs, alluring and evocative ambient guitar phrases and patterns, and other tantalizing ornamental sonic elements, “Atlantic to Adriatic” is the sort of album that you can expect to take you on a trip through memory, nostalgia, and expansive soundscapes of the imagination. "Atlantic to Adriatic" by Edoardo Gastaldi + Jay Brewer is available now on most streaming services as well as at their respective pages at bandcamp.com.

https://edoardogastaldi-music.bandcamp.comhttps://jaybrewer.bandcamp.com

Playlist

* "Petrichor" by City Of Dawn + Rhucle from "Threads"

* "Stone Eclipse" by Ambiente Solstice + Billy Denk from "Stone Eclipse"

* "Expression" by Exit Chamber + Ed Herbers from "SELF-"

* "Drēamcræft" by Philamelian + Elif Yalvaç from "Sediments"

* "Lunar Illusions" by Mirai No Hagaki + TL30 from "Lunar Illusions"

* "Primordial Awakening" by Byron Metcalf + John Gregorius + Sean O'Bryan Smith from "Primordial Awakening"

* "Horizontal Line" by David Cordero + Rhucle from "So Far, So Close"

* "minus seven degrees" by Le Code + Scarless Arms from "Absolute Zero"

* "Wind In Trees" by Gollden + Willows8ng from "Bathe In Colour"

* "Calming Shadow" by Michael D. Tidwell + Piscean Daydreams from "Ghost"

* "Door of Ornament" by Robert Rich and Luca Formentini from "Cloud Ornament"

* "Beyond, Winter Sun" by Seaworthy + Matt Rösner from "Deep Valley"

* "Backing Within the Mirrors" by City of Dawn + Ross Christopher from "Empty Rooms"

* "Radio Interference" by Ghostloop + Atmøsphäre from "Exosphere"

* "Reposado III" by Thorny and Matt Borghi from "Fragments of Distance"

* "Amare" by Hollie Kenniff + Helios from "For Forever"

* "That Saturday" by Edoardo Gastaldi + Jay Brewer from "Atlantic to Adriatic"

* "Space" by The Humble Bee + Offthesky from "Here In, Absence"

* "The Kraken" by Michael D. Tidwell + Henrik Meierkord from "In The Depths of Dreadful Waters & Menacing Seas"

* "Music for Migraines (Part 5) (Le Code Remix)" by KapTep + Brannan Lane from "Music for Migraines"

* "Fed On Lilies" by Benoît Pioulard + Offthesky from "Sunder"

* "Beyond Sleep (feat. Stolace)" by Billy Denk from "Beyond Sleep"

Plus new ambient music from Ben Kaya, Edoardo Gastaldi + Jay Brewer, Ashot Danielyan and many, many more....

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Enjoy listening to the Relay Station? Consider becoming a paid subscriber to show your love and support for the program!

Featured artists

Alexis Delozanne https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com

Philippe Deschamps https://philippedeschampsfilms.bandcamp.com

Featured album ///"Acclimatation" by Alexis Delozanne

I am absolutely in love with the new album from Alexis Delozanne on White Lab Recs. “Acclimatation” is an eight-song album from French electronic artist Alexis Delozanne that is a sublime blend of melodic synth motifs, effected found sounds and environmental recordings, dreamy ambient guitar, and a certain je ne sais quoi that encourages you to explore this beautiful work of art in repeated listening sessions. The melodic structure is hardly conventional and introduces a playful exploratory quality, reflecting Delozanne’s unencumbered compositional aesthetic. Between the story-like quality of each track, the charm of the synthetic tones, and the analog warmth woven throughout, I find it quite easy to settle into a place of ease the very moment I hit play. “Acclimatation” by Alexis Delozanne is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com.

Featured album ///"Remember the Clouds" by Philippe Deschamps

One of my favorite French ambient artists is out with a brand new EP that sets the stage for a distinctly reflective listening experience. “Remember the Clouds” by Philippe Deschamps marks his 15th release on Bandcamp with this daydream-inducing four-song EP. Deschamps sublimely blends warm ambient guitar, subtle ethereal synth elements, soft and silk-like noise, and a smooth and steady drone to tie each element together. It really is a sublime listening experience and is spacious and gentle enough to use during meditation, for deep relaxed states, or inspire your next creative flow state with absolutely no jarring elements to disrupt your focus. If you’re on the lookout for new meditative ambient music, look no further. “Remember the Clouds” by Philippe Deschamps is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://philippedeschampsfilms.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "deux ans" by Ben Kaya from "Advanced Comp"

* "The World Under the Snow" by Edoardo Gastaldi + Jay Brewer from "Atlantic to Adriatic"

