The Sound of Experimental Ambient

Purelink have been described more than once as an "ambient boy band." (They themselves say "jam band.") It's not meant dismissively—the American trio purposefully mean to function as a band, even if their main instruments are laptops. Ambient might not quite cut it as a descriptor, though. The group's music crosses eras and scenes, touching on the late '90s clicks & cuts boom as well as the billowy ambient techno put out by labels like 3XL, West Mineral Ltd. and NAFF. 

Their most recent LP, Signs, released on enigmatic imprint Peak Oil (and one of our favourite albums of 2023), is especially impressive, made of stuttering rhythms and glassy textures. In other words, it's ambient-not-ambient. While members Concave Reflection, kindtree and Millia have all made excellent music on their own, something special happens when they come together.

Purelink's RA Podcast is another stellar contribution to our post-New Year's tradition, where we highlight a more laid-back sound to soothe weary minds and frazzled brain cells after the heavy holiday celebrations. This is 90-plus minutes of intricately textured downtempo, dub techno and even UK garage, all cut through with a floaty, almost drowsy quality, with plenty of exclusives and unreleased cuts from the likes of Nick León, James K, Downstairs J and more. It highlights Purelink's position as a bridger of worlds, sounds and tempos.

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/917

RA podcast

RA.917 Purelink

Comme Un Seul Narcisse

Enter the mythology of NYC artist James K - her sound, equally organic and electronic, is a combination of odd dreams, hybridizing enchanted samples, ripped, broken and morphed rhythms, and vocals, both incomprehensible and appealing. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/james-k/episodes/james-k-28th-may-2025

Trip Lick w/ k means 280525

@notteinfinita

For cheeky Q&A... please visit our website ~~~~> pipipi.life <~~~~~~

Notte Infinita - 22˚

Florence takes the reigns - real style eclectic shit as ever, chin strokers take note: an hour of wall to wall proper material ㋡ 

@florencesa


Jank Incorporated | Florence 042

Artist, producer, label owner and DJ Lee Gamble bringing an oneiric bi-monthly show of current sound and music from his hallucinated musical continuum. Expect anything from Drill to Dream pop, Conceptual Sound and Jazz to bleached out rave memories..  
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/lee-gamble/episodes/lee-gamble-7th-july-2025

Lee Gamble 070725

Dub influences for July

Tracklist: https://www.lowendtheorists.com/radio-shows/skylab-e37

Skylab - Theory Therapy E37

Hypnagogic sonics from Venice-based producer Dave Saved

"It’s a mix of tracks that were sitting on my desktop like a moodboard, along with some old and new unreleased stuff of mine. It's a dive into what I’ve been enjoying – from the past to the present, from others and from myself."

Full Q+A: https://www.lowendtheorists.com/theory-therapy-mixes/dave-saved

@davesaved

Theory Therapy 81: Dave Saved

Did the Oracle stir in her sleep? Did Apollo look up from his lyre and see this brilliant boy pass by?

Oracle was commissioned by La Becque Résidence d’artistes as part of Modern Nature 2025. It is dedicated with love and thanks to Vanessa Cimorelli, Luc Meier, all at La Becque and especially to Jane Wildgoose, our oracle. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/timeisaway/episodes/timeisaway-17th-august-2025

Time is Away: Oracle 170825

Living Room n°88 ~ @user-195275547

q. pls introduce yourself…
Hello, we are forest.exe (Sven and Silvan). We run a label that focuses on ambient, avant-garde and experimental music. It is called Jurassic Ambient Records. The name is inspired by the Jura forests in Switzerland, where we live and grew up. We create our own mixes and also release guest mixes as well as music from friends and anyone interested. We started about four years ago. Over time, we gradually moved away from technoid sounds and club culture, and began experimenting and mixing together within the genres of ambient, experimental and drone, where we felt more at home. For us, it is essential to connect music with the wellbeing in nature, which is also the origin of everything.

q. is there a story behind the mix?
This time we created the mix with Ableton in Sven’s home studio, nestled near the Jurassic forest — not, as we usually do, in a rehearsal room with a Pioneer setup. It was a warm and luminous day at the very beginning of summer. Surrounded by nature, we let the atmosphere guide us, working spontaneously and intuitively. Instead of CDJs, we wanted to explore a new approach, giving ourselves more time and space to shape the flow. This allowed us to engage more deeply with each track and to sculpt the transitions with greater precision.
The result is a mix that feels reduced and calming, almost dreamlike, yet still carries a quiet strength. It mirrors the uncertainties and concerns we feel about the world, and the question of how we might navigate through them. We dedicated an entire day to the process, with pauses, a few beers, and long conversations about the value of music and the character we wanted this mix to embody.

q. what’s the best way to enjoy your mix?
Step into the forest, put on your headphones, leave the world behind and sink into natural, calming sounds. You might wander along the paths and lose yourself in the embrace of nature, or sit quietly on a tree stump, listening to the mix while observing the subtle life unfolding around you. This is, in essence, what our name forest.exe is meant to evoke.

q. describe a favourite object in your living room...
Silvan: My favourite object in my living room is a handmade ceramic piece with an organic, natural design. I discovered it in Krakow last year during my visit to the Unsound Festival.
Sven: Hehe… epic indeed. My favorite object in my living room is a triptych of three Japanese woodblock prints. In the first, several farmers brandishing katanas burst forth with fierce cries. In the second, a lone farmer leaps dramatically over a waterfall, sword in hand. And in the third, a bear flees from the oncoming attackers. The imagery is raw and powerful, yet strangely inspiring. I don’t know the artist or when the pieces were created — but stumbling upon them in an antique shop felt like a stroke of fortune, as if they had been waiting there for me.

