For the Innermost

Artist: ERGA Album: Fragment of Their Yearning Landscapes Label: Self-released Release date: May 2026 Erik Gärdefors, the talented songwriter and multi-instrumentalist behind Grift (among others), is back with a new project called ERGA. The choice of name (basically the first two letters of the artist's first and last name) is no coincidence and, diving into the album for the first time as I gazed upon the beautifully symbolic cover art, I was sure that I was about to listen

Artist: Troum Album: EmphasYs Label: Cyclic Law / Transgredient Records Release date: April 2026 What do you do after you've done everything? A fair question to ask any longstanding artist, including Troum, one of the forefathers of the drone ambient genre who are still going strong three decades into their epic career, as evidenced by their headlining live performance at Phobos 2025, which I was fortunate enough to witness in person. Judging by EmphasYs, Troum's latest album

Artist: Ansiktsløs Album: Crushing Earthly Semblance Label: Dark Odyssey Release date: April 2026 One of the hardest tasks these days is going back to this genre's roots and striving for that trademark atmosphere conjured by the forefathers without simply aping or copying their work. That, however, is exactly what R. Ikstelzok (of Apocryphos and formerly Psychomanteum fame) set out to do with his side project Ansiktsløs, whose debut album Sideworlds was released on the mighty

Artist: Kryoscope Album: Deadly White Label: Self-released Release date: April 2025 Among the myriad subgenres of dark ambient, polar dark ambient is one of the most fascinating and simultaneously one of the most difficult to pull off. Like the endless, white, frigid landscapes that it depicts, it involves a certain level of barrenness and minimalism even for dark ambient standards. It's in this somewhat forgotten niche that the (presumably?) young new artist Kryoscope has de

Artist: Inade & Troum Album: To Pan Eon Label: Drone Records Release date: March 2026 Here comes a release that definitely wasn't on my bingo card for 2026. It's exciting enough when Troum releases anything, sure; it's perhaps even more exciting to see Inade with (as far as I know) their first new studio material since 2018. But to see these two absolute titans of the German drone/ambient scene team up out of the blue, and not even for a split release, but a full-blown colla