Zake

Review: Earlier in the year, experienced ambient producers 36 and Zake released two different versions of the same album, "Stasis Sounds for Long Distance Space Travel", with the vinyl and cassette releases featuring totally different mixes. Happily, they've now decided to compile all of these contrasting takes on one limited-edition CD. It's well worth a listen, because in our opinion it's one of the best ambient albums of 2020 to date. The included tracks mix echoing sonic tones, drifting sound effects, drone-style aural textures, slow-burn electronic melodies, swelling, near neo-classical musical movements and the kind of immersive, sustained chords that were once the preserve of the late, great Pete Namlook.

Review: This is a beautiful new project from Lucy Gooch (UK), Black Brunswicker (US) and zake (US)-

Lucy Gooch's vocals become an ocean of loops and washes that float above the Black Brunswicker lap steel swells and zake drones.

Review: The latest full-length excursion from the Zake Drone label brings together imprint chief Zake and Past Inside The Present collaborator Slow Dancing Society for a first collaborative outing. Comprising six slow-motion tracks that sit somewhere between drone, academic ambient, sound design, ambient techno and neo-classical, "Mirrored" is an undeniably meditative affair capable of soothing stressed minds and warming aching limbs. There are of course distinctive highlights - see the gently throbbing deep space chords and hypnotic deep techno beats of "Mirrored", the windswept-but-warm pulse of "Anamnesis" and the contemplative late night drift of "Nadir" - but the album's greatest strength is undoubtedly how it sits together as a coherent, mood-enhancing whole.

Review: Orchestral Tape Studies is a compilation arranged and produced by healing sound propagandist, ??. OTS is a group of richly layered movements of fragmented orchestral loops, paying homage to minimalist symphonic composers and orchestras. ?? incorporates field recordings and faint drone billows to accompany these selected samples of orchestral loops. With an emphasis on tone and recurrent murmurs, these four arrangements offer 32 minutes of delicate repetition, reticent sound treatments, and subtle manipulations. OTS is intended for low-volume listening.

Review: Created as an addendum to the 'Carolina' album, 'Coppice Movements', and the five movements comprising the EP, isn't so much a case of exploring new territories as it is a convincing display of just how much can be done within a relatively strict conceptual framework. One of the joys of drone in forms tied to ambient electronica is the deceptive sense of depth - refrains often hang on a single central tone but float, glide and flow in a manner that creates textured soundscapes on such a huge scale images of mountain tops and big country wildernesses are rarely far from the mind's eye. Zake's latest is a case in point, offering plenty of calm but complex scores primed for the self-reflective moments in time we spend considering the beauty of our world.

Review: According to the artist himself, Zake's first solo album of 2020 was recorded and produced during "a four-day excursion in several secluded areas" in South Carolina. As a result, listeners can expect to hear babbling brooks, birdsong and the gentle rustling of leaves beneath Zake's alluring mixture of enveloping ambient chords, unearthly drone tones, opaque electronics and slowly-shifting, heavily processed neo-classical movements. The results are hugely immersive and undeniably enjoyable, with each of the four tracks delivering a head-in-the-clouds journey that ripples with becalmed, atmospheric intent. In other words, it's the kind of ambient music you can get lost in. More please!

Review: According to the artist himself, Zake's first solo album of 2020 was recorded and produced during "a four-day excursion in several secluded areas" in South Carolina. As a result, listeners can expect to hear babbling brooks, birdsong and the gentle rustling of leaves beneath Zake's alluring mixture of enveloping ambient chords, unearthly drone tones, opaque electronics and slowly-shifting, heavily processed neo-classical movements. The results are hugely immersive and undeniably enjoyable, with each of the four tracks delivering a head-in-the-clouds journey that ripples with becalmed, atmospheric intent. In other words, it's the kind of ambient music you can get lost in. More please!

Review: According to the artist himself, Zake's first solo album of 2020 was recorded and produced during "a four-day excursion in several secluded areas" in South Carolina. As a result, listeners can expect to hear babbling brooks, birdsong and the gentle rustling of leaves beneath Zake's alluring mixture of enveloping ambient chords, unearthly drone tones, opaque electronics and slowly-shifting, heavily processed neo-classical movements. The results are hugely immersive and undeniably enjoyable, with each of the four tracks delivering a head-in-the-clouds journey that ripples with becalmed, atmospheric intent. In other words, it's the kind of ambient music you can get lost in. More please!

Review: Dusk is the latest collaboration between HSP & PITP artist Low Howl and zake. Venturing away from the blissful and gentle dronescapes both artists have become known for, Dusk introduces a more structured output by inviting subtle rhythmic bass hits at slightly different bpms for each hypnotizing arrangement.

Dusk is yet another contemplative journey that encompasses various field recordings and climatic hiss. Each track unfolds patiently, while becoming more hypnotizing as the bass murmurs and layers of sound become one together.