Jon Hopkins, Kelly Lee Owens, Sultan + Shepard & Jerro – To Feel Again / Trois

ArtistJon Hopkins, Kelly Lee OwensSultan + Shepard & Jerro

Song: To Feel Again / Trois

Genres: #electronicmusic

Location: Canada, United Kingdom & Belgium

Release date: September, 2022.

Comment: Out of all the entries in this website, the one with the highest number of Google Search hits is by far the entry for Sultan + Shepard‘s flawless track: Assassin. I’m now going to make things a bit more confusing to those visitors by adding another track involving the same duo, along with Belgian producer Jerro, and British producers Jon Hopkins and Kelly Lee Owens.

I’ll let Sultan + Shepard explain the story behind this track: “One day, we happened to be on Reddit, and saw that someone had tagged us in a video of Jon Hopkins playing our collaboration with Jerro, ‘Trois’. We were very flattered because we’ve been a big fan of Jon ever since we heard Light Through The Veins many years ago. We reached out on Twitter to say thanks for supporting the track, and he wrote back saying he had an idea he wanted to discuss. Turns out he had discovered the song in a car after a gig in Milan and Shazam’d it and started playing it in his sets. He then made a special edit of Trois using the vocals and synths from his song ‘Luminous Spaces’ with Kelly Lee Owens. He sent us the rough draft and we quickly sent over stems and before we knew it a new piece of music had been born out of our two songs. ‘Luminous Spaces’ was one of our favorite tunes of the past couple years so we were extremely excited. We’re such fans of both Kelly and Jon, so being able to connect and collaborate with them through this song that we started with Jerro in our studio last year feels very special to us.” Enjoy!

Damian Boylan – Expansions

Damian Boylan - Expansions

Artist: Damian Boylan

Song: Expansions

Genres: #chillout

Location: London, United Kingdom

Release date: September, 2022.

Comment: With a Master’s degree (MEng) in Aerospace Engineering, most people wouldn’t think Damian Boylan could also have an artistic side, let alone one in which he seems to be good at everything: sculpting, painting, video, and, well, obviously, music. Expansions is one if his latest releases: a poignant, classically-infused electronic track that is basically candy for your ears. Damian also created the audiovisual piece below, the perfect companion to Expansions.

Featured on the following mixtapes:

Jonny Fallout – Dark Space – That Feeling

Artist: Jonny Fallout

Song: Dark Space – That Feeling

Genres: #electronicmusic #synthwave

Location: Boston, United States

Release date: June, 2022.

Comment: When you are classically trained pianist, with a background in jazz performance and audio engineering; it follows that, as an electronic music artist, you are going to make noteworthy music. It cannot be any other way and Jonny Fallout is exhibit A. In his own words, he “produces synthwave and retrowave with EDM and cyberpunk flavor.” What this actually means is complex melodies with multiple layers that create a world of interconnected sounds you’ll want to get lost in.

After an award winning debut album, Cybertherial, in 2021, Jonny Fallout returned with the follow-up, Cybertherial II, this past June. Dark Space – That Feeling is part of that journey into our emotions, light, and darkness.

Simon Mós – Progression

Artist: Simon Mós

Song: Progression

Genres: #chillout

Location: London, United Kingdom

Release date: July, 2022.

Comment: I’m sorry I didn’t feature this great tune, Progression, in time for the summer, but I guess it’s better late than never. The artist behind the track, South London’s Simon Mós, wanted to evoke feelings of nostalgia and melancholy by using experimental guitar recordings into his beats, all of this while maintaining a minimalist production style. Progression is a great example of that and also the perfect way to start your weekend. Enjoy!

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oppidum – Murmuration

Artist: oppidum

Song:  Murmuration

Genres: #chillout

Location:  Bordeaux, France

Release date: July, 2022

Comment: French artist oppidum is undoubtedly one of the best electronic music artists out there. He was featured here two years ago with his single Genius Loci, and even then you could tell he was different. Now he’s back with a new, self-produced, EP, Vignemale, whose lead single is the superb Murmuration. Vignemale is one of the highest peaks in the Pyrenees, and the EP is the story of the five-day journey to reach it. oppidum’s trademark is creating instrumental downtempo electronica tracks that combine acoustic instruments with field recordings, and you will find plenty of that in Murmuration as well.

