Tag Archives: dark ambient

Kathodos – Parasomnia: Pavor Nocturnus (Slithering Black Records)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

Order the CD here: thecirclemusic.gr/product/kathodos-parasomnia-pavor-nocturnus-new-album-cd/

All sounds, noises, rituals, and devilries written, recorded and performed by Kathodos
except: Soprano, spoken word and guitar by Lavinia

Cover art by Odilon Redon, The Eye Like a Strange Balloon, Goes to Infinity, 1882

Logo by Lavinia
Additional artwork and layout by Omen North

Produced, mixed and mastered in 2023 by Kathodos

Exit Chamber – Strategy Of Tension (Passed Recordings)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description: I have once again broken my brain, and I am afraid that I am therefore inflicting it upon you too, dear listeners.

It’s hard not to feel like everything is ramping up right now but, as they say, there is nothing new under the sun. If we don’t learn from history etc etc. Further reading here, but prepare yourself for quite the rabbit hole: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_of_tension and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio

I know physical media and shipping is asking a lot of people just now, so I’ve included the cassette masters and j-card as bonus items with the digital purchase so you can roll your own. Just print the j-card, score the folds on the back and cut it out.

Massive thanks to Ruinbox for the track art edits of the cover and phone wallpaper: ruinbox.bandcamp.com

Shout out to the Ghost Stories for the End of The World podcast too for making me aware of all this stuff initially: www.patreon.com/GhostStoriesForTheEnd

rauðvik – blóðsjúkdómur (Self-Released)

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Label Description:

A ponderance on the cosmic horrors in the shadows, just beyond the veil of what you can see.

The sky and the cosmos are one.

Special thanks to everyone at FromSoftware for Bloodborne, which served as the inspiration for and subject matter of this album.

All sounds designed by rauðvik at Overlook Studios
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by rauðvik at Overlook Studios
Cover photo by Nephron – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9716436
Text added by rauðvik

Jarl – Nerve Cell Threads Electronics (Zoharum)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

We are glad to present the new album of Jarl titled „Nerve Cell Threads Electronics”. The Swedish musician refers to the themes that accompanied the creation of the trilogy on the brain and the nervous system, making the new publication an informal, fourth part of the series in which he touched on the topics of neurotransmitters, receptors and synapses. The album contains four tracks called „Electrical Impulse 1 – 4”, filling nearly 60 minutes. This time the tracks has a little darker tone/sound, but still psychedelic, melodic, restrained and sometimes intense with percussive layers and sequencer based with thick analogue sounds that slowly changes into other sounds.
The album is available on CD in a six-panel digipack, on cassette and in digital format.
 

Composed, recorded and mixed by Erik Jarl.
Cover artwork & design by Karolina Urbaniak.
Mastered by Peter Andersson

Beyond Sensory Experience – In This Our Life (Cyclic Law)

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Label Description:

Beyond Sensory Experience announce “In This Our Life”, a new album that extends and deepens the austere, melancholic sound they have refined since their formation in 2001. The duo continue to balance sparse, cinematic atmospheres with richly layered textures and haunting melodic motifs.

“In This Our Life” follows a sequence of records that critics have described as immersive, melancholic and beautifully unsettling, works which place the duo among the most discreetly consistent voices in contemporary dark ambient. Previous releases were praised for their ability to create vast emotional registers from minimal material, a characteristic the new album amplifies while exploring more expansive song-forms and dynamic contrasts.

Stylistically, the album keeps the trademark BSE touch: low-frequency washes, distant vocal fragments, analogue warmth and crystalline, slowly unfolding harmonies. Where earlier records often emphasized brooding stasis, “In This Our Life” moves the project into more narrative territory, allowing passages of melancholic catharsis to emerge from dense, claustrophobic beds of sound. Reviewers of earlier records noted the group’s talent for making the sparse feel monumental, a sensibility that informs this new collection.

The production embraces both analogue textures and carefully balanced percussive elements. Tracks shift between shadowed ambience and melodic refrains that linger, and the sequencing creates a discreet arc, from intimate, near-silent openings to more emphatic, emotionally charged culminations. Fans of the project’s prior work will recognize the continuity, while new listeners will find entry points in the album’s stronger melodic hooks and cinematic pacing.

CD Edition of 300 copies in 6 panel Digipak. 11 Tracks. Running Time 48:16

Ed Herbers – Tartarus (Self-Released)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

A group of space-faring scavengers are navigating a remote region of the galaxy when the ship’s sensors alert them to an unidentified object looming in the distance.

“Sensors detect a massive freighter up ahead. Looks like it was powered down and abandoned out here. Its callsign is coming through as “Tartarus,” but there’s no other data available (manifest, origin, destination). I’m sure we could salvage some useful scrap from it—let’s dock and check it out.”