* "Divine Light of Grace" by Ashot Danielyan from "Awakening"

* "Interpretation I" by M. Cross Dougherty from "Interpretation"

* "All of a Sudden" by Morning Haze from "Between Wake and Sleep"

* "Looking Glass" by Michelle Qureshi from "Be In This World"

* "Shubangi" by Alexis Delozanne from "Acclimatation"

* "A Threshold to Stillness (Abridged Mix)" by Loneward from "Abridged Dimensions"

* "After the Silence" by Htennek Niwhsa from "After the Silence (single)"

* "Starship Antares" by Interstellar Data Unit from "Crossing The Heliopause"

* "Singly Counterpoised" by Adrian Lane from "Desire Paths"

* "Holding Patterns" by KapTep from "Exhale"

* "Will You Forgive Me" by Gregory Paul Mineeff from "Exhumed"

* "Vernal" by Giovanni Di Domenico + Pak Yan Lau + and John Also Bennett from "Tidal Perspectives"

* "Heart Opening" by Sherry Finzer from "Heart Meditations"

* "Night Time Whispers (Solo)" by Liesbet Leroy + Le Code from "Kindred Spirit"

* "Remember the Clouds" by Philippe Deschamps from "Remember the Clouds"

* "ENDBOSS / PERMADEATH" by sonaura from "SNOWGLOBE"

* "Awakening" by Elisabeth Klinck from "Picture a Frame"

* "Remember Yesterday Differently (feat. Sean O'Bryan Smith)" by Ambiente Solstice from "A Question of Time"

* "Into The Glare" by Ah! Kosmos + Hainbach from "Into the Glare (single)"

* "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave" by Stolace from "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave (single)"

Thanks for listening to The Relay Station! Share this episode with other ambient music lovers!

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Show your support for The Relay Station! Become a supporter today!

Featured artists

HolyKindOf https://soundcloud.com/holykindof https://laaps.bandcamp.com

Interstellar Data Unit https://wayfarermusicgroup.bandcamp.com

“Stay / Sea" by HolyKindOf

New from Laaps Records comes a three-song EP from Ohio-based experimental electronic artist J. Bryan Parks, who operates under the project name HolyKindOf. “Stay / Sea” is the sort of boundary-less experimental electronic album that tests the elasticity and receptivity of conventional music lovers with its dense layers of effected loops, cello-based drones, field recordings, tape and vinyl textures, and other analog elements. It’s an evocative listening experience that is both bewildering and increasingly intriguing with each passing phrase. There’s a beauty in the slow burn, the undemanding evolution of sound, and the equanimous drone surrounded by the squeals of vinyl and cassettes. It’s unlike anything I’ve heard and is an essential for the adventurous listener. “Stay / Sea" by HolyKindOf is available now at https://laaps.bandcamp.com.

“Crossing the Heliopause” by Interstellar Data Unit

New from the Wayfarer Music Group label comes a space-inspired album that will take you to deep-space destinations with a simple press of the play button. Washington-based ambient and electronic artist Interstellar Data Unit’s new album “Crossing the Heliopause” is chock-full of longer-form compositions that take you through atmospheric environments filled with hushed radio chatter, the soft ambient noise of ventilation systems, the ornamental bloops and bleeps of navigational computers, and a wash of spacious instrumentation to bring it all together. It’s common knowledge among my music-loving friends that I love a good space-themed musical experience — well the new album from Interstellar Data Unit will be right at home alongside my other favorite space-themed albums, leading me on an expedition through the frontier of my imagination. “Crossing the Heliopause” by Interstellar Data Unit is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://wayfarermusicgroup.bandcamp.com.

Attention ambient, atmospheric, and neoclassical artists

If you’re a musician and create music that falls somewhere within the continuum of ambient, atmospheric, or neoclassical and cinematic music, submit your music for consideration for The Relay Station! We air both independent and signed artists from all around the world, playing a wide spectrum of music within the ambient genre.

Head over to stolace.com/relay-station/artists/, read the info there to make sure your music is a suitable fit, and then submit it today for consideration! I listen to everything that is submitted!

