As Sunn O))) tore through town last week, it got me thinking: are they the bastion of experimentalism? Galvaniser’s of worlds, as metal and experimentalism coalesce. It’s quite astonishing for a band who has been the apostle of drone to reach such heights. People from all backgrounds and musical tastes converged for a performance that, judging by many of the comments since, was arguably the best of their U.K. tour.
Experimentalism and fandom are a funny thing. The contradiction of pretentiousness, protest and privilege in art, largely covered by the middle-classes. Sunn O))) don’t just break all these boundaries, they obliterate them completely.
Metal aficionados have never been afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves. Almost quite literally in the sense of last Tuesday night. AC/DC, Electric Wizard and Godflesh regalia, adorned by many throughout the crowd on a night which confirmed that Sunn O))) aren’t just a band: they are a culture.
They transcend beyond the high-brow nature that is often (and quite rightly) levelled at experimentalism. To these ears at least, some of the below releases possess similar powers. But make no mistake, whether you like them or not, Sunn O))) forged the path for others to follow.
Glory Black: In Conversation with Sunn O)))’s Stephen O’Malley
Bent Light: The Day Is Ours
Memory Waste
New Massachusetts label, Memory Waste, storms out of the gates with their debut release, Bent Light’s The Day Is Ours.
Consisting of Michael Slyne and Russell Linder, the New London, Connecticut duo are responsible for long-form, emotive transmissions that are meticulous crafted, and beautifully executed. So much so that The Day Is Ours is as good as anything I’ve heard in the experimental space this year.
Calling to mind the same serene dreamscapes that Blue Divers have made so far during this decade, Bent Light provide the same radiance through different methods. Radio waves alongside tape loops and metallic guitar rings, evoking a spiritual resonance that unlocks sacred emotions. And I can’t wait to hear what the duo brings us next.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
E-Clark Cornell: Piano Signs & Symbols [2024-2026]
Sinconia del Viento
Either side of his excellent collaboration alongside Band Of Susan’s Robert Poss, Edward Clark Cornell has produced a swathe of new music this year. Where to start? Perhaps the best place is Piano Signs & Symbols [2024-2026].
This is the kind of terrestrial minimalism that one of the kind. The space, creating a hush where you can almost hear the blood running through your veins. There’s a real gravitational pull to Cornell’s work where the silence gives you time to think.
In many ways, it’s an effect not dissimilar to the way Blake Conley’s works wash over you, and while occupying different places within the experimental sound world, it’s the inner grains that sparkle shine the most. Piano Signs & Symbols [2024-2026], the entry point into Cornell’s body of work.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
D.C. Cross: Open Guitar (Vol. 2)
Self-released
Following last year’s beautiful first edition of Open Guitar, Darren Cross returns with the second instalment.
For those who like their long-form compositions, then this is for you (it’s three hours long!). Still, Open Guitar (Vol. 2) moves like a flash, as the guitarist uses a swathe of field recordings to place you in the heart of various climes across Australia.
This isn’t some meandering inner-city concern going bush, though. Cross has taken the time in the country’s regional areas, capturing the sounds of wildlife and the environment where you can actually smell the surroundings in these places. The locality is real, enhancing Cross’ stature in the primitive guitar space.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Euan Dalgarno: Cliff Workshop
Self-released
Euan Dalgarno first came to our attention via his excellent LP, uoying via Frosti. With the freedom of movement within his compositions, the Edinburgh producer explores new space on Cliff Workshop.
And it doesn’t disappoint, as the Dalgarno pulls from all corners for something dreamy, abstract and drone-y. It’s hard to put a finger on at times, but that’s the beauty of these recordings: you can’t help but keep going back, digging further in a bid to try and make sense of it all.
Maybe the intention is to ceaselessly evade? Like vague dreams, they are meant to remain just that. This is what Cliff Workshop captures, and alongside Allen Moore, the Chicago experimentalist has found a new ally from this side of the Atlantic.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Galán | Spieth | Guentner: Obreel
Affin Records
It’s not a stretch to claim that Joachim Spieth and Markus Guentner are at the peak of their powers. The pair’s solo endeavours so far in 2026, dotted throughout these pages. Simply put, their sounds are too good to keep at the gates, and this time alongside Pepo Galán, they continue to remain at the summit on Obreel.
This is minimalism for big sound systems. Galán’s metallic surges of tremolo flooding from the speakers, and colliding with Spieth and Guentner’s glacial soundscapes, the results are euphoric.
Obreel contains the kind of subtle crescendos that are like mini endorphin rushes. It’s not immediate, as the trio lean into the world of deep-listening rather than tech house, which Spieth and Guentner in particular have mastered during this decade. And alongside Galán on Obreel, they spin gold dust in new places.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Sapphire Goss: Light Sensitive Materials
F3zzhead Records
U.K.-based experimentalist Sapphire Goss reaches the eerier corners within the deep-listening sound world on Light Sensitive Materials.
