Ancient landscapes, the buzz of city streets, the songs of birds…
Isik Kural’s new masterpiece, which transforms travel memories into idyllic ambient pop.

Isik Kural, a composer and songwriter with Turkish roots, laid the foundation for his musical career as a teenager by strumming a nylon-string guitar and crafting playful lyrics usin ...Read moreg only words and conversations he happened to overhear. What began as a casual curiosity became the foundation for his future creative work and led him to pursue formal studies at the University of Miami to build a life centered on music.

Guided by his innate sense of curiosity, he has traveled extensively—from Helsinki to his current home in Glasgow, and to various other places steeped in history—in pursuit of rhythms and ancient legends. In particular, his experiences wandering through golden-hued worlds that retain traces of antiquity have shaped the emotional undercurrent of *Motorcycles and Cherry Wind*.

The title *Motorcycles and Cherry Wind* and the spirit driving this work trace back to a trip Kural took to Marrakech in 2022. As he gazed out at the hustle and bustle of the city center, what drew him was not the recording of facts, but the capture of fleeting sensations intertwined with sound.

When you listen to this album for the first time, warm memories of cities you’ve once visited wash over you—not as a single image, but accompanied by a full spectrum of sensations. The mineral-like scent of compacted earth, the texture of a village wall, a gentle October afternoon, and the way light softly illuminates deep-red fruits huddled together under the heat at a roadside stall—these are the memories.

Memories born during a journey aren’t necessarily pinned down on a map in the moment. However, as we distance ourselves from them, they sometimes begin to reveal new patterns. In *Motorcycles and Cherry Wind*, Kural collects these inner traces as if gathering cherished trinkets. Field recordings made on Istanbul’s “dolmuş” shared buses, the lingering afterglow of a swim in ancient Lycia, and the chirping of birds recorded at the Bridge of Alan. He accumulates these as an inexhaustible archive and returns to them time and again, like a seasoned collector.

He sorts through them one by one without haste, listening with fresh attention. After discovering perspectives he might once have overlooked, he weaves those precious threads into arrangements rich in atmosphere and meticulous texture. Piano keys, guitar phrases, woodwinds, and even arrangements written in traditional notation are woven into layers upon layers of sound, giving the album a spiritual, almost transcendent resonance.

Every track on *Motorcycles and Cherry Wind* is a tribute to the musicians who came before. The melodies borrowed from them acquire new meaning and purpose with each passing through the hands of different people.

Nine musicians contributed to this album, and simply listing their names and hometowns paints a map of its own.

Gabriel Bastos (violin, viola / Brazil)
Noelia Diaz (cello / Argentina)
Giulia C (flute / Italy)
Sasko Temelkoski (bass clarinet / North Macedonia)
Teresa Castanon (clarinet / Spain)
Hannah Gobbett (clarinet / England)
Niki Yaghmaee (violin / Germany)
Ezgi Daloglu (flute / Istanbul)
Loris S. Sarid (clarinet / Glasgow)

The geographical backgrounds and cultural points of reference of these ensembles, scattered across various regions, come together in Glasgow and converge into a single form within *Motorcycles and Cherry Wind*. At the center of it all, Kural guides the music toward a quiet yet assured depth.

Through abstract production in a modern studio, Kural keeps fragments of nearly forgotten traditions alive. And he draws the listener into a living relic—one that encapsulates yesterday’s world within today’s grasp. The warmth that lingers there is more important than where it originated.

Sprague, who began exploring music in her teens through early experiments with guitar and keyboard, gained a dedicated following in the early 2010s as a member of the indie band Florist. She then expanded her work to include experimental and ambient music under her own name starting in 2017.

Initially self-releasing her work before partneri ...Read moreng with RVNG, her solo releases include *Water Memory / Mount Vision* (2017 / 2019), *Hill, Flower, Fog* (2020), and *Cloud Time* (2025).

A native of upstate New York near the Catskills—where she still lives—Sprague began approaching music as a way to integrate and spatially capture her emotions. She learned piano from her mother as a child and later taught herself guitar through experimentation. Rather than theory or scales, she prioritized individual songs that held special meaning for her, intuitive sound structures, the power of melody, and instinctive sonic gestures.

Eventually, she began creating soundscapes using multitrack loops and pedals, as well as non-modular and modular synthesizers. The act of patching inputs and outputs became a way to symbolize mental processes and meditative states through sound.

