Don't Look Now: Aural Apparitions From The Geographic North

A compilation of new tracks from a bunch of first-rate ambient/electronic/experimental musicians, made to benefit the Atlanta anti-exploitation nonprofit youthSpark. Designed with Halloween in mind but good for spooky or mysterious moods all year. Lots of dark synths, detailed soundscapes, intense moments. Includes artists who’ve released music on Kranky, Drag City, Students of Decay, and Root Strata, as well as new tracks from Eluvium and Algiers. (It’s like my version of fantasy football or something.) This could be an alternate soundtrack to the latest season of Twin Peaks. Favorites: 1-3, 1-8, 1-9, 2-1, 2-4, 2-9. No FCCs.

Disc 1
1. (1:35)—Manipulated bell-like sounds. Crisp.
2. (5:58)—Jittery keys, trippy hard-panned tones.
3. *(5:14)—John Carpenter synths. Slow, minimal, ominous beat. Sax, maybe?
4. (5:41)—Dark organ. Complex, glitchy electronic textures. Noisy, pulsing.
5. (5:12)—Swirling field recordings, dissonant sci-fi synths. Ramps up and gets loud.
6. (4:12)—Solo fingerpicked acoustic guitar. A big change in style, but still ominous in tone. Local artist!
7. (1:19)—Ghostly ambient loops, super lurid slow saxophone. Cheesy and great.
8. *(4:19)—Way down-pitched vocals. Flute? Sludgy and psychedelic. CV & JAB is Christina Vantzou and John Also Bennett.
9. *(6:31)—Like Philip Glass but more epic. Lots of pinging synth lines, synth strings, wall of rainbow choral noise.
10. (3:11)—Synth organ wanderings.
11. (1:14)—Continuation of the smoky sax ’n’ drone, but more aggressive.

Disc 2
1. *(4:18)—Slow, noisy beat. Dense, dubby, slippery. For fans or Demdike Stare or Andy Stott.
2. (4:48)—Slow, heavily manipulated solo electric guitar. Starts out with a Loren Connors vibe then jumps suddenly to noisy drone with ghostly voice.
3. (3:55)—Vibes, bells, piano, field recordings, wobbly synths.
4. *(5:52)—Dark, windy atmosphere. Stereo-panned breath. Spooky synths. Minimal.
5. (1:24)—See 1-11.
6. (7:20)—Dry, percussive, moody soundscape synths.
7. (3:11)—Muffled synth bass. High, wispy machine tones.
8. (2:46)—Retro synth loops.
9. *(6:30)—Slightly warped drone loop. Foggy, pretty, menacing.
10. (3:45)—Slow, nostalgic bells. On-point Twin Peaks score worship.