A selection of the finest ambient, experimental, dream pop, and otherwise blissful releases from Jan-June 2024. One song each from most of these (minus three) are in this Spotify playlist and this Tidal playlist, or listen to the albums in their entirety with the links below.

Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer – The Closest Thing to Silence (Feb. 2, 2024)

A lush blending of electronics and woodwinds, capturing the best of both strands of the current ambient jazz boom. Its improvised tracks are inquisitive, intelligent, grounded, and grounding.

Ayal Senior – Ora (June 19, 2024)

Invigorating instrumental psych-folk—lovely melodies anchored by Senior’s resonant 12-string guitar. Meandering without sacrificing momentum, like a river flowing confidently to the sea.

Beak> – >>>> (May 28, 2024)

More of Beak> doing what they do best, exploring the haunted side of kosmische and post-rock. Unsurprisingly for a Portishead spinoff (though it’s a well-established project in its own right), this is perfect autumn music—maybe set it aside until then.

Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown (May 17, 2024)

Another Portishead-related project. Shocking that former frontwoman Gibbons waited until 2024 to make her solo debut (2002’s brilliant Out of Season almost counts, but was still a collaboration with Rustin Mann). Less shocking that it’s also a fantastic piece of work, a moody meditation on life and loss. “Floating on a Moment” even manages to make a children’s choir effective, no small feat.

Bibi Club – Feu de garde (May 10, 2024)

Jangling pop and post-punk sung in both official languages. Strongest in its most upbeat moments (see “Le feu” or “Reu du Repos”), but the moodier moments work well, too.

Big Brave – A Chaos of Flowers (April 19, 2024)

Like folk songs played on thunderclouds—doom-laden dirges riding some of the crunchiest distortion you’ll hear this year.

Bilal Nasser – How Can We Say Nothing (February 15, 2024)

An inspired fusion of classical guitar, shoegaze atmospherics, and post-rock pacing, and a haunting statement from the Palistinean-Canadian composer.

Buildings and Food – Echo the Field (May 10, 2024)

Stripped down compositions from Toronto’s Jen K. Wilson that reveal more with every spin. Inspired by the expanse of the Mojave and just as easy to get lost in.

Caméra – Caméra (April 5, 2024)

A fantastic debut from this Montreal trio that’s very much flying under the radar. Gently cinematic sounds that never fail to surprise; a Quebec post-rock spin on Yann Tiersen, or a more sedate take on Torngat’s early 2000s explorations. Either way, this one’s a stunner.

Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee (March 30, 2024)

Say what you will about the release strategy and the hype, this double-album from former Women singer Pat Flegel deserves all the acclaim its received. The first Cindy Lee album that doesn’t push listeners away with walls of confrontational distortion; just haunted pop bliss from a spectral ’60s girl-group.

Circles Around the Sun and Mikaela Davis – After Sunrise (April 5, 2024)

Speaking of pop bliss, who would’ve thought disco cosmonauts and expressive harp would sound this great together? Tailor-made for lounging beachside without a care in the world.

Daisy Rickman – Howl (March 20, 2024)

Nico is the lazy comparison, but it’s not like it isn’t apt. Droning folk compositions and icy-cool and strikingly deep vocals; you could easily convince me that Rickman has tapped into some deep well of earth-magic.

Dana Gavanski – Late Slap (April 5, 2024)

A bit more of a pop effort, but still every bit as quirky and inventive as anything she’s released—the melodies are always unconventional and accessible all at once.

David Allred – Apocalypse Rose (June 20, 2024)

Gentle and brief neoclassical compositions, slow, melodic, and a little melancholy. Not an attention-grabber, but when the right mood strikes, it’s an easy one to get lost in.

Dean McPhee – Astral Gold (February 16, 2024)

Solo guitar looped, echoed and reverberated until it conjures the cosmos. Influenced by kosmische, dub, and experimental electronics, Astral Gold drifts slowly and inevitably, a score to distant, unfathomable clouds of interstellar dust.

