Great Panoptique Winter is the once-a-decade collaboration of Jason Sweeney (Panoptique Electrical, Pretty Boy Crossover) and Richard Adams (The Declining Winter, Hood). This is their second release on the label after the highly acclaimed, and already sold out, debut album 'Wildness' back in 2015. I'm familiar with Sweeney's work, but not so with Adams. This is a mere six tracks in 26 minutes, but I found myself immediately drawn in to the world of the Great Panoptique Winter. There is a remoteness, yet familiarity to the music on 'This Time Alone.' It seems to be nearly the perfect synthesis of vocals in an ambient atmosphere. The best way to describe this is Art Pop, and incredibly engaging Art Pop at that. There isn't a bad or boring track on 'This Time Alone' and my only regret is that it isn't longer. Hope we won't have to wait another decade for a new album by Great Panoptique Winter. A limited edition of 300 handmade and hand-numbered collectible CD-r copies, in the usual Sound In Silence unique quality packaging.

OPandolfo is the solo project of Ólafur Josephsson, also known as Stafrænn Hákon. I thought I recognized him as I reviewed his collaboration with Ruxpin (Jonas Thor Gudmundsson) - 'Meet Me in Foverer' last year. That collaboration was pretty cool and eclectic. This solo outing by Hákon is...well, different. Acoustic guitars, live drums and bass are the main instruments used on this record along with some keyboard layers and some electric guitar here and there. Four songs have vocals and the remaining songs are instrumentals. The original concept was to explore the raw sound of the acoustic guitar which eventually progressed into more structured songs with more instruments added along the way.

At first, I thought I could get away calling this "Ambient Folk," but it is really not that. OPandolfo is a singer/songwriter project with a lot of mellow moments, and a few that aren't so mellow. Granted, it is mostly on the lighter side but not much different than the average, somewhat talented indie bedroom musical project. The performance is competent but the compositions are steeped in the territory of the familiar and comfortable with little to challenge the listener, although that probably wasn't what Stafrænn had in mind anyway. The ten tracks (in 36 minutes) roll by pleasantly enough, with generally good vibes but little you will hold in your memory about them. It's textbook indie rock, in the vein of Harmless, and similