a personal choice of 13 records from 2021
(selected by Jenus – in alphabetical order)
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36 & Awakened Souls – The Other Side Of Darkness (Past Inside The Present)
Astonishing ambient with shoegaze influences album from 36 (threesix) and Awakened Souls. Dennis Huddleston, James Bernard and Cynthia Field have had a busy year with several collaborations and releases, but this album released in February was the pinnacle of their activities, pure bliss, wonderful soundscapes with delicately added, heavenly vocals .
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Abul Mogard – In Immobile Air (Ecstatic)
Abul Mogard returned with his most tender album yet this January. In Immobile Air takes its time and creates its own introspective environment you can fully immerse yourself into, in parts the piano takes center stage but merges seamlessly – and gently dances – with the modular synths in harmonic bliss.
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Cosmic Ground – 0110 (Studio Fleisch / Sunhair Music)
Dirk Jan Müller continues his investigative journey into the Berlin School of electronic space meditations. 0110 was actually first released in November 2020 on CD by Studio Fleisch. Over the course of 2021 this album has really grown on me and was one of my most listened to records this year. 0110 is a little calmer than previous Cosmic Ground albums, as it includes a lot of the more ambient variations of Müller’s sound (his earlier ambient excursions were mainly limited download only releases). Luckily in 2021 Horst Friedrich of Sunhair Music took it upon himself to release 0110 on vinyl as a two part, two individual LPs set, the second of which has only just been released, available directly from Sunhair Music.
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The Holy Family – The Holy Family (Rocket Recordings)
Supergroup The Holy Family seemingly came out of nowhere, masterminded by David J. Smith (Guapo, The Stargazer’s Assistant) with help from Michael York (Téléplasmiste, The Utopia Strong), Antti Uusimaki, Kavus Torabi (Cardiacs, The Utopia Sgtrong) and Sam Warren (Guapo). The self-titled debut LP is an epic affair, confident, raw, nostalgic and trippy. A journey into the deeper parts of your psyche, you might need to take something to get the full listening experience.
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Island People – II (Raster)
Island People II was my personal most anticipated album of the year and it did not disappoint. II expands on Island People’s debut from 2017 but goes deeper and more complex, the attention to detail is astounding, the sound immersive and enveloping, new elements and influences have been added to the mix, really love listening to this album.
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Koreless – Agor (Young)
Agor hit like a meteorite when it was released and rightly so, an accomplished debut by Lewis Roberts. You can tell that he’s been hiding in his bedroom for years buried under his machines to get this good at creating his tunes, at least that’s what it feels like when you listen to the very polished contemporary sounding vibes throughout this album. I’m listening to this start to finish every time.
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Lawrence English – Observation Of Breath (Hallow Ground)
Observation Of Breath is English’s magnum opus of his recent organ work, it’s the album were everything comes together: the maximal minimalism, the patience, the density, the meditation. A very special drone album, to lie back and listen is like swallowing an inebriating mint.
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The New Obsolescents – The Superceded Sounds of... (Castles In Space)
The Superceded Sounds of the New Obsolescents on the fantastic Casles In Space label is pure joy of music, there are no limits and everything is allowed, in less accomplished hands it might have ended up sounding a little random or even cheesy but Robin Warren & Chris Weaver of Howlround and Kevin Foakes (DJ Food) have created an experimental ambient super album. It’s an immersive soundtrack to elsewhere, somewhere between the future and the dawn of electronic music. The whole thing is topped by mind blowing screen-printed Dufex foil or prism effect LP sleeves by Openmind (Foakes). Timeless.
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Orla Wren – The Blind Deaf Stone (Time Released Sound)
This somewhat overlooked album by Colin Herrick has been one of my favourites to turn to this year. Created with only one monophonic synthesizer and a recorder its reductionism ultimately creates its strength, four longform tracks that bring to mind the beauty of simplicity and the natural world where time is slow and depressurized.
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The Oscillation – Untold Futures (All Time Low)
The Oscillation’s Untold Futures is pure power, if you want to get a proper head rinse this album will do the trick. It speaks to the old soundhead in me and is on par with the best work of bands like Loop. A cosmic exploration. You will find yourself on a path to pure exaltation if you dare to take this leap forward in space-rock with Demian Castellanos and Tom Relleen. Initial copies came with a spaced out ambient rework LP of the album, mesmerizing.
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Saint Etienne – I’ve Been Trying To Tell You (Heavenly Recordings)
The lockdown has been good for Saint Etienne. They have created one of my favourite new albums working remotely from their individual homes. On I’ve Been Trying To Tell You Saint Etienne go back to working with samples, the result is the most dreamy and atmospheric album by Bob, Pete and Sarah. It feels nostalgic and optimistic and sounds gorgeous. The limited box set came with two additional tracks on 10″ vinyl and a DVD movie accompanying the entire album with idyllic England scenes by Alasdair McLellan plus several art prints of his photography. Beautiful.
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Siavash Amini & Saffronkeira – The Faded Orbit (Denovali Records)
Siavash Amini excels with Saffronkeira on their joint album The Faded Orbit. Deeply atmospheric and sometimes discomforting it creates a vivid sonic world and vision in your mind, dramatic and inspired. For me the most engrossing of Amini’s and Caria’s albums so far, the final track Sanguineus is one of my favourite tracks of the year.
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special:
Air – Air I • You (Silent State Recordings)
The double vinyl reissue of Air’s You has been one of the highlights of the year for me, after i heard this vinyl pressing for the first time i almost had tears in my eyes, the mastering is exceptional and Silent State Recordings have done a great job with their manufacturing partners. Pete Namlook’s Air I • You is the classic Fax +49-69/450464 album from 1993 and a proper vinyl re-release was long overdue. This was quite a low key release with the vinyl only available on bandcamp, nevertheless it’s already sold out, try to get your hands on a copy, you won’t get a better version of this album. The remastered files also sound great, this album was absolutely one of its kind when it was released and has changed a lot for ambient music, as it dealt with ambient’s connection to club culture in an entirely new way. A true classic.
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Selected tracks from a couple of these albums feature in THE DELTA ISOS MIX by Jenus.
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Afterthought
It’s always difficult and slightly questionable to make these kinds of lists. How can you put some work seemingly above another, when there are so many talented artists releasing hundreds and thousands of records every year. I want to make clear that this is a very personal selection, mainly for myself to remember the year i have lived through. Throughout a year i buy and listen to a lot more music than listed here and some of those other albums might become more important to me at a later stage, some releases of 2021 i might not even have found yet. Although this selection is really a private affair, i feel it’s worth sharing – to give feedback to the artists and labels that have created these works and also to encourage others to explore what i have enjoyed discovering in music this year. This list could be longer, but where do you stop? If you (the reader) find one thing you might not have known but actually like, than that’s a good thing. If not, then maybe at least you’ll get a broader picture of how i enjoy music and the next or first time we meet, you will know me just that little better, so we can feel a little closer. Thank you for reading.
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you are the air
A G E M O W O R O S 