Around 2019, after returning to film photography, Sprague became deeply drawn to cyanotypes and the work of botanist and photographer Anna Atkins, who documented plants using the cyanotype process. The emotional atmosphere of Atkins’ photographs led to the story of a character living on the distant planet “Cyano.”

Cyano, which once resembled Earth, was destroyed by misunderstandings and placed under a pseudo-reciprocity that forced its inhabitants to abandon their individuality and embrace an assimilative symbiosis. Guided by memories, particles, and symbols, the character Cyanic attempts, through delicate endeavors, to restore autonomous desire, impulses rooted in empathy, and authentic expression to that world.

Through *Cyano*, Sprague explores an acoustic and environmental palette that conveys what this world feels like. Sounds that resemble a piano or guitar, yet are not quite those instruments. Sounds as a continuum spanning relationships with the self, others, ecosystems, and life in distant worlds.

*Cyano* serves as an outlet for evoking expression and as a tool for forging connections amid the magnificent—and at times, worn—textures of an ever-changing world.

In *Cyano*, experimental and formless music deconstructs the more traditional songwriting found in Florist’s tracks. The improvisational patching and sounds born from Sprague’s earliest modular synth experiments in 2016 transport listeners to bygone eras and inner worlds, tracing streaks of light to depict memories and desires.

The opening track, “Double Moon,” featuring partner and collaborator V Haddad, brings Cyano’s parallel world to the forefront. Sonic elements appear and vanish amid mottled fluctuations, colored by gradations created by patching, frost-covered angles, and ripples of warm melodies.

“Cyano” evokes a rainbow-hued delicacy. Just as the colors of the night sweep across the sky, illuminating the contours they make possible. Each meticulously crafted track expresses a curiosity about movement, water, the horizon, and timbre, transforming abstract elements into tangible moments imbued with a stronger sense of presence.

The threads of *Cyano*’s imaginary narrative took shape during a trip Sprague and Haddad took to the Icelandic fjords around the winter solstice, though the album itself was completed a month or so later.

Sprague’s musical approach is characterized by an intensely personal atmosphere rooted in the unearthing of one’s own history and that of others—that is, the nature of inner and interpersonal connections, and the transience of such endeavors. Through an intimate phenomenological exploration, *Cyano* presents a subtle yet striking texture that embraces fragility.

For Sprague, both studio recordings and live performances are mediums for building meaningful connections with listeners across time, bound by emotional consistency even while situated in different places.

On *Cyano*, all sounds are generated by synthesizers; no samples or acoustic instruments are used. Furthermore, this album introduces vocals to Sprague’s solo work—which had previously been primarily instrumental—in an attempt to bridge the gap between wordless music and music with lyrics.

While plans for additional *Cyano* tracks are currently underway, this album serves as the first presentation of the project. It is a work that is intentionally primitive and minimalist, resembling a noise-laden transmission arriving from a distant place. Sprague’s journey of exploring emotion, language, and sound rearranges spiritual matter, resonating like a vital force flowing through a riverside garden and into the sea.

These tracks map out emotions and places within a magnetic landscape born of the inner self and the imagination. There, knowledge is a mystery, and that mystery tears open a fissure into reality.

This is an album by Sister Eileen O'Connor, produced by a Catholic broadcaster and released by Philips in Australia in 1973 and by a Roman Catholic label in Ohio, USA in 1976. It was a two-person production with Sister Marimir Lobregat. The charm of Eileen O'Connor's singing, LO-FI drum machine, electric organ, guitar and the acoustics of the rever ...Read more (Original Japanese text by Saito)b feeling, and mix work. Exquisite, with musical surprises throughout, spiritual, and the more sincere, the more charming and funny. Several bootlegs have existed, but this is an authorized reissue, restored and remastered from the best surviving sources by GRAMMY-nominated engineer Jessica Thompson, who is known for her restoration work. This lovingly reissued work comes with detailed liner notes and an 18-page lyrics booklet. This is the kind of music that soothes people's hearts and brings world peace. It's a crazy world, but also imagine the madness of a world filled with "Love Lights" turned into weapons. I love the artwork too. (Original Japanese text by Saito)