Eric Chenaux Trio – Delights of My Life (May 31, 2024)

Chenaux’s ongoing collaborations with Ryan Driver are never less than gorgeous, and the first release from this new trio (rounded out by percussionist Phillipe Melanson) is as lovely as anything in his rich catalogue. Chenaux’s voice is in top form, and no effects can hide the beauty of these guitar melodies. Lounge music from an alternate dimension.

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble – Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit (March 8, 2024)

50 years on, Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethic Heritage Ensemble is still adding new dimensions to its sound. Open Me adds cello, violin, and viola to the mix, and the gritty textures are hypnotic. The opening spin on Miles Davis’ “All Blues” and the pulsing take on the traditional “The Whole World” are highlights among a very solid collection of spiritual, consciousness-expanding jazz.

Ezra Feinberg – Soft Power (May 31, 2024)

East coast ambient from former Citay member (and current psychoanalyst) Ezra Feinberg, who benefits from some exceptional collaborators. Mary Lattimore lends her always-welcome harp to closing track “Get Some Rest,” Jefre Cantu-Ledesma adds flutters of synth to “Pose Beams” (along with Robbie Lee’s expressive piano); each song feels more discovered than written, open to possibilities and inviting to the listener.

Fabiano do Nascimento, Sam Gendel – The Room (January 26, 2024)

An instant favourite from the first strums of album opener “Foi Boto.” do Nascimento’s seven-string guitar is exceptional but never showy, prompting Gendel to indulge in his most melodic impulses. Nothing more than guitar and saxophone, but easily among the most captivating releases of 2024.

Fuubutsushi – Meridians (June 27, 2024)

The expectations set by Fuubutsushi’s fantastic four-part tribute to the seasons, released in 2020 and 2021, can’t have been easy to manage. That project was a band discovering itself—the project didn’t even have a name when the first part was released—whereas Meridians is by necessity a fleshing out of and reaction to those first releases. Good news: Meridians is absolutely a worthy successor to the ambient-jazz torch, or post-rock, or whatever you might want to call a blend of lush violin, field recordings, exploratory percussion, and wandering woodwinds.

Geotic – The Anchorite (February 21, 2024)

Will Wiesenfeld’s latest conjures up early Bibio in all the best ways, with fingerpicked guitars, heavy reverb, and plenty of tape hiss evoking an old cassette dug up from the forest humus. That is, until “The Lime of Stars” unleashes the distortion and reaches for a droning cosmic crescendo.

Group Listening – Walks (May 10, 2024)

I would’ve been quite content with Group Listening sticking to their formula of covering cult classics on clarinet and piano, but I can’t begrudge them branching out into original compositions. Especially when it keeps the playfulness of the previous approach while expanding the sonic pallette as expertly as they do here.

Hochzeitskapelle – We Dance EP (March 22, 2024)

Four covers—Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Low, and German pop band Wir Sind Helden—transformed into Hochzeitskapelle’s trademark autumnal “Rumpelljazz” might seem a bit slight compared to some of the albums on this list, but after the expanse of last year’s double-album The Orchestra in the Sky, the brevity is understandable. And regardless of the length, as always with Hochzeitskapelle, the mood is magic.

Ivan the Tolerable – Time is a Grave (June 7, 2024)

Time is a Grave is Ivan the Tolerable (aka Oli Heffernan)’s sixth release of 2024 (with another due out in a few days as I write this), which might make you assume it’s tossed off, but the strange thing is he’s as consistent as he is prolific. Jammy, psychedelic jazz, slightly spooky with no shortage of musical ideas.

Jahari Massamba Unit – YHWH is LOVE (March 1, 2024)

Karriem Riggins and Madlib reteam after 2020’s Pardon My French for an album of hip-hop-influenced spiritual jazz. Given those names and those genres, you probably already know if you’re sold. Deep grooves and good vibes.

