For the Innermost

Artist: Talst Album: Sewn into the Infinite Sky Label: Winter-Light Release date: January 2026 In a seemingly ever-growing sea of dark ambient projects, it's a surprisingly rare occurrence to hear of new and notable names from the American continent. Luckily, Talst, a relatively recent project of the Chicago-based musician Rob Meldrum, is a welcome exception to this rule, having just released his second full-length album on Winter-Light, a label that has a history of (not to

Artist: Sublimatio Mortis Album: Ghur Label: Cyclic Law / Dark Odyssey / Scarlet Kross Release date: October 2025 This sublime Canadian project (if you'll excuse the pun) should be a household name to all readers of this website by now, not least because of the fact that over the past year or so I have already reviewed both their stellar sophomore album and the follow-up EP , both of which positioned Sublimatio Mortis as one of the essential names to keep an eye out for in

Artist: Kaarlo Herden & IT904 Album: Travelogue Label: Self-released Release date: January 2026 2025 was a very fruitful year in terms of collaborations, so I was more than happy to stumble upon a curious new one (or rather, it stumbled upon me) at the very start of 2026. Kaarlo Herden & IT904 are pseudonyms of two Italian musicians with a background in various musical genres, although this is their first bona-fide dark ambient release. I admit that I was unaware of any of t

Artist: The Grey Lake Album: The Grey Lake Label: Winter-Light Release date: November 2025 In a year already packed with excellent collaborations, Winter-Light thought it worthwhile to add another one to the mix: a new, intercontinental project between Ben Powell from Llyn Y Cwn and Christopher Olson of Standard Grey fame under the simple, yet evocative moniker The Grey Lake. In the glut of dark ambient releases enabled by the ubiquitousness of broadband internet and digita

The glorious year 2025 has finally drawn to a close, and I say glorious for objective and subjective reasons alike. Objective, because it was one of the best years for dark ambient in a long while, with a plethora of well-known scene names releasing excellent new albums after the relative lull of the post-COVID period, but also some notable newcomers making their mark. Subjective, because it was the first full year of operations for the resurrected For the Innermost, during w