The music on Horse Lords’ Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive! is incredibly intricate, yet at the same time possesses a deeply human warmth. The 12 tracks are intricately interwoven in multiple layers, unfolding with complexity in both timbre and rhythm. Moiré-like interactions and repetitive patterns engage both the mind and the body, creating a l ...Read moreabyrinth of countless sounds while maintaining an irresistible groove.
A groundbreaking work that further expands the band’s unique musical language cultivated over many years, Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive! aims to transport listeners into a spiritual, ecstatic, and utopian sonic space. (From the press release)

Discovery Zone, the project by JJ Weihl—a singer and member of Fenster, which released music on labels such as Morr Music, and one of the founders of Videokills, a video art and multimedia artist collective—makes its debut on RVNG INTL. with the release of their second album. The first-press limited edition includes an inner sleeve printed with the album’s lyrics. (Original Japanese text by Saito)

JJ Weihl is a member of the experimental pop band Fenster, which releases music on 〈Morr Music〉; she is also a singer and the director of the video art collective VIDEOKILLS. Originally from New York and now based in Berlin, this is her second release under the name Discovery Zone on 〈RVNG Intl.〉. Originally conceived for an ambisonic environment f ...Read moreeaturing 49 speakers, the tracks have been remixed in collaboration with longtime collaborator E/T, taking on a new form as a stereo release while retaining their three-dimensional depth. Inspired by the ideas of science writer James Gleick, astronomer Kepler, and author Borges, this is a form of romantic electronic science that weaves nature, consciousness, information, and mythology together into a single grand cycle. It crosses the boundaries between humans and technology, reality and simulation, through sounds that transform the Big Bang into a digital creation myth, an infinitely proliferating library, an ocean of looping data, and landscapes where natural and electronic sounds blend together. Starting with the lead track “Dusk,” where smooth synths and vocals interplay, this is cyber music that—while rooted in a grand concept—is never obscure; it is pop, nostalgic, and evokes a New Age sensibility.

Tristan Allen is a Brooklyn-based, one-of-a-kind artist who is both a composer trained at Berklee College of Music and a professional puppeteer. In this work, Osni the Flare, he depicts a creation myth in four acts in which the protagonist, Osni—who lives in a garden—discovers a smoldering ember and eventually transforms into the god of fire. By tr ...Read moreanslating the puppet theater’s philosophy of “telling the truth through lies” into music, he constructs a unique world where narrative and sound become one. Recorded primarily at his home in Brooklyn, the album features a wide array of instruments, including piano, harmonium, pump organ, toy piano, ocarina, music box, and bells. Layers of sound—drawn from wordless vocals, field recordings, and improvisation—are delicately stacked to create a soundscape that feels both fantastical and real. The innocent charm of a fairy tale and the meticulous structure characteristic of experimental music coexist seamlessly, and the contours of this world become increasingly clear the more you listen. This album is the astonishingly polished realization of Allen’s vision: music that sounds as though the fantasy world itself is playing, rather than being performed by a human.

The 14 songs on the album shimmer, swell, and sparkle against the backdrop of a faintly glowing night, a cavernous space shaped by sounds that are a rare and surrealistic representation of the natural world. The arrangements are at once grandiose and ephemeral, a reversal and a culmination of their previous work, an adventurous experiment unrivaled ...Read more by any of their previous works."

Visible Cloaks is the project of Spencer Doran, one of the first to introduce Japanese environmental music to the world, and Ryan Carlile, a synthesizer player who worked with Eternal Tapestry and others. Visible Cloaks has been bringing a unique new flow to ambient, new age and IDM since the 2017 release of their album masterpiece "Reassemblage", and since 2019's "Serenitatem" with Yoshio Ojima & Satsuki Shibano The long-awaited new album, which will be released in 2019 with Yoshio Ojima & Satsuki Shibano. The album is a combination of digital and field recordings, with a transparent sound and a deepened sound. Please check it out! (from the comments on the LP)

Cloud Time" is a recording of Emily A. Sprague's performance on her first Japan tour, which was finally realized in 2024 after two cancellations due to a pandemic. The sound source took on a mythical significance for Sprague and took on the nature of a white whale of her own sound.
"The empty spaces of canceled trips and forgotten music turned ...Read moreinto strange little misty spirits that seemed to haunt me," she said, "As I began preparing for the tour, I realized that the invitation to Japan was not so much about bringing something under my control and bringing it there, but rather to this new place. I couldn't shake the feeling that the invitation to Japan was more about opening myself up to this new place than about taking something under my control and bringing it there. Improvisation has always been a major pillar of my musical practice, and through that process I had a strong desire to encounter this country, this space, and its people." She says.