Playlist

* "The Kadmon" by Jason Potter from "Adam Kadmon"

* "Lacunarity (Abridged Mix)" by Loneward from "Abridged Dimensions"

* "The Missing" by Arrival in Eden from "The Missing (single)"

* "For Forever" by Hollie Kenniff from "For Forever"

* "The Inner Garden" by Ian Crawford from "Slow Pull on a Long Thread"

* "Solstice Song" by Hiram from "Solstice Song (single)"

* "Requiem, Et Cetera" by HolyKindOf from "Stay / Sea"

* "I don't deserve your curses" by Tout from "Fourth"

* "Plastic Swords" by The Choir from "Translucent"

* "Tomorrow" by Josiah Steinbrick from "For Anyone That Knows You"

* "Stargazing (No Nature Ambience)" by Sun Echo from "Stargazing"

* "A Deep Conciseness" by Dellasollounge from "Voyager"

* "Kilometre Club - Geography Major (Metric System 1981 Rework)" by Kilometre Club from "The Downwind Uproar: A Kilometre Club Remixtape"

* "Prima Materia" by Paul Beaudoin from "Alchemies"

* "Restless City" by Edoardo Gastaldi + Jay Brewer from "Atlantic to Adriatic"

* "Kylie" by Jörgen Gustafsson from "a darkened harbour"

* "Titan Port After Ceres" by Interstellar Data Unit from "Crossing The Heliopause"

* "Vague Parisiennes" by Alexis Delozanne from "Acclimatation"

* "What Is a Month for the Sea" by Adrian Lane from "Desire Paths"

* "Poche" by Loess from "Battens"

* "Drone Zone" by Chris Cox from "Moonshowers: Vol. 2 Shadowcaster"

* "Relay Station // Gravity" by Stolace from "Relay Station // Gravity"

Thanks for listening to The Relay Station! Spread the word about the program and share it with your friends and colleagues!

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Featured artists ///

KapTep https://kaptep.bandcamp.comhttps://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com

Morning Haze https://morninghaze.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// “Exhale” by KapTep

New from Chitra Records comes a new full-length, eleven-song release from electronic artist Derek Carter who operates under the project name KapTep. Like most ambient music that keeps me engaged and actively listening, “Exhale” by KapTep is rich with intrigue and mystique through its alluring textures and soundscapes, its tasteful levels of dissonance and musical tension and release, and the album’s mesmerizing musical layers that set the stage for your imagination. I found the album to have a natural sense of balance between suspense and tranquility — like the natural ebb and flow of the tide. There’s a beautiful story to be told here, and it’s up to you — the listener — to fill in the blanks for yourself! I highly recommend this album for your ambient playlist! "Exhale" by KapTep is available now on most streaming music services as well as on limited edition cassette and CD at https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// "Between Wake and Sleep" by Morning Haze

Italian electronic artist Raffaele Monego, who operates under the name Morning Haze has a new EP that explores the mysterious spaces between the waking world and our dreams. “Between Wake and Sleep” by Morning Haze is a solid EP through and through — there are definite retro synthesizer vibes that harken back to 80s electronic music, delicate ornamentals and textures to add interest, and patterns and motifs that have a hook-like quality and draw you in deeper into the compositions. I particularly enjoyed the contrasting melodic motifs juxtaposition to the countering rhythmic elements and ARP sequences, which help keep the album moving along… and before you know it, it’s all over and time to hit play again, and again, and again. “Between Wake and Sleep” by Morning Haze is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://morninghaze.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "Distillation of Light" by Paul Beaudoin from "Alchemies"

* "Bateau Mouche" by Alexis Delozanne from "Acclimatation"

* "Conversation on a Train" by Edoardo Gastaldi + Jay Brewer from "Atlantic to Adriatic"

* "Emptiness in the Silence" by Ashot Danielyan from "Awakening"

* "Scheherazade" by Tamer Elshabrawy from "Clown code"

* "The Quiet Stillness" by Billy Denk from "Beneath the Peaceful Sky"

* "The Day the Internet Went Away" by KapTep + Christian Alsemgeest from "Exhale"

* "soliloquy" by anthéne from "frailty"

* "History's Whisper" by Loneward from "Gossamer Wings of Illusion"

* "Dead of Winter" by Kilometre Club from "It Doesn't Snow In Toronto Anymore"

* "If Only They Can Listen Us" by Diogene from "Memories From A Past Life"

* "Aurora" by Brannan Lane + v e n n from "Northern Lights"

* "Circles Intersect" by Chris Cox from "Moonshowers: Vol. 2 Shadowcaster"

* "Glass" by First Snow of the Year from "Norwegian White"

* "Syllables" by Soloi Sounds from "Pictures"

* "Cloud Waves" by Philippe Deschamps from "Remember the Clouds"

* "Eternal" by Morning Haze from "Between Wake and Sleep"

* "Gravity Assist Maneuver" by Interstellar Data Unit from "Crossing The Heliopause"

* "Cosmic Choir" by Rildrim from "Fractal Universe"

* "When the Water Comes" by Thorny from "Flood"

* "String Drone Adagio II" by Henrik Meierkord from "String Drone Adagios"

* "Descent" by Manny Kefalos from "Today Until Tomorrow"

* "Snow Bloom" by Lake Mary + Daniel Wyche from "Deer's Breathe In Every Color"

* "In the Stillness of Green" by Deep Dive Sound from "Where Shadows Sleep"

* "Snow/Sand" by Taylor Deupree from "Sti.ll"

* "Macrocosm" by AITIA from "ANE"

* "The Story of Utopias" by Toni Dimitrov from "The Story of Utopias"

* "Atmos (complete)" by Stolace from "Atmos"

If you enjoy The Relay Station, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber today!