Recorded using the sonification of film reels, Goss is the exponent of something that falls between post-rock darkness of Labradford and the dungeon wave of Hell on Hearth. It’s hard to frame, but that’s the point. There’s no set agenda in this life, so why should there be in art?
Ultimately, Light Sensitive Materials is minimalism for punks. A kind of background noise that has gradient and shade fit for the apocalypse. A kind of snapshot into the future.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Grid Ila: Xe
Buh Records
If Speake is the sound of the future (more of them in a bit), then they are taking Venezuelan artist, Jose G. Villarroel with them.
On his debut release under the Grid Ila moniker, Xe finds Villarroel dispensing something that is exclusively designed for dancefloors, big sound systems and sweaty bodies. While Xe frazzles the mind, the hedonism is subtle. Sure, Grid Ila creates noise for crowded rooms, but there’s also a quality to these recordings where the individual can zone out in their own world amongst peers.
There’s a dark thread here, informed by post-punk in similar ways to Anthony Child’s work as Surgeon. Xe is like a portal within a portal, taking the mind to radical places.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Inbuilt Obsolescence & August Cooke: Cosmic Render #9
Fr33zehead
Cosmic Render is a London-based experimental showcase that takes places Next Door Records. The showcase’s latest instalment, a performance by device wrangler Inbuilt Obsolescence and August Cooke.
Amalgamating samples with stringed textures, the duo explore interesting facets of post-rock. While Side A feels like a soundtrack to some university lecture from many moons ago, it’s quite the contrast to Side B – an improvised piece that is buried in the same atmospheres as The Necks.
There’s an immediacy to both pieces, and while different in nature, Inbuilt Obsolescence and Cooke make them work, guiding the listener through windy paths in a short space of time. It works on multiple levels.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Alec Ilyine: Drift Lines
Ramble Records
Once again, Ramble Records are having a flagship year in all things primitive guitar, and the Melbourne label roll off another gift from the conveyor belt – this time with Alec Ilyine’s Drift Lines.
The Belgium guitarist brings more atmosphere into the room than some of his finger-picking peers. There’s Fahey worship here, but on Drift Lines, IIyine moves across waters into new continents, drawing from raga and Middle Eastern traditions to form a quite the potent mix.
It really is all about the drift lines. Ilyine isn’t hemmed in by any one style or concept, oscillating between styles with each piece. And in doing so, he fills every corner of the room with unbridled energy.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Cate Kennan: Shadows
Kranky
Cate Kennan’s music is from a great distance. Perhaps from another world even, as her hazy musings on kranky debut, Shadows, boil down country music to something designed for high altitudes.
With guitars and keys, such as the skeletal nature to these songs, they take some time to seep into the pores. There’s something ephemeral, deeply emotive and positively outlier about Kennan’s songs. They draw you in like a spectre’s whisper cutting through the night.
And it’s here where Shadows is best consumed. With a hushed AM quality, these songs provide soft light that gently warms the room, growing stronger the longer you stay with them.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Low Buzz: Plants
Self-released
Plantwave anybody? Yes, environmental soundscapes have become a thing in the world of experimentalism, and London guitarist, Low Buzz has thrown his hat into the ring with Plants.
Previously an orchestrator of crystalline guitars, in many ways, it’s no surprise that he’s leaned into this world. These compositions, seamless meditations that sooth the mind.
It’s lovely stuff, and joining the likes of Matthew Hiram and the stable of artists under the likes of Salmon Universe and Constellation Tatsu, Low Buzz musters great vibes on Plants. Press play and let it massage your ears.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Lilac Numbering System: They Sound Like They’re Dying
Adventurous Music
For all your drone requirements in this latest WR edition, look no further than Lilac Numbering System who provides the relevant tonal overload on They Sound Like They’re Dying.
The project of Texas-based artist, John Wilkins, harnessed behind the soundboards by no other than James Plotkin, this is dark stuff in a year that’s had a lot of it. Lilac Number System, out of the same vein as Alliance Rose Croix and, of course, the titans of drone, Sunn O))).
They Sound Like They’re Dying is a good alternative. Perhaps less primitive, more searching, like the Dead C leaning a bit more into the world of psych.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Marconi Union: Multiforms: Ambient Transmissions, Vol. 3
Just Music
Marconi Union have spent decades in their own enclave. Long before Bandcamp became a vehicle for so many experimentalists across the world, Richard Talbot, Jamie Crossley and Duncan Meadows have always gone about their business in boiling down soundscapes to purest form.
For those living under a rock for much of this century, Multiforms: Ambient Transmissions, Vol. 3 is a gateway into the MU world. It encompasses so much of what they have achieved over the years, whilst also maintaining something crucial right now. (Those wondering what Fennesz and Seefeel would sound like if they ever rubbed shoulders, the answer is this.)
So immersed in their own world, often Marconi Union are seen as a forgotten act. But as the world of ambient music has evolved, in a lot of ways, it’s been held together by the likes of the Manchester act, and Multiforms: Ambient Transmissions, Vol. 3 is further evidence of that.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Ben McElroy: Allotment Tapes #5- I Wanted the Trees (with Gail and Peter) Self-released
Nottingham experimentalist, Ben McElroy, has released some interesting material this year – namely the Allotment Tapes series, which finds him mixing beautiful acoustic brushes with field recordings with allotment owners.
