SubmitHub – Page 28 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Ben Lukas Boysen’s Ambient Single “Alta Ripa” is the Sound of Easing Into a Time of Rest

Ben Lukas Boysen, photo courtesy the artist

“Alta Ripa” comes in like a slow moving snowstorm late at night. Ben Lukas Boysen’s arrangements of harmonic drones roil languidly and blanket the soundscape with cool, subtle layers that drift and flow, conveying a sense of settling in. The harmonies linger and dissolve into the generated mood. It’s like hearing distant horns signaling a time of rest and reflection in some distant future when the world is at rest and able to indulge some extended periods of inactivity imposed by the onset of winter at least for a night or a two. The sound can wax melancholic but ultimately it is one of ease into a headspace of peace. Listen to “Alta Ripa” on YouTube and follow Ben Lukas Boysen at the links below.

Ben Lukas Boysen on X

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Ben Lukas Boysen on Instagram

Baldemar’s Shimmering Dream Pop Single “Vampire Thoughts” is an Elegant Unraveling of Tangled Emotions

The melodic shimmer opening Baldemar’s “Vampire Thoughts” lets you know you’re in for a song that is filled with mixed emotions, some nostalgic, some bittersweet, some melancholic, others regretful. The song is about the kinds of thoughts that leech the exuberance out of life while delving into how these thoughts and patterns of mind we might have roots in our experiences and a habit of dwelling on the moments that sink deep into our psyches. Though the song has a lo-fi production aspect it suits the mood of the song perfectly as it sounds like something out of daydreams and flights of self-reflective fancy that help you through dark times and personal doldrums to get where you may need to land in the end once you’ve process the tangle of emotions and the thoughts that reinforce them. It’s a striking piece of music on working through your heart’s turmoil to get back to yourself authentically. Listen to “Vampire Thoughts” on Spotify and follow Baldemar at the links below.

TV Guy Productions Goes a Little Mad at Times on Noisy Psychedelic Single “And Just Like That”

TV Guy Productions’ “And Just Like That” sounds like Brian Weinberg was tapping into whatever frequencies in the cosmos the Butthole Surfers were when they wrote “Pepper.” The pounding percussion and the immediate shifting between distorted and more dreamlike vocals and the spoken word and the singing, it has parallels. But there is more overt synth in the TV Guy Productions song and ghostly chimes near mid-song to signal when things get more demented again with Weinberg’s pronouncements of being confused and lost and reveling in it rather than despairing. It lends the song an appealing touch of madness in the face of endless mundane demands Weinberg lists in various parts of the song and who can’t relate to wanting to upend the pressure of all of that? In this song Weinberg reclaims a bit of freedom from everyday life that you can indulge in alongside with him. Listen to “And Just Like That” on Spotify and follow TV Guy Productions on Instagram.

The Dionisaf Remix of Zen Lemon’s Ambient Single “Relief” Bypasses the Crutch of Language in Effecting Its Soothing Resonance

“Relief (Remix by Dionisaf” by Zen Lemon is from the first release of a compilation of remixes from artists on the Ambient Cat imprint. As per the label’s output so far the already immersive original is given a treatment that more or less transforms the song into something new. The original mix of “Relief” is flowing with saturated tones and a more in the foreground composition. This remix draws out the drifting background tones and emphasizes the sense of being at the edge of a body of water with a harmonic fog that courses through the track with the energy of a soothing enigma in that it gets into your ears and like the title of the song suggests works a sonic alchemy that puts the heart at rest and focuses the mind on casting off sources of anxiety without having to exert an ounce of effort. More cohesive tones resonate and fade in a rhythm that comforts without the crutch of language to effect its calming resonance. Listen to “Relief (Remix by Dionisaf)” on Zen Lemon on Spotify.

Myriad’s Veil Entrance and Transport With Its Expansive and Introspective Electronic Psychedelia on “Hollow”

Myriad’s Veil, photo courtesy the artists

Myriad’s Veil draws you in instantly with the ethereal tones and grounded beat at the beginning of “Hollow.” The drifting harmonics and sultry bass line paired with a minimal beat lends the song a downtempo mood but the way the duo layers the electronic drones is psychedelic in a way that bypasses what we’ve come to expect out of psychedelic rock the past decade and a half. Myriad’s Veil truly offers you a peek into more transcendent emotional colorings in the music with a depth of composition and masterful use of space that is both minimalist and highly detailed. Yet the song doesn’t weigh down your mind, it isn’t heavy, it conveys an expansive spirit in its introspective moods and its synth melodies while intertwining feel loose and refreshing. Listen to “Hollow” on Spotify and follow Myriad’s Veil on Bandcamp.