Attention ambient artists

Submit your music to The Relay Station to be considered for our rotation of global ambient, atmospheric, and neoclassical music. My passion is to support you and your music — submit your music today to be heard!

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

About the Asheville Rising compilation album

Asheville Rising is a compilation album organized by some people that care about the small community of Asheville, North Carolina, which was hit pretty hard in the wake of Hurricane Helene in 2024. Because our current administration has turned their back on the citizens of Asheville, the rebuilding effort has largely been left up to them and the surrounding communities, organizations, and charities that have stepped up to help them in their efforts.

The Relay Station community has also risen to this challenge, supporting this compilation album [which can be purchased at ashevillerising.bandcamp.com] and the non-profit charity that benefits from the proceeds — Beloved Asheville. You can donate directly to Beloved Asheville at belovedasheville.com or purchase the compilation album this Friday, March 7th on Bandcamp Friday, when 100% of the proceeds will go directly to the non-profit Beloved Asheville, whose purpose is to help the underserved and the underprivileged in Asheville. Please, dig deep and show some serious generosity!

Featured artists ///

Billy Denk https://billydenk.bandcamp.comhttps://wayfarermusicgroup.bandcamp.com

Anthéne https://anthene.bandcamp.comhttps://homenormal.bandcamp.com

“Beneath the Peaceful Sky” by Billy Denk

Following up to his beautiful 2024 release, comes the nine-song release from electronic artist Billy Denk on the Wayfarer Music Group label. “Beneath the Peaceful Sky” by Billy Denk checks off a number of my essentials when it comes to great music that falls within the shared spectrum of new age and ambient music — qualities like retro-synthesizer inspired ARP patterns, judiciously peppered ornamental accents, and melodic-driven motifs that tell a story. Billy’s new album evokes the nostalgia I feel for tuning into Hearts of Space in my much younger days, hearing the bloops and bleeps, the atmospheric ambiance, the subtle ornamental accents, and the wide spectrum of electronic synthesis — it’s all here, and it’s all peaceful. “Beneath the Peaceful Sky” by Billy Denk is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://wayfarermusicgroup.bandcamp.com.

"Frailty" by Anthéne

New from Home Normal comes a strikingly gorgeous album from ambient guitarist Brad Deschamps under the name Anthéne. “Frailty” is a seven-song album that sets a new high bar for me in guitar-based ambient music. Deschamps cleverly blends looped guitar drones, alluring spacious atmospheres, soft textures and distortions, and minimalist melodic phrases to help lead the listener along a liminal walk on the pier, gazing into the colorless gradient across the horizon. “Frailty” by Anthéne is unlike anything I’ve ever heard in the ambient music genre, which is saying something. This marks Anthéne’s tenth release on the Home Normal record label, adding to his already amazing body of work in the ambient music genre — it’s an album that you can’t afford to miss. “Frailty” by Anthéne is available March 7th on most streaming music services as well as at https://homenormal.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "Freedom Dispatch" by Morning Haze from "Between Wake and Sleep"

* "Frigid" by Leafblighter from "Passed Winter"

* "Endoctamb" by Loess from "Battens"

* "Rest" by William Thomson from "Serene"

* "Kosmisk Strålning" by Marco Lucchi + Henrik Meierkord from "Lieder Ohne Worte"

* "I Remember You With Wind in Your Hair" by Ian Crawford from "Slow Pull on a Long Thread"

* "Twilight Glow" by Billy Denk from "Beneath the Peaceful Sky"

* "Shaconage Dawn" by On Idyl from "Asheville Rising: An Ambient Compilation to Benefit Hurricane Relief Efforts in Western NC"

* "Anthem" by Gabe Churray from "Asheville Rising: An Ambient Compilation to Benefit Hurricane Relief Efforts in Western NC"

* "And Then We Will Unite" by Ed Herbers from "Asheville Rising: An Ambient Compilation to Benefit Hurricane Relief Efforts in Western NC"

* "Truth in the Emptiness" by Ashot Danielyan from "Awakening"

* "Triangle Inequality" by David Cordero + Rhucle from "So Far, So Close"

* "Fleeting Light (No Nature Ambience)" by Sun Echo from "Stargazing"

