For the Innermost

Artist: The Void Wanderer Album: Life Is Exhausting Label: Cryo Chamber Release date: September 2025 There has always been an inherent escapism to dark ambient, which is perhaps to be expected from a genre that does away with so many conventional features and elements of what people tend to call music . It takes a specifically attuned mind to be able to disconnect from the sensory overload of everyday life and search for stimuli in a minimalist sound form. That said, there ha

Artist: Vortex Album: Acéphale Label: Cyclic Law Release date: November 2025 The great thing about Vortex is that, unlike many other dark ambient artists, the project doesn't really have a signature sound . Over his almost 20-year-career, this German musician has never really produced two albums that sound very similar to each other, although one does start to clearly tell apart certain aspects of his work given sufficient exposure. While all of them are notable albums in the

Date: 18/10/2025 Place: Wuppertal, Germany If there's such a thing as a household name in our scene, then Peter Bjärgö certainly fits the bill. Over the past thirty years and ever since the golden age of Cold Meat Industry, this charismatic Swedish musician has been instrumental (excuse the pun) to a range of well-known bands, from Arcana , over Sophia, to Karjalan Sissit, not to mention his various side projects and one-off collaborations. In addition to all this, however, h

Event name: Phobos 2025 Artists: Sphäre Sechs (DE) / Svartsinn (NO) / Peter Bjärgo (SE) / Troum (DE) Venue: Kulturzentrum Immanuel Location: Wuppertal, Germany Date: 18th October 2025 Despite it being one of the oldest and most respected festivals in the dark ambient scene, I had never had the opportunity to attend Phobos until last week. Brainchild of Martin Stürtzer of Phelios fame (among other projects), Phobos has been running for no less than 16 years now, and the 20

Artist: TeHÔM Album: Legacy Label: Cyclic Law Release date: January 2024 Among the artists that helped define the dark ambient genre, few have roots that stretch quite as far back as TeHÔM's. This now-cult ritual ambient project from Croatia has been active in one form or another for more than thirty years, gracing countless European stages through numerous (for dark ambient standards) live performances. Yet for all the project's history and influence, Legacy is only TeHÔM's