Myriad’s Veil on Bandcamp

“Faded and Braided” by Applesauce Tears is a Cinematic, Psychedelic Downtempo Post Rock Single Imbued With a Sense of Wonder and Mystery

Applesauce Tears lure us into “Faded and Braided” with a processional and melodic introduction before the tones sparkle some and it sounds like something out of late 1960s existential drama. It’s expansive and enigmatic, alluring in its intertwining of orchestral arrangements and classical sensibilities. If not for some of the attention to modern production techniques and mixing one might be excused for thinking it’s a long lost, psychedelicized art rock instrumental and when the vocals come in after the three minute mark like Black Mountain indulging more of its gift for soundscaping outside the realm of heavy music. It has the dusky and transporting mood one expects out of a Sofia Coppola film soundtrack imbued with a sense of wonder and romance with shades of mystery. Listen to “Faded and Braided” on Spotify and follow Applesauce Tears at its website.

applesaucetears.com

Alice Hebborn’s Ambient Modern Classical Piece “Saisons – Mouvement 6” is an Imaginative Voyage From Effervescent Spirits Into Meditative Quiescence

Belgian composer Alice Hebborn’s debut album Saisons is due out December 6 via Western Vinyl. The single “Saisons – Mouvement 6” is an immersive example of Hebborn’s gift for fusing tone, texture and rhythm as though sculpting it all out of an act of pure imagination trying to manifest a concept where the experience of each isn’t separated out as it might be in a more conventional musical mode. In that way Hebborn’s seemingly intuitive performance of the music is reminiscent of the work of Philip Glass and how his own best work seems to wed classical notions of tone and a more organic structure with rhythms drifting where the atmospheric emotional resonance guides it. In the case of this piece the piano, the electronics, the percussive sounds flow like a river and a journey along that river at once with dense sonics and atmospheres until the end where a calm spaciousness takes the place of layers of motion as though the energy of the earlier part of the song is finding its evening out of excitement into quiescence. Listen to “Saisons – Mouvement 6” on YouTube and follow Alice Hebborn at the links below.

westernvinyl.com

Alice Hebborn on Facebook

The Shimmering Spiral of The Album Leaf’s “Rotations” is an Emotional Journey to Tranquil Transcendence

The Album Leaf, photo courtesy the artist

The slow shimmering spiral of The Album Leaf’s “Rotations” sounds like what it feels like to look out the window flying over the Arctic circle and looking out the window at the frozen tranquility of the landscape below. It’s stark yet comforting from the relative safety of the airplane cabin. Then the song’s icy synths give way to more solid and direct tones that are vivid and rich yet smooth and resonant in a way that soothes at it stimulates your brain with its ascending melodies that build with subtly added brighter sounds that complement well and intertwine with the core rhythmic frequencies and textures until all glimmer into the distance. It’s a musical journey inward into more transcendent emotional spaces that leaves your brain at ease. Watch the visualizer on YouTube and follow The Album Leaf at the links below.

thealbumleaf.com

The Album Leaf on Facebook

The Album Leaf on TikTok

The Album Leaf on Instagram

Stephen Caulfield’s New Age Ambient Song “Meltwater” Articulates the Wonder and Magic of the Transformation of Ice Into Liquid in Human Time

“Meltwater” from Stephen Caulfield’s new ambient EP Blue Vessels (available October 18, 2024) layers a glimmering foreground and low end background in the beginning. But this all dissolves a bit with abstract piano, minimal guitar and bass joining the synth in a free flowing and evolving drift as the harmonic composition shifts and swirls slowly. It is a musical embodiment of a time lapse view of ice transforming from solid into liquid and how it is both gradual and sudden and when being able to perceive it in more geologic time through the alchemy of a song written imagining this process magical and truly transformative. The shining melody emerging from the slow churn of elements strikes a gorgeous note as the song resolves into tranquility and the sound of droplets. Listen to “Meltwater” on Spotify and follow Stephen Caulfield at the links below.

stephencaulfield.com

Stephen Caulfield on Twitter

Stephen Caulfield on Facebook

Stephen Caulfield on TikTok

Stephen Caulfield on Instagram

Stephen Caulfield on Bandcamp

Stephen Caulfield on YouTube

Bird’s Orchestral Dream Pop Single “The Tides” is an Immersive Masterwork of Cinematic Downtempo

Bird aka Janie Price wrote a short film called Wider Than the Sky for which she also composed the soundtrack. And this year the album for that soundtrack released including the single “The Tides.” Now a new radio edit mix of the song is available with its lushly orchestral sound preserved like an even more deeply atmospheric downtempo track. Price’s emotionally wide-ranging vocals are paired well with transporting string arrangements for an effect like a Michael Jarre score for a David Lean film. Most impressive, though, is how Price matches and complements the orchestral sounds in tone and emotional resonance for a musical synthesis not heard often enough in pop music. Listen to “The Tides” on Spotify and follow Bird at the links below.

Bird on Instagram

Bird on Facebook

Bird on YouTube