* "Seven" by Sun Rain from "Imaginary North Transmission 009"

* "Linger in Moments" by Hollie Kenniff from "For Forever"

* "Consciousness Part 6" by Bruce Gall from "FRAGMENTED"

* "mapping out the memories" by anthéne from "frailty"

* "The Serenity of Dreams" by Dino Pacifici + Brannan Lane from "Imaginary Horizons"

* "Stuck Below" by Chris Cox from "Moonshowers: Vol. 2 Shadowcaster"

* "And So Goodbye For Now" by James Murray from "Landscapes of Lovers"

* "Utopian Plains" by Entheogenic Sound Explorers from "Open"

* "18" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

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Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Featured artists

Thornyhttps://witherwillow.bandcamp.com

City of Dawnhttps://cityofdawn.bandcamp.com

Featured album /// "A Long Dusk" by Thorny

I have a soft spot for long-form ambient music that takes its time to tell a story well beyond the commonly accepted limits of popular music. New from Vermont-based ambient artist Thorny, comes the long-form composition “A Long Dusk” clocking in at nearly 44 minutes in length and slowly, but methodically tells a story of change and transition, and the contemplative wake it leaves behind. The instrumentation evolves with the sort of minimalism that would leave people with a short attention span squeamish and begging for mercy, but I’m here to tell you that it’s a intriguingly beautiful space that Thorny has created and is worthwhile coming along for the ride with its deeply atmospheric layers of suspense and intrigue — it’s a long form composition that deserves your time and attention. "A Long Dusk" by Thorny is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://witherwillow.bandcamp.com.

Featured album /// Rhucle - Cycle (City Of Dawn Remix)" by City of Dawn

There is nothing like a warm conversation to put you at ease, to help you feel like you belong and have a place in this world. Well the new remix album from City of Dawn somehow manages to replicate that feeling in the beautiful remix of the album “Cycle” by Japanese ambient artist Rhucle. While honoring the beauty of the original release and its esthetic, Damian of City of Dawn masterfully creates a musical dialogue with the original album and produces a new work that feels comforting and reassuring, like a dear friend coming along side you, putting their arm around you in solidarity, and giving you an affectionate kiss on the forehead, telling you that everything is going to be alright. It’s the sort of album that I’d recommend as a part of your self-care routine. “Cycle (City Of Dawn Remix)” is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://cityofdawn.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "Open Cold Heart" by HERE from "A Quiet Unease"

* "Expansive White Fallen" by Oblivion8 from "Passed Winter"

* "The Floors of Heaven" by Michael D. Tidwell + Silvia Blaser from "The Floors of Heaven (single)"

* "make me feel" by Gollden from "birds in september (expanded edition)"

* "Close to Home" by Ryan Judd from "Close to Home"

* "Transmedium" by Piscean Daydreams from "Unidentified Ambient Phenomena, Vol. 1"

* "A Long Dusk (radio cut, part 3)" by Thorny from "A Long Dusk"

* "Stars in Silence" by Billy Denk from "Beneath the Peaceful Sky"

* "Everlasting Nights" by Aaron J. Noth from "Passed Winter"

* "identity" by Jörgen Gustafsson from "a darkened harbour"

* "The Silence of Pallas (Ancient Astronaut Remix)" by Philippe Deschamps from "Ambient Cat Remixes, Vol. 1"

* "Mother Harmonature" by Tiger Arcade from "Asheville Rising: An Ambient Compilation to Benefit Hurricane Relief Efforts in Western NC"

* "The Loch Ness Monster" by Michael D. Tidwell + Henrik Meierkord from "In The Depths of Dreadful Waters & Menacing Seas"

* "Eternal" by Sun Rain from "mea culpa"

* "Music for Migraines (Part 3)" by KapTep + Brannan Lane from "Music for Migraines"

* "Free" by Zen Lemon from "Musikforheadphones"

* "Cycle (City Of Dawn Remix)" by City Of Dawn from "Rhucle - Cycle (City Of Dawn Remix)"

* "Reflection" by Exit Chamber + Ed Herbers from "SELF-"

* "Åtta år senare" by Rotating Tapes from "2"

* "in medias res" by anthéne from "frailty"

* "Imago" by Thme from "Anti Atlas"

* "21" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

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Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

Featured artist information

Henrik Meierkord https://henrikmeierkord.bandcamp.com

Passed Recordingshttps://passedrecordings.bandcamp.com

"String Drone Adagios" by Henrik Meierkord

Few artists that I have known in my lifetime match the prolific catalog of Swedish cellist Henrik Meierkord. With over 70 of his own releases on Bandcamp in addition to the seemingly innumerable collaborations found on other record labels and Bandcamp profiles, Meierkord adds to his legacy with a stunning drone-fueled ambient album released through Imaginary North Records. “String Drone Adagios” is alluring, mesmerizing, hauntingly beautiful, and mystique-laiden from start to finish with layer upon layer of minimalist strings. This eight-song album clocks in at an hour and 20 minutes and is rewarding for the attentive listener, those that can sustain an attention span longer than this 60-second short. You have to hear this album for yourself. "String Drone Adagios" by Henrik Meierkord is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://imaginarynorth.bandcamp.com.