The acoustic guitar tones in this hypnotic track are phenomenal. I feel I could listen to Murmuration all day on repeat.

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Hatsü – Be Conscious

Artist: Hatsü

Song: Be Conscious

Genres: #relaxing #ambient

Location: London, United Kingdom

Release date: May, 2022.

Comment: Today, middle of the week, let’s switch gears to something extremely relaxing. Be Conscious is a hypnotic track from London-based music producer Bobby Turner, aka Hatsü, which is a Japanese name meaning Beginning. One problem I’ve found with most ambient tracks is that they tend to sound very similar to each other but, luckily, Be Conscious does not suffer from that issue. Instead, Hatsü introduces subtle changes with layer after layer of textures and tones, resulting in a gentle soundscape that will certainly help you to focus, sleep or meditate.

I hope you enjoy this ethereal piece as much as I did.

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Departure – Calle 63

Photo credit: @santiago_denegurica

Artist: Departure

Song: Calle 63

Genres: #chillout #lofi

Influences: Khruangbin

Location: London, United Kingdom

Release date: April, 2022.

Comment: Camilo Tostón, who produces music as both Departure and for boutique music labels, grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, in a 3-story building inhabited entirely by family members. When he listened to Khruangbin‘s track: Cómo Te Quiero and watched its music video, which depicts the last minutes of a dying grandfather, Camilo got inspired to reminisce about the happy childhood that he had and came up with Calle 63, a magical track that transport you back to those years when we were happy without knowing it.

Calle 63 is Camilo‘s second single as Departure. Something I really like about it is that despite being an electronic track, the main element in this mesmerizing tune is actually a guitar. Outstanding job.

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MIRRORS – Heading Home

MIRRORS - Heading Home

Artist: MIRRORS

Song: Heading Home

Genres: #chillout #ambient

Location: Indianapolis, United States

Release date: April, 2022.

Comment: Here’s another chill-out gem. At one point or another in our lives, we have all had to leave the place we considered home in order to start a new life somewhere else, whether it’s going away to college or moving to a new city or country because life happens. In the process, we feel homesick for the place we’re leaving behind and, at the same time, excited in anticipation of the environment that will become our new home. How will it be? Will we get used to it? That’s the feeling that young and extremely talented music producer Joe Morgan, aka MIRRORS, wanted to convey with the fascinating “Heading Home“. This spellbinding track is simply gorgeous.

The scary part – in a good way – is that MIRRORS, a name chosen based on the project’s main catchphrase, “We reflect what we surround ourselves with,” is just getting started.

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Toteles – Halcyon

Artist: Toteles

Song: Halcyon

Genres: #chillout #ambient

Location: Munich, Germany

Release date: March, 2022.

Comment: Some tracks grab your attention and hold it long after they have finished playing. When this happens with a chill-out/ambient song, it just shows how special that track is. As you probably guessed, that is the case with Halcyon, one of the first singles released by German artist Christoph Sebastian Pabst under the Toteles moniker, which comes from Aristoteles. Christoph has been making music most of his life, initially in projects with some friends and later on under his own name, but Toteles represents a new beginning for him, focusing on electronic music, deep house, ambient, and chill-out music. You need both talent and luck to be successful in the music business. I don’t know how much luck he has, but he certainly got plenty of talent.

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Rosehip – Twilight

Photo credit: @olicutter

Artist: Rosehip

Song: Twilight

Genres: #chillout #lofi

Location: London, United Kingdom

Release date: February, 2022.

Comment: Inspired by the eponymous 1850 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (sampled at 1:16), Twilight is a relaxing and melancholic lo-fi single from London-based producer Rosehip. The poem describes the ocean though the eyes of a child who’s looking at it, in the middle of a storm, from the comfort of home, and that’s the feeling Rosehip wanted to evoke in the listener too: feeling comfortable during turbulent times.

Twilight is part of Stargaze, the new EP by this talented artist. Despite starting pushing the boundaries of lo-fi recently (2020), Rosehip has already achieved over 8 million streams on Spotify. Once you listen to Twilight, you will see why.

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