Although the ghost ship appears to be empty, the crew quickly discovers that they’re not alone…and a simple salvage mission becomes a desperate fight for survival.

Inspired by media like Dead Space and Alien, Tartarus is an atmospheric and immersive dark ambient, sci-fi horror/suspense experience.


All songs produced and mixed by Ed Herbers.

Mastered by Exit Chamber (exitchamber.bandcamp.com)

Album artwork by Ed Herbers, adapted from a costume piece created by Sam Herbers.

Big thanks to Adventsong for suggesting the album title (adventsong.bandcamp.com)

Several pieces from this album previously appeared in other contexts:
– “Promise & Peril” and “Insomnia” were released as singles in early 2023. At the time, I had no plans to use them on anything else, but as Tartarus started to take shape, I realized both of these tracks were perfect for it.
– “No One Is Going To Save Us” previously appeared on the “Passed Away” compilation, from Passed Recordings, in 2022 (passedrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/passed-away-2)
– “Entropy” previously appeared on “Heavy for the Hollers” a compilation benefiting hurricane relief efforts in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene (liminaldreadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-for-the-hollers)

BLOOM & Christopher Nosnibor – Journeys Through Inner Space (Petroglyph Music)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

Some words from Christopher Nosniborr regarding the release:

Journeys Through Inner Space

Art, in all of its many forms, often helps us to understand the world, and, indeed, ourselves. It’s also true that works which are the most personal for the creator have a wider resonance, in that they have the capacity to articulate for others something that reaches beyond art as entertainment, and that often, in the personal lies the universal. For a long time, I have found the act of writing has helped me navigate some of the most challenging times, and particularly recently, I have come to discover the catharsis of laying bare some of my most innermost thoughts on the page, and bringing these to performance.

The texts which form the narratives of Journeys Through Inner Space are taken from my novel The Deserted Island, and work in progress, Reflections on a Life, and explore themes of anxiety, bewilderment, and bereavement. These are not light or easy topics, and are topics we often shy away from. Because they are uncomfortable. But they are realities of life, and while we may wish otherwise, the stark fact is that they will likely affect us all in some way or another at some point. In these pieces, I speak only from my own experiences of my journeys through inner space.

‘Am I Really Having This Conversation?’, and ‘A Slew of Likes and Handy Hints’ – original texts appear in The Deserted Island (Clinicality Press, 2022).

All other texts from Reflections on a Life (unpublished).

The words to ‘Last Days’ appeared on a track bearing a variant title on the Last Days EP (self-released, 2023) 

 

released October 31, 2025

Christopher Nosnibor – Vocals
christophernosnibor.bandcamp.com

Deborah Fialkiewicz – Synthesizers
grahamfialkiewicz.bandcamp.com

Dan Dolby – Synthesizers, Sound Manipulation
dandolby.bandcamp.com

The Implicit Order – They Live In The Sky (2025 Remaster) [Wholeness Recordings]

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Label Description:

Remastered version of this long OOP cassette classic. Please note that the original track order has changed.
AAD

This is a WHOLENESS RECORDINGS release: WHOLE032025
released October 31, 2025

The Implicit Order: Soundtools, Sampler, Synth, Cassette Recorder, 4-Track Tape Machine, Digital Signal Processor.
These tracks were all recorded on a Tascam 4-Track Cassette Machine, no DAW or modern effects were used. A DAW was used to transport them into the digital domain.
Original limited cassette issued in 1997. Reissued as a MP3 digital download by Vuzh Music in 2011.

Various Artists – Tomb Of Iconoclasts (Cryo Chamber)

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Label Description:

The Tombs series returns with a special roster curated by Apocryphos featuring new and familiar artists, creating atmospheres of dread and existential horror.

The knell of a distant bell fallen can be heard within the decayed houses of the gods. Once standing with grandeur and might, these temples are now their own tombs across a wasteland left by man.

Recommended for fans of oppressive dark ambient, brooding atmospheric and layered texturing


Tomb Series Discography:
Tomb of Empires – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-empires
Tomb of Seers – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-seers
Tomb of Druids – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-druids
Tomb of Ordeals – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-ordeals
Tomb of Wights – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-wights
Tomb of Primordials – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-primordials
Tomb of Iconoclasts – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-iconoclasts

 

released October 7, 2025

Written, Produced, Performed
Apocryphos
Atrox Pestis
Dødsmaskin
Envenomist
Fractalyst
Gnawed
Infinexhuma
New Risen Throne
Plague Machinery
Pœna Sensus
Phragments

Artwork & Mastering
Simon Heath