“Spin Glass” by storyinsoil is an Ambient IDM Piece That Sounds Like the Score of a Utopian, Existential Science Fiction Drama From the ‘70s

storyinsoil, photo courtesy the artist

The rapid-cycling, almost iterative aspect of storyinsoil’s “Spin Glass” with the intro has a minimalistic quality of early synthesizer music but as the track progresses the modulated, lower end tonal rhythm anchors the song. The circular bright tone increases in volume and brightness and then decreases giving a real sense of space allowing for other layers to express a more delicate emotional coloring from inside its framing. The percussive aspect of the more prominent sounds lends the song a tactile quality and the more subtle sounds one more melancholic yet imbued with a sense of wonder. Toward the conclusion the song gives way to a touch of more conventional melody as the rhythms fade out conveying a cinematic quality to the song like the closing credits of one of those existential science fiction and adventure films of the 1970s and 1980s the likes of which were typically soundtracked by the likes of Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh. This doesn’t feel like a homage to that era of synthesizer music so much as finding a fresh application of the way that music had an analog tonal quality that was as palpable as it was atmospheric. Listen to “Spin Glass” on YouTube and follow storyinsoil at the links provided.

storyinsoil on Twitter

storyinsoil on Instagram

Drum & Lace Soundtracks a Future Science Fiction Body Horror Classic on IDM Ambient Single “Lichen”

Drum & Lace, photo by Priscilla C. Scott

“Lichen,” the lead single from Drum & Lace’s forthcoming EP Terra (out March 13, 2026 via Mesh), is brimming with richly saturated synth tone in the foreground and layers of well-crafted percussion/textures and rhythmic bass coursing through the song. The music video looks like a kind of video from an alien scientist examining a biological specimen through a high tech imaging method that links observable phenomena with boxes and lines as a graphic interrelational tool. The sound design approach of the composition and arrangement immediately puts your mind into a state of curiosity and wonder and wanting more of where this music and the visuals are leading without a word having to be spoken or lyrics providing a narrative. Alex Garland, David Cronenberg, Flying Lotus should tap the cleverly named Drum & Lace for soundtrack work in upcoming films because Sofia degli Alessandri-Hultquist clearly has a keen ear for futuristic vibes and a command of combining IDM, ambient and dubtechno aesthetics. Watch the video for “Lichen” on YouTube and follow Drum & Lace at the links below.

drumeandlacemusic.com

Drum & Lace on Instagram

Drum & Lace on Bandcamp

Ana Hausmann’s “nausea-stalgia” is an Organic Ambient Articulation of the Dark Mysteries of Nighttime Streets

Ana Hausmann, photo courtesy the artist

In the organically immersive flow of Ana Hausmann’s “nausea-stalgia” one hears not just intermittent textures like hearing the detritus in the breeze of nighttime streets on the edges of an urban sprawl. The oddly harmonic scraping of hinges articulated by processed violin harmonics, the plinking of kalimba like sonically stylized droplets of rain and the low rumble of bowed guitar like the barely felt but always present thrum of aircraft from an airport in the distance. The field recordings of wind and environmental noise is used with such care it is impossible to fully tell the difference between that and an intentionally generated sound such is Hausmann’s care in the mix and layering of elements in the aim of crafting a unique listening experience. It is a “song” in an expanded understanding of the term as a composition that evokes emotion and provokes a psychological response. In this case it is a sense of mystery and distant menace, of a haunted landscape nearby whose tendrils of mood are in a constant drift to draw you in to something that might be fascinating if not dangerous. Listen to “nausea-stalgia” on YouTube and follow Ana Hausmann on Spotify.