To amplify these intuitive whispers on stage, Sprague took the live equipment she had used for years, designed to be as error-free as possible, and rebuilt it into a freer, more flexible setup. It allowed him to interact with a virtually blank canvas of sound each night. Each performance became a collaboration of environment and instinct, with Sprague processing the events, energies, and emotions that shaped the evening through a new sonic ecosystem, projecting a completely present and unique self to each audience member who opened their ears and their hearts. For me, it was more than just the act of performing. It was an experience of time and place."

The seven full-length songs that flow through "Cloud Time" were culled from over eight hours of recordings archived on the artist's stage recorder and generously included on the album with only additional mixes and minimal editing. As the album moves from city to city and venue to venue, the listener is stilled in moments of deeply rooted presence. And this album is a chronicle of the material recorded at each venue, with Sprague selecting and structuring the album based on mood-based storytelling rather than a linear timeline. I wanted the whole album to flow like every single one of our previous live performances," she explains. At the same time, I tried to keep the spirit of the whole as a journey. The result is a work that is equal parts travelogue, love letter, and impressionistic collage, born of a powerful ferment, now trapped in the luminous amber of memory.

Deeply inspired by environmental music, a philosophy widely known both nationally and internationally, Cloud Time resonates with a spirit as vast as Pauline Oliveros's deep listening practice, positioning the listener as a composer. Rooted in heartfelt synthesizer frequencies, the richly enveloping and soothing ambient music is like listening back. Songs like "Nagoya," "Tokyo 1," and the ten-minute "Matsumoto" echo the atomic resonance of a gently manicured landscape, offering a space in which to enter deeply into and leave behind a stifling and constricting perspective. Cloud Time" is an invitation to accept each moment as fleeting yet eternal, with nothing to grasp but to flow and gain.

Sprague's practice of acceptance and letting go throughout the tour had a profound impact on her understanding of herself not only as a "guest" but also as a "respected performer. She says, "The process of loving wherever I was, being present in the moment, and focusing on clear channels of mental and emotional communication was rooted in a deep respect for the space, the people in it, and myself, resulting in profound healing." My vision and hope is that this album will be a gift to those who were there and those who were not." Cloud Time of a life gone by."

Born in Pereira, Colombia, Lucrecia Dalt grew up in a household of music lovers and was encouraged to pick up the guitar at age nine. Following that creative impulse, she became fascinated with computer-based production and abandoned a fast-rising career as a civil engineer, moving from Medellín to Barcelona and ultimately to Berlin, where she deve ...Read moreloped her singular, adventurous sound. Since joining RVNG she has released three works—Anticlines (2018), No era sólida (2020), and the remarkable, groundbreaking sci-fi bolero album ¡Ay! (2022)—while along the way expanding into film scoring with On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024), the HBO series The Baby (2022), and the forthcoming psychological horror Rabbit Trap, as well as sound installations and performances that showcase her luminous modulations and distinctive, evolving vocal approach.

A Danger to Ourselves grew out of fragmentary declarations Dalt jotted down while living on the road touring ¡Ay! and during the formative period of a new relationship. In January 2024 she began crystallizing these intimate fragments into musical structures, gradually shaping a body of purposeful songs. The album's sonic architecture is built on dynamic drum loops supplied by collaborator Alex Lázaro, whose percussive backbone became—as on ¡Ay!—the canvas for Dalt's layered vocals. Rather than following conventional melodic structures, the album generates its musicality through the interplay of bass lines, rhythm, and compositional design. Bold production choices and meticulous recording techniques reveal Dalt's uncompromising pursuit of sonic clarity, where voice and instruments align with new depth and radiance.

Distinctly anti-conceptual, A Danger to Ourselves is a poetic instinct guiding Dalt toward unobstructed focus on the music itself, exploring vocals that transcend the frame of the songs and the shimmering resonance of primal, romantic thrills. Dalt's lucid attention to detail is felt in every bar, her devotion tracing concentric circles that form a space where the personal and the spiritual merge. Born of intuitive experimentation, the album weaves wandering lines using simple gestures and intricate structures—like

Horse Lords, who have released numerous works on labels such as NNA TAPES and Northern Spy, are releasing a new album on RVNG INTL. Incorporating just intonation—a tuning system favored by American experimental musicians La Monte Young and James Tenney—along with African polyrhythms, modular synths, and traditional Appalachian music. While incorpor ...Read more (Original Japanese text by Saito)ating minimalism and experimental elements, their music also features the punk-like energy and physical dynamism of NO NEW YORK and Krautrock, along with a playful spirit—resulting in music that truly gets your blood pumping. A must-listen for GOAT fans as well. (Original Japanese text by Saito)

Having debuted with music written for contemporary ballet before signing to RVNG INTL., Sign Libra returns with her first new album since 2020's "Sea To Sea." (Original Japanese text by Saito)

70年代後半から80年代半ばにかけて、アンダーグランドミュージックのハブになっていたワシントン州、オリンピアから産まれた音源。81年から84年にかけてリリースされた音源をFREEDOM TO SPENDがコンパイル。民族音楽、サティのミニマリズム、ライヒ、ローリー・アンダーソンの先鋭音楽、YOUNG MARBLE GIANTSなどのポストパンク的な感触も伺えるような魅惑のサウンド。推薦盤。 (サイトウ)

2021年の「Under~Between」、2015年「Advanced Myth」の再リリースを行ってきた〈Rvng Intl.〉からニューアルバム「Atlas of Green」。「失われた信号と永続する衝動がテクノロジーと時間の堆積物から発掘される、未来の夜明けの時代に活動するグリーンという名の若いミュージシャン」にまつわる物語で、アーシュラ・K・ル・グウィンやジーン・ウルフのようなファンタジー小説にインスピレーションを得ているとのこと。電子音と、アコースティックな要素も感じさせ、ミニマリズムやダンスなエッセンス、熱量のあるエレクトロニック・ミュージックドリーム・ポップを産み出しています。Stephan Mathieuマスタリング。 (サイトウ)

「アパラチアやアフリカの伝統音楽、ポリリズム、ラ・モンテ・ヤングらが使用した純正律の音階を取り入れた」という謳い文句で登場し、変拍子、マスロック、ポストパンク、サイケデリック、アメリカの実験的な音楽シーンを凝縮したようなバルチモアのバンドHorse Lords。躍動感も感じ取れる。 (サイトウ)

幼少期に聴いて育ったコロンビアの音楽、フォルクローレ、地盤工学の技師で積年、積み重ね封じ込まれた地質学の位相幾何学的な研究も音楽に反映しているというルクレシア・ダルトのニューアルバム。これまでどちらかというと、楽器と同等に使用してきた声楽から、より歌へのアプローチがされていて、伝統的な楽器を含む、生楽器のミュージシャンも参加。サルサで使用されるトゥンバオや、ボレロのリズムパターンをスローダウンさせて取り入れ、新たなフォームを模索しています。あからさまなクレイジーさは薄れ、ゆったりりと驚きの世界、歌、フォルクローレ、神話性、音の物語の世界観。演劇性高く、これまで同様深み、サイケデリックな感覚、素晴らしい世界を展開しています。是非。 (サイトウ)

ドリームポップ、淡いがじっくりとイマジナリーな世界が広がっている。素晴らしい音楽。
「イシク・クラルの『in february』は、過ぎ去る時間と戻ってくる時間の中にある日常の詩を、まるで人生の時間性を表すスナップショットのように記録しています。このアルバムの12曲は、それぞれ偶然のループから構成され、イシクの印象的な声とメロディープレーの柔らかいいれものに収めらる、時間が、願うなら、ありえないほど、永遠に保たれる場所。日時計の蝶がシーンを分けていく様子を追ってみてください。」 (サイトウ)

KA BAIRD — founder of Madison's experimental psychedelic ensemble SPIRES THAT IN THE SUNSET RISE and a leading talent of the NY avant-garde scene who has also released solo work on labels like 〈DRAG CITY〉 — launches a long-awaited new record! Rhythmic electronics are meticulously arranged alongside seemingly improvised vocal performances, noise and ...Read more (Original Japanese text by Akie) woodwinds, with musique concrète techniques thrown into the mix. Avant-electronic music that absorbs everything from concrete sound to operatic elements. (Original Japanese text by Akie)

A composer/performer who works with sound, live electronic processing, sampled sounds, and video; also a media artist. Pamela Z. Remastered by Freedom To Spend—run by Pete Swanson under the RVNG ONTL. label—and released for the first time on vinyl. (Original Japanese text by Saito)