q. are you working on any projects right now (music or not music)?
We are both working on new music, though it often takes a lot of time — which can be challenging, since we both work more or less full-time as social workers, and Sven also has children. Still, we meet regularly to create ambient mixes, discuss musical developments, and continue shaping our vision for the label. Through it, we keep releasing new mixes as well as music (EPs) from ourselves and from other artists.
What we love is that this project has been with us for quite some time, and we can move at our own pace — deciding how much energy to put in, or when to slow things down. That way, it never becomes stressful, because we are not chasing success, but rather sharing our musical principles and offering others a fresh listening experience. We are also searching for a spot in the forest where we can record outdoor mixes, letting nature inspire our music even more directly.

Living Room n°88 ~ forest.exe

Living Room n°90 ~ @ghosttropics

~

q. pls introduce yourself:

a. Hi! I’m Ryan aka ghosttropics and I think most people on here know me as “that person who is in the comment boxes of all the ambient releases on bandcamp”. Mostly I’m just a huge music nerd/listener/dancer, but I try to write about the music that care about as much as I can as a way to engage with the community a bit more and to give back to the artists who bless me with the music that brings so much to my life. Which is how you guys found me! This is only the second mix I ever made and I’ve since worked on a couple more, and it’s becoming this very fulfilling new thing in my life that I look forward to exploring a bit more.

q. is there a story behind the mix?

a. First of all I just wanted to thank you guys for having me here and giving me this opporunity to work on this mix, which ended up being very meaningful and downright therapeutic for me to make. It is dedicated to my late best friend Blakely, and also to anyone who lives with that soul deep and unnameable feeling of missing someone, but also feeling them with you all the time. At the very centre of the mix (both figuratively and at the literal halfway point) is a track of Blakes that I hadn’t been able to bring myself to listen to for years. I always thought it was one of the most beautiful things I ever heard and just the purest audio distillation of everything I loved about my friend, and as soon as the mix started to come together I knew it was the right time to bring it back into my life. Everything from there just seemed to come together on is own as if guided by a gentle hand.

The feeling I tried to capture in this mix is not simply sadness because grief is SO much more than that. It’s about how that sadness can also be so deeply intertwined with a feeling of indescribable gratitude and joy in having known a person, and it’s about all the beautiful and unexpected ways we can keep them with us throughout our lives. To me, this mix is exactly that. A way to share the story of my friend with the world and feel closer to him, and I hope that listening to this can give others the space to remember and relate to their own experiences in a way that feels meaningful as well.

q. what’s the best way to enjoy your mix?

a. As is my answer to most things: lying down, eyes closed, cuddling a cute dog. But really, wherever works best for you! 

q. describe a favourite object in your living room...

a. I found the most beautiful/perfect antique rocking chair with a rocking footrest on the sidewalk a couple months ago and I swear I could not even conceptualize a better reading chair. I refused to buy one for years because I wanted it to be perfect (I read nearly as much as I listen to music) and part of me feels like I willed this thing into reality. 

q. are you working on any projects right now (music or not music)?

a. I’m thinking about maybe starting some sort of newsletter as my friends keep telling me to do, but for now I’m just gonna keep writing my little bandcamp reviews and making more mixes, cause that’s what’s feeling good right now. And despite my past promise to myself to never become a DJ (half joking) maybe buy a controller and start figuring out how to do some of this stuff live at some point!

Living Room n°90 ~ ghosttropics

EARS

Stratus

Single from Water Memory, out December 21st 2017.

preorder: mlesprg.bandcamp.com

/////////

Water Memory began as an imagination of the feelings that are floating through the natural world around us. It morphed and cycled and gained memories of my own which are now contained like those in all bodies.

Water Memory 1

(AN ASCII IMAGE OF BOWSETTE) (KARAKO's THEME)

friendsim spoilers:

karako is a very young and very small child juggalo. on twitter i described karako as "the one clown you are not allowed to be horny for" and a bunch of chuckleheads tried to be funny and say like "hueuhuhe is that a challenge" and its like one why don't you just listen to me when i say things, two stop trying to one up me you will never ever win, and three i am eagerly waiting your apologies. my inbox is open.

i mean i get it. i was just on a podcast this morning talking about how the one thing that binds us all together is that we've all engaged in some clownery. i think i talk about regrettably hooking up with a juggalo as a teen for a solid 10 minutes. its hard being me.

i just moved and gave my old electric bass away to a friend who was interested in learning. i recorded this before giving it away. goodbye electric bass. dozens of children will miss how i used to just go ham on the bass in a bunch of songs for no reason. oh also im beatboxing for two seconds in this one. i ran it through a filter so it sounds less like "james roach making some sounds."

all in all, i wanted to make this one sound a little more whimsical so i borrowed the synth i made for my friends dnd character theme... where they're also a clown? its a really good synth. ok marsti is up next.

(an ascii image of bowsette)

Dwelling / Gemuet

Dwelling

Lady's Mantle

High Tide

sampler / field recordist

Inquiries: muir.jake@gmail.com

https://www.jakemuir.org/releases

High Tide

Jake Muir

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