"Passed Winter" by Passed Recordings

Very rarely have I showcased compilation albums on The Relay Station — but every now and then one with a charitable angle catches my attention that beckons to be heard by a wider audience. New from Passed Recordings comes the new compilation album featuring 37 ambient works from artists from around the world, sharing their music to help benefit the charity Doctors Without Borders. With artists like Exit Chamber, Ed Herbers, Jenn Jacobsen, Authentek, Purity Olympics, and Pollyanna to name just a few, this almost four-hour-long compilation will keep you fueled with a wide-ranging beautiful palette of ambient music to last you throughout your day as you read, work on that art project, or just unwind after a long day. And with 80% of the proceeds going to benefit Doctors Without Borders, how can you possibly go wrong? "Passed Winter" by Passed Recordings is available now at https://passedrecordings.bandcamp.com.

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Playlist

* "The End" by Ben Chatwin from "The Beginning"

* "Sill" by Soloi Sounds from "Pictures"

* "The Black Sun" by Paul Beaudoin from "Alchemies"

* "Carousel (feat. Six Missing)" by The Album Leaf from "ROTATIONS"

* "Awakening" by Ashot Danielyan from "Awakening"

* "A Quiet Unease" by HERE from "A Quiet Unease"

* "String Drone Adagio I" by Henrik Meierkord from "String Drone Adagios"

* "When I Dream I Fly With You" by Larkenlyre from "Dragonfly Halfdreams"

* "Venusia II" by Henrik Meierkord, Pawel Kobak, Marco Lucchi, Rocco Saviano from "Imaginary North Transmission 008"

* "Celestial Whispers" by Mirai No Hagaki & TL30 from "Lunar Illusions"

* "Reflets" by Laurie Torres from "Après coup"

* "孤　ko" by Tomoyoshi Date from "『Piano Triology』- Requiem -"

* "Veins (Veils)" by Hara Alonso from "touch•me•not"

* "Wait It Out" by Sebby Kowal from "We Are One"

* "Evergreen (with Michael Scott Dawson)" by Kilometre Club from "An Alphabet Of Distance"

* "Low Motion" by KapTep from "Exhale"

* "The Silence of Frost" by Jenn Jacobsen from "Passed Winter"

* "Midwinter Mirages" by Eigenwelt from "Passed Winter"

* "Unbrak (The Thaw)" by Exit Chamber from "Passed Winter"

* "Safehaven" by James Murray from "Safehaven (single)"

* "fin (day 31)" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

There are layer upon layer of varying textures, mystique-filled sounds and instrumentation, and mesmerizing swells coaxing you into an absolute state of bliss. I could describe the music with more words and in exhausting detail, but that’s far less interesting than just hearing the album for yourself. If you head over to Home Normal’s Bandcamp profile, you’ll find the pre-order for Anthéne’s album “Frailty” with two tracks that you can listen to now. “Frailty” is available March 7, 2025.

But I’ve heard the entire album… and it has unmistakenly secured a slot in my Featured Album segments for The Relay Station. I want to write so much more about the other tracks and the vivid impressions they leave me, but you’ll just have to wait until the March 2nd broadcast of The Relay Station to hear more on the matter.

I listen to everything… almost…

There have been quite a few transcendent ambient albums that have crossed my desk and left an indelible imprint. Invariably when I’m rifling through dozens of submissions, efficiency is paramount — I simply cannot listen to everything in its entirety, otherwise I’d forever be underwater, drowning in music. It’s more common for radio stations to simply discard a submission even if it doesn’t look right.

There is one small caveat, and even that caveat has its own condition. If something’s just blatantly not in the right postal code for The Relay Station, I’ll listen to a song or three — maybe even more if the music piques my curiosity. But if it’s a heavy submission week, non-relevant music may only get one track out of me, or maybe 15-20 seconds on each track, breezing through them to get a better sense of the album as a whole.

But every once in a while, Ed from Dense Promotions or some other avant garde record label or artist will send me something out of the blue — completely inappropriate for the programming — but will totally open my eyes to new possibilities, or be a new artist or style that I discover for myself and further broaden my horizons of what I’ll listen to.