In a similar way to Australian experimentalist, D.C. Cross, McElroy illuminates these little pockets of peace. Special places for everyday folk to escape their everyday stresses. In this case it’s Gail and Peter who share a story of their own patch.
It’s a strong idea, and one that few others have explored. While we’ve hand-picked the fifth instalment of McElroy’s sonic musings, it’s worth starting from the top in this series to see how these recordings evolve.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Abul Mogard & Rafael Anton Irisarri: Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun
Black Knoll Editions
Following his excellent Points of Inaccessibility released earlier this year, Rafael Anton Irisarri returns alongside Italian experimentalist Abul Mogard for their second collaboration release, Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun.
In a live sense, the duo have been hitting all the right frequencies over the past couple of years. (The highlight, their spellbinding performance at the 2024 edition of Le Guess Who?). On Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun, things are a little more tempered. The duo, guiding the listener into a sound bath where the drones wash over you instead of ripping through your body like wild fire.
It’s a different kind of catharsis and one that can’t be rushed. But when you arrive at that point, the results on Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun are beautiful.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Bill Orcutt & Mabe Fratti: Almost Walking
Unheard of Hope
The Orcutt is on some run of form. Following Music in Continuous Motion (arguably his best solo release), and his recent rumble with Ethan Miller and Steve Shelley, the experimental guitarist returns alongside Mexico-based Guatemalan cellist, Mabe Fratti for Almost Walking.
Fratti herself has been one of the major success stories from the experimental underground this decade, putting on spellbinding performances all across the world. Alongside Orcutt, the two carve new paths, which take the duo to places where they have never been.
Almost Walking gets stronger with each listen. A collision of neo-classical and blues, to the point where there really is nothing else out there quite like it.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
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Prymek & Sage: Shelter
AKP Recordings
Chaz Prymek and Matthew Sage have been making music for some time and with Shelter, they return for their first full-length release in six years.
This is real good noodling. The Colorado duo, making the kind of escapist moodscapes that dovetail with the majesty of SUSS. But Prymek and Sage use slightly different roads to get there. Their compositions, slightly looser, hitting differently with each listen.
Shelter is a beautiful trip, where post-rock melts into the ambient country, with the residue almost reaching its core. It’s another worthy edition under the AKP Recordings stable, which is now among the most reliable experimental labels out there.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Speake: Photographic Memory
Self-released
So far in this century, London producer, Speake, crystallises the best of electronic music with their latest LP, Photographic Memory.
This is compelling, dynamic stuff. The echoes of Vladislav Delay at his peak, and even the Kompakt greats, as Speake intersects field recordings with second-hand vinyl into something that penetrates through to a world of euphoria.
Photographic Memory hits hard. It’s ambient techno that bristles with the energy of a caffeine rush. Ripped from the past, polished into the present and surging into future, Speake covers so much ground here. All told, it’s a trip everyone needs in their lives, and I for one can’t wait for more of it.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Sundrugs: Velune
Adventurous Music
Depending on which angle you’re coming from, Sundrugs’ Velune hits sharp.
The elusive Polish producer is the orchestrator of some gnarly sound collages on his latest release. A soundtrack to the fragments of your dreams, and throughout these 10 tracks, Sundrugs does his best to piece those fragments together to form quite the unique tableau.
Talking about the right angle, it’s also about mood. And if you’re in the right one, Velune sparks all the right emotions. There’s a darkness here, but with light darting through the cracks, this is something that rewards patience.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Visible Light: Sierra de Luquillo: A Living Soundscape
Permaculture Media
Following their debut release, Songs For Eventide, at the backend of last year, once again, Amy NcNally and Matthew Hiram return as Visible Light for Sierra de Luquillo: A Living Soundscape.
This time the duo broaden their horizons of environmental-based sound design to Puerto Rico’s El Yunque rainforest, where beautiful exotic sounds pierce the light through drones and glittering dreamscapes.
While Songs For Eventide was presented in brevity, Sierra de Luquillo: A Living Soundscape sees McNally guided by Hiram’s long-form tendencies. And the results are shimmering, taking you to a place where everything else pales in comparison.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
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Water Is The Sun: Ritual Fever
Trome Records
For all your devotional doom requirements in this latest WR dispatch, we will leave you with Water Is the Sun, who tick all the boxes.
The collaboration between Mkl Anderson (Drekka) and Adam Parks (lightning white bison), on Ritual Fever the duo are the purveyors of soft doom-laden mediations fit for cathedrals. It’s not overstated, though. More hypnotic, soothing your dreams rather than haunting them.
With two long-form jams at 22 minutes each (precision!), Ritual Fever is the kind of mind-wandering sonic communication that lights up the heart. Alongside Lillian Hexing, both releases dovetail perfectly in this corner of the experimental sound world.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
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