Jeffrey Silverstein – Roseway EP (June 14, 2024)

Silverstein’s sound has evolved quite a bit since 2020’s You Become the Mountain, but the basic gist—a fusion of country boogie and new age atmosphere—is still solidly in place. The boogie is at the forefront here, with Akron/Family drummer Dana Buoy providing the backbone, and Connor Gallaher’s pedal steel ramping up the twang.

Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch (May 3, 2024)

Classic pop songcraft that pulls from the sounds of the ’60s (or earlier), but never succumbing to nostalgia—Pratt may have tapped into an older vein, but she isn’t pretending the past 50 years of musical history didn’t happen. Haunting, resilient, and unplaceably odd.

Jon McKiel – Hex (May 3, 2024)

Oddball psychedelia from New Brunswick. McKiel and collaborator Jay Crocker both know how to write pop tunes and how to subvert them. Inspired by ’60s-’70s singer songwriters (see the Terry Jacks cover or the Everley-aping “Everlee”), but through a filter of East Coast experimentation.

Kilometre Club – An Alphabet of Distance (June 1, 2024)

Twenty-six ambient collaborations, from “Airliner” (with Holly Kenniff) to “Zone of Harmony” (with Sun Rain), each artist adding their own unique textures to Kilometre Club’s droning ambiance.

Lau Ro – Cabana (May 31, 2024)

Wax Machine’s Lau Ro explores their Brazilian roots on their solo debut. The results are heavy on atmosphere (tape hiss and field recordings are par for the course), but also airy and melodic, intimate and experimental.

Los Days – Dusty Dreams (May 31, 2024)

Easygoing easy-listening instrumentals from Tommy Guerrero & Josh Lippi. Surf, psych, and breezy tropicalia baked under the desert sun.

Loving – Any Light (February 9, 2024)

Laurel Canyon vibes via Canada’s West Coast, with lyrics inspired by Jungian insights and melodies that rarely rise above a whisper, because they don’t need to.

Luka Kuplowsky – How Can I Possibly Sleep When There Is Music (May 31, 2024)

It’s hard not to fixate on the breezy title track and its chief sentiment, but the 24 tracks here cover a lot of ground. Poetry set to music, and occassionally as indulgent as that surely sounds, but even if it inspires the occassional eye-roll, it inspires bliss much more often.

Magic Fig – Magic Fig (May 17, 2024)

An excellent distillation of the best parts of psych, Canterbury, pop-prog, and jangle-pop, reconfiguring familiar elements into a sunny summer soundtrack.

Molly Lewis – On the Lips (February 16, 2024)

The queen of contemporary exotica makes it all seem so effortless. Ten songs anchored by Lewis’ immaculate whistle, this time adding a few more contemporary sounds to the mix, still straddling the line between kitsch and classic in all the right ways.

Nick Schofield – Ambient Ensemble (February 9, 2024)

With Ambient Ensemble, Schofield moves gracefully from synth soundscapes to chamber music. Collaboration suits him—the clarinet flutters and violin swells add a vibrancy that’s often missing from solo ambient work.

OHMA – On Loving Earth (April 22, 2024)

Abandoning the synths they used so effectively on 2022’s Between All Things, OHMA’s Mia Garcia and Hailey Niswanger stick to organic sounds for On Loving Earth. The narrower musical focus brings the melodies to the forefront, lilting and lovely, paying tribute to the beauty of nature.

Organic Pulse Ensemble – Zither Suite (January 5, 2024)

Despite the name, OPE is actually one man, Gustav Horneij, layering sax, flute, bass, and zither into spiritual jazz bliss in an apartment outside Gothenberg. How Zither Suite captures the freewheeling spirit of improv so perfectly without an actual ensemble is hard to imagine, but the results speak for themselves.

Osmanthus – Between Seasons (January 30, 2024)

Not the Toronto alt-rock band, the Calgary collaboration between ambient synth maestro Valiska and violinist Laura Reid. Improvised sessions reworked digitally, sometimes subtly and other times more obviously; it’s at its most engrossing in the longer compositions, but the ear for unique textures is always there.

