by Ben Hogwood
The work of Andrew Weatherall is greatly missed, not least because he managed to include so many different forms and genres in his writing. We don’t always associate him with ambient music, but Sabres of Paradise, the group he was part of with Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns, wrote an absolute beauty with this heat-soaked track:
Published post no.2,979 – Monday 9 August 2026
by Ben Hogwood
A full appreciation of the visionary producer William Orbit will follow tomorrow, but for now here is one of the most effective tracks from his album recasting classical music, Pieces in a Modern Style. In it he takes two of Henryk Górecki‘s Pieces in the Old Style, of which this is the first:
Published post no.2,978 – Sunday 8 August 2026
by Ben Hogwood
Michael Brook’s Cobalt Blue album from 1992 has just been re-released by 4AD, bringing his form of studied guitar ambience to new audiences, while reminding those who listened the first time around just how good it is.
Brook played the ‘infinite guitar’, an instrument he created that could sustain notes indefinitely. He was joined by ambient music royalty, with Brian and Roger Eno contributing, along with Daniel Lanois. The result is a rather beautiful long-form composition dividing nicely into 12 parts. The second, Breakdown, is particularly blissful:
Published post no.2,972 – Friday 6 August 2026
by Ben Hogwood
James Braddell has been remarkably prolific under this pseudonym – so with plenty more to explore, I’ll leave a high point from his Fast Asleep album on Ninja Tune from 2002. Very deep indeed…
The Funki Porcini Bandcamp page appears to be fully up to date, and has a very impressive discography
Published post no.2,968 – Tuesday 4 August 2026
by Ben Hogwood
The mid-90s saw something of an ambient house boom, with a large number of quality productions crossing over from the underground to the mainstream.
One of these tracks was Salt Tank’s Eugina, which I still remember hearing on Pete Tong’s Essential Selection in 1996, and which acted as the perfect start-point for a deep dive into their output, which consists of some quality ambient EPs.
Sadly their vocalist and drummer Andy Rose died in November 2012, and the band no longer appear to be a going concern. Listen to the whole of Eugina, though, and its rather beautiful evolution over ten minutes, and you’ll get a very good idea of what the fuss was all about:
Published post no.2,967 – Monday 3 August 2026
Arcana.fm 