Various Artists - no-R-mal (4 CD set)
The Justnotnormal netlabel has released what may be the best online collection of experimental music currently available. no-R-mal is a 4 CD collection of 52 tracks and over 5 hours of music representing some of the finest experimental music artists you will find. The vast majority of these tracks are previously unreleased.There are a number of musicians that I have heard and featured in the past including Mystified, D’Incise, and Phillip Wilkerson. However there are also plenty of new artists and amazing music to marvel upon. A sampling of previously unknown artists to me that I want to hear more from would include Bob Dickinson, Kendall Station, Gurdonark, and Controlled Dissonance . Most of the music is on the tonal but “dronal” side although there are a few that stretch the ambient limits like Nagual Arts’ “Niobe and The Sea” and Cousin Silas “Dreaming in Dunwich” which I suspect is a eerie salute to H. P. Lovecraft. Overall, this is a nice retrospective that will be essential listening to anyone into experimental music.
The album set equals 4 CDs of music and is available in 320kbps MP3.
Inspired by images from the Cassini-Huygens and Voyager space exploration missions, Sub Luna is a rapturous collection of soundscapes guaranteed to send your mind off in the vast frontiers of space. I am tempted to say “where no ears have gone before”, but I’ll pass. Each of the seven tracks are named after stars and TheForgotton gives us his aural description by way of luscious tones and spacey backgrounds. Very meditative and calming, this is a good album for evening relaxation.
I recently reviewed Ben Stephner’s 
If nothing else, Reflecting allows me to hear what a 
The music of Konntinent aka London artist Antony J. Harrison moves at an almost glacial pace yet it pulls you into an aural dreamscape that is meditative and calming. The album titled If I Could Buy a Map of Hope Volume 2 from 
Jason Mullinax aka 
A tantalizing mixture of ECM styled post-jazz, progressive rock, and electro-acoustic ambient awaits you in Wacky Southern Current’s new online album titled Ageless Calm in Times of War. Wacky Southern Currents is essentially Italian musicians Marco Cervellin and Gianni Garbo. These are quiet acoustic gems that vacillate between acoustic ambient and only slightly more vibrant post-rock refrains. This album would be a good relaxing choice to wind down from daily stress. 
I have always found 
Joxfield ProjeX’s sound constructions may be avant-garde yet they have an accessible appeal for those who are not necessarily familiar with the more “out-there” performances of experimental music. Sound artists Oax and Xan have an involving style of music-making. These are complex compositions that ropes in the listeners. Clinical Archives currently have three very good albums by these interesting musicians.
You can find a lot of experimental electronic music on many net labels, but few of them have kept my interest as well as this online album by Blind Umizato of Montgomery, Alabama. The four long tracks on As The Evening Descends; Two Rivers are marvels of industrial sound and field recordings that seem to be mainly machine based. While much of this type of composition appears chaotic, these tracks have a distinct feel of structure which may not be immediately apparent on the first listen. The title track has an industrial sound but it is quite pleasing and certainly ambient. “GTR1″ has an aura of wind and mystery. “Follow The One Armed Pendulum” is back to machine sounds . It sounds a bit mischievous to me. Finally “New Noise Massacre” is the longest track at 27 minutes and, despite the title, is somewhat rhapsodic. Those into experiment music and ambient will enjoy this album.
“Invented and defined by Smith, the term Zn’shñ signifies: the gleam of dark colours. Deliberately antithetic and intentionally enigmatic, Zn’shñ is basically enthused by Butoh iconography, Japanese Gagaku aesthetic and Tibetan rituals codification”
The two track self-titled album from German band Kodiak is a involved excursion into minimalist drones and post-rock. The first track “Beginning” starts out with a lone cellist repeating a five note theme and is soon joined by blaring guitars that play a slight variation. The 18 minute result is an ambient track that is not all that ambient but is more of a minimal form of noise rock and post-rock. “End” goes on for 21 minutes with a similar drone-like soundscape peppered with singular guitar blasts. It is a beautiful but slightly abrasive work. The two tracks that make up this album are not what I would call entertaining but they have an unmistakable sense of artistry and should be experienced at least once.