Project Gemini – Colours & Lights (April 5, 2024)

2022’s The Children of Scorpio was a solid enough debut, but Colours & Lights ups the ante in every respect. Acid-folk grooves, psychedelic vocals, and folk-horror vibes—it’s a perfect Halloween album without being so on-the-nose that you couldn’t play it year round.

Psychic Temple – Doggie Paddlin’ Thru the Cosmic Consciousness (May 31, 2024)

You never quite know what you’ll get with Psychic Temple—a 15-minute spooky-jazz cover of Black Sabbath? 20 minute cosmic-synth experiments?—but the surprise with the ninth and possibly final Psychic Temple album is how straightforward it is. Just laid-back cosmic country grooves and chooglin’ guitars, backyard music for semi-stoned summer days (even for those of us who don’t partake in anything stronger than music).

Retep Folo & Dorothy Moskowitz – The Afterlife Album (March 1, 2024)

Hauntological audio collage of the sort you’d expect from Ghost Box recordings or maybe Broadcast, cobbling together bits of psychedelica, Mort Garson synthscapes, and otherworldy exotica. Co-creator Moskowitz was in ’60s psych act United States of America, and apparently the 60 years since that psychedelic moment has done nothing to dim her musical adventurousness.

ROY – Spoons for the World (April 19, 2024)

ROY’s retro-minded psych-glam never quite worked for me, but his re-emergence as a country-tinged Scott Walker/more melancholy Lee Hazelwood is nothing short of stunning. Maybe it’s another schtick, but when the songwriting is this impeccable, who really cares?

Sam Wilson – Wintertides (April 5, 2024)

Folk-influenced instrumental jazz, taking inspiration from nature in its cyclical compositions. For an album inspired by winter, it’s surprisingly warm to my ears; maybe this is winter viewed through a window from inside a warm cabin, admiring the iciness outside but feeling cozier from the contrast.

Shabaka – Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (April 12, 2024)

2022’s sparse Afrikan Culture foreshadowed Shabaka’s decision to put away his saxophone (sorry Sons of Kemet and Comet is Coming fans) in favour of flute, clarinet, and other, more obscure winds. Shabaka’s latest builds on that foundation but enlists others to expand the sound, with Moses Sumney, Saul Williams, Laaraji, and Andre 3000 among the talented many here. Gentle, varied, and highly rewarding.

Shabason, Krgovich, Sage – Shabason, Krgovich, Sage (April 5, 2024)

The third partnering of Shabason & Krgovich adds M. Sage’s pastoral electronics to the mix, and if it’s not exactly a departure from the past two releases, it’s still a welcome variation. Krgovich’s observational lyrics are insightful as ever, consistently elevating the everyday into the borderline-transcendent.

Temporal Waves – Temporal Waves (April 12, 2024)

Tabla isn’t typically associated with sci-fi futurescapes, but Temporal Waves debut makes it sound like a natural fit. A retrofuturist vision, rich with synthwave influences and the occasional psychedelic solo from Besnard Lakes’ Jace Lacek, who also produced.

The Sorcerers – I Too Am a Stranger (February 9, 2024)

Deeply groovy stuff, the kind of sound you sort of wish was from a recently unearthed slab of ’70s vinyl instead of three lads from Leeds indulging in Ethio-jazz adventures, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Unessential Oils – Unessential Oils (May 31, 2024)

Easily my favourite release from Warren Spicer since Plants & Animals debuted with With/Avec almost 20 years ago. It embraces a loose jazziness that has always suited Spicer’s songwriting, with elements of folk and Tropicalia keeping the sounds nice and varied.

Yu Ching – The Crystal Hum (April 26, 2024)

No surprise that Yu Ching shares a label with the Space Lady and Ela Orleans—all three embrace idiosyncratic approaches to lo-fi synth songwriting. Like Orleans, Yuching Huang prefers the oblique and mysterious to anything like an obvious hook. It’s unearthly, but still oddly ear-catching, unexpected and inviting at the same time.