Did I say one caveat? Make it two.

Looooooooooooooooooooooong-form ambient performances.

You know, the hour-long jam you had with your partner and immediately uploaded to Bandcamp, or the four-hour drone you made from generative synthesis and let the computer make it evolve and develop its own sentient state. I’ll give it about 10-15 minutes, skipping through various sections to get an idea of how it evolves (musically, not in its level of consciousness). But you can bet that while I’m at my daytime gig, or in the car, or on the go picking up groceries, I am slapping on that 3-hour drone you sent me, and am loving it. However, when I’m doing the initial intake — you’ll be fortunate to get ten minutes if it at all resembles Taylor Deupree’s album Stil. with its absolute minimalist changes over the course of the whole composition.

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I appreciate it all, truthfully

That doesn’t mean I like everything I hear, but one philosophy that I’ve adopted a few years back was to embrace as much of life as I can with a curious mind — seeking as much as I humanly can to understand before I pass too much judgment. It’s an extremely difficult task sometimes, but I put in the effort.

I know I brought up Taylor’s beautiful minimalist drone album Sti.ll — but not to make light of or to call out. It’s sheer genius work and requires an attentive, curious listener — looking for patterns, listening to the relationship between the various instruments or frequencies, hearing the sympathetic rhythms and harmonies that occur naturally in the musician’s choices, and on the deeper end tapping into how the composition makes you feel emotionally, mentally, and physically.

But when it’s music that doesn’t quite jive with my tastes, I can still ask myself questions about it to foster a bit more curiosity and openness, a broader willingness to try something different — not just in listening, but also in doing.

It challenges me in good ways, often with fruitful results

I had participated in “Jamuary 2025” this year, performing and recording an ambient composition every day of the month of January. One of the goals was to stretch myself, to try new things, and explore broader territories — which as one example, the above track emerged out of attempting to create a piece using no inputs and only an internal feedback loop.

Using a few different effected loops generated from feedback loops, I live-recorded a drone making microtonal adjustments to each sampling layer on the Boss RC-505 MKII loop station and running it through additional effects to produce something that sounds extremely mysterious and intriguing to me.

This exercise encouraged me to look at noise as a musical source, a valid instrument. Now, can you create ordinary music entirely with feedback loops? Probably not, at least not without some granular synthesis shenanigans afoot. But you can create some pretty intense liminal spaces and atmospheric listening experiences — ones that have their own unique key signature, their own independent scale and rhythm — it’s a completely different language.

When we think about music that is vastly different from our tastes, it helps to think of it as learning a new language, a new culture, and a new way of living or thinking. This forces you to look at the music from within the context of that artist, from the viewpoints of those who typically frequently consume that style of music, and from observing and speculating on the raw, honest emotions conveyed in the music itself. And sometimes it’s completely not about emotions all, but some extreme mathematic formula plugged into a generative synthesis unit and further expressed and manipulated through dozens of other devices all for the sake of making something that just sounds cool to them.

The point is, it is extremely helpful to get on the inside of the music, and look outward from their vantage point to appreciate a style that just isn’t your jam.

Anything can be interesting if you are able to land the right frequency in your perspective. That doesn’t mean that the music is technically good — it could be downright rotten-sounding. But when empathy is one of the primary ingredients in your listening session, you’re apt to hear it in a different way that helps you appreciate where the artist is in their journey and where they might be coming from — remembering that this is an expression unique to that individual or group, and is generally a very personal expression.

One more track, and I gotta run.

Another artist to watch, Rotating Tapes

This is my friend Frasier, who is the brainchild behind the ambient project Rotating Tapes. He just released a new album entitled “2” and it’s super dreamy — a luscious blend of felt upright piano, blurry-eyed pads and synths, soft washes of gentle noise to massage your mind, and packaged together in a hypnotic blend of neoclassical and ambient music.

You should follow him at Bandcamp.

His first full-length release, aptly entitled “1” is this seamless gem of an album — damn near indescribable, but because I’m verbose and have a respectable vocabulary this shouldn’t be too difficult. ….especially since I had featured “1” on The Relay Station nearly a year ago on February 18th in episode 5.07. That feature read…

Have you ever been hypnotized by sounds produced from electronics — and I mean deeply hypnotized — where time slows to the pace of a pine tree bleeding its sap, or the slow meandering of the moon caressing the night sky with its radiance? When I sit with the new album “1” from Rotating Tapes, my thoughts take a back seat to my imagination, giving way to warmth, color, and a feeling of ease that blooms with each generative note and phrase. This six-song release is rich with placid borders inviting you to cross over into a seamless ruminative sensory experience for the mind, to come and just be.

It’s that good.

It’s the reason why I listen to everything that crosses my desk, I sift through the vast sums, widths, and breadths of music that comes to me on a weekly basis hoping to hear that one track, or that whole album that resonates with me so deeply, that I experience a new kind of serenity wrapped up in someone else’s privately recorded musical session — experimenting with their DAW, or toying around with different settings on their analog synths — it’s all an adventure for me. I’m on the safari of a lifetime — hearing, experiencing, and feeling the vast diversity there is in this beautiful genre we call ambient.

Peace. Be kind to yourself and to others.

Strap in and make yourself comfortable, join us for the next two hours for global ambient music, on The Stolace Relay Station.

The Relay Station is listener-supported service. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Featured artist information

Michael D. Tidwell + Piscean Daydreamshttps://ambientcat.bandcamp.com

Rotating Tapeshttps://rotatingtapes.bandcamp.com

"Ghost" by Michael D Tidwell & Piscean Daydreams

New from Ambient Cat Records is the latest collaboration between Michael D. Tidwell and Piscean Daydreams. “Ghost” is an ambient album that leans a little toward the darker end of the continuum, filled with veiled textures, illusory instrumental subtleties, and mystique-laiden arrangements. While I’m tempted to talk about the music, it’s the collaboration that struck me in how Tidwell and Piscean Daydreams crafted a unifying sound that feels less like a pair of artists and more like the amalgamation of the creative energy flowing through each and every one of us. With its hazy layers balancing the ever-expansive soundscapes, I found the album pleasing to listen to, subtle enough for moments of deep focus and reflection — a great addition for your ambient playlists. "Ghost" by Michael D Tidwell & Piscean Daydreams is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://ambientcat.bandcamp.com.

"2" by Rotating Tapes

Rotating Tapes is out with a brand new album, one that I’ve been eagerly waiting for since the arrival of their first album, “1”. While the new album name can’t be construed as profound or thought-provoking, “2” by Rotating Tapes gets right down to it with deliciously minimalist soft noise and dreamy textural layering, with ample space for the felt piano to take center stage in this absolutely beautiful five-song EP. It is a modest departure from their previous work, but Rotating Tapes has proven themselves flexible and able to expand their palette in the ambient and atmospheric genres. The music is perfectly paired with the cover art — there’s a tangible feeling of nostalgia, memory, and contemplation and somehow the music is able to reach inside and leave its imprint. You owe it to yourself to savor this beautiful listening experience. "2" by Rotating Tapes is available now on most streaming music services as well as at https://rotatingtapes.bandcamp.com.

Playlist

* "Structural Eternal (Abridged Mix)" by Loneward from "Abridged Dimensions"

* "Dragonfish" by Dionisaf from "Deep Ocean Creatures"

* "Quiet Mind (Solo Version)" by Human Is Alive from "Thoughts"

* "Gateway of the East" by Ice Locus from "Asheville Rising: An Ambient Compilation to Benefit Hurricane Relief Efforts in Western NC"

* "The Silo Of Silence" by Authentek from "Passed Winter"

* "Lament" by ILUITEQ from "Fauna"

* "Faint Whisper of a Wraith" by Michael D. Tidwell & Piscean Daydreams from "Ghost"

* "Where the Sea Meets the Shore (Solo)" by Liesbet Leroy, Bahrambient from "Kindred Spirit"

* "Sequencing" by Naneum from "Dreams Remembered"

* "A Long Dusk (radio cut, part 2)" by Thorny from "A Long Dusk"

* "Water Moon" by Park Jiha from "All Living Things"

* "Fall in Love (City Of Dawn Remix)" by City Of Dawn from "Rhucle - Cycle (City Of Dawn Remix)"

* "please don't record" by purity olympics from "Passed Winter"

* "If You Love Solitude, You Don't Love Freedom" by Tomat from "OHT Frankenstein"

* "Scavenger (Dionisaf Remix)" by KapTep from "Latitude Longitude"

* "Milky Way" by AITIA from "Monad"

* "Formad av regn och vind" by Rotating Tapes from "2"

* "Boundaries" by Seaworthy & Matt Rösner from "Deep Valley"

* "CHEATCODE" by sonaura from "SNOWGLOBE"

* "Modus Operandi" by Sun Rain from "mea culpa"

* "Shard" by Soloi Sounds from "Pictures"

* "Go Slowly, Slowly Go (with E J R M)" by Kilometre Club from "An Alphabet Of Distance"

* "Peaceful Painted Sky" by Brannan Lane from "Northern Lights"

* "Tranquil Dawn Embrace" by Billy Denk from "Beneath the Peaceful Sky"

* "25" by Stolace from "Jamuary 2025"

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