The demise of Autoplate is a huge loss to the netlabel world. For seven years Autoplate has specialized in experimental electronic music introducing listeners to innovative artists like 
Bad Dreams of the Gloomy Girl by TD Black Sun is a good and fairly typical example of dark ambient mixed with a dose of industrial. What rises this album above the fray of similar ambient sounds are two tracks, “Belissimi capelli” and “Autumn” featuring the operatic voices of Zubacheva Elena and Marushkina Tanya. Both tracks emit an almost Schoenbergian atmosphere as electronic music and soprano blends together. The rest of the album is also quite good but I keep replaying “Autumn” especially. I would love to hear more from this beautiful pairing.
As much as I loved 
Simply put, 
Beyond Absence is an acoustic jazz duo consisting of pianist Gustavo Caldas and guitarist Mauro Longordo. This is jazz of the pastoral and serene. Their album titled Complacency is a peaceful improvisational journey that can be as light as a feather yet deeply moving. The melodies often move in slow motion yet the playing of this duo remain fluid and translucent. This album is an highly recommended listening experience for anyone who appreciate the art of music.
Chimney Fish is a musical project of Annie Culver. Her trademark is her solo voice, overdubbed and accompanied by viola and/or electronics. This is very melodic but basically ambient music. The feel is tentative, warm and cerebral. Her 39 minutes EP Drown, Sailor, Drown is a good example of all the various colors and emotion she can get from her deceptively simple arrangements. I especially like her compositions when it is nothing but layered voices as on the Judds cover “Love is Alive” or her original “Fourth Month”, Occasionally the beat becomes more pronounced as on “Marble Glitter” which has an early Enya sound but Chimney Fish is most original when the voices and electronics floats and seduces as it does on “Let our Hair Down”. This is odd, serene and addictive music.
Pianist 
Jopy’s meditative music is a cut above a lot of the ambient / electronic music that is freely available over the internet. The three albums on his web site are lush soundscapes that flirts with the lyrical but never quite surfaces into melodies. Long drones, found sound, and barely decipherable voices all play a part in these hard to resist ambient sound waves. There are occasionally some noticeable beats as on Bojihanga’s “Piti” but even then they tend to become lost in the layers of sounds. Bojihanga is a good place to start due to the quiet and spacey vibes it sends out. I’m not sure if it is intentional but there is an eerie similarity to the Indian devotional music called 
Drone albums are esy to come by on the internet. Good drone albums are difficult to find anywhere. Kalte has released The Lanthanide Series and it is an exceptional display of minimalist drone-based soundscapes. Kalte is a duo consisting of sound artists Deane Hughes and Rik MacLean who seem to like cold and icy tones that hang and echoes in your ears. Since they state that this album was inspired by the barren Canadian winters, it sort of makes sense. The overall mood is bleak and solemn but there is still plenty of beauty in this music. This may not ever crack Billboard’s top 40 but I suspect its haunting sounds will stay with you a lot longer than anything on the hit list.
Bosques de mi Mente’s Ruido Blanco is an album of melodic but slightly minimalist music. The mood is melancholic but distancely hopeful. The artist states he created this work at a lonely point in his life ” isolated in a new city, trapped in a room around a mess of cement and asphalt, far from everyone I knew”. Certainly if a musical work can define social alienation, this softly sad collection of track comes very close. This is a beautiful effort released by the 
The music on Moabi’s Sexe Bourgeois can be best called subterranean. It resonates from the deep earth, cavernous yet other worldly, Ambient yet restless, avant-garde yet barely merged with the tona. This 4 track EP is strange but unique. As you listen to the long tones and bell songs, operatic voices fade in and out and the quiet scratches of old vinyl decorate some of the tracks. This music is meant for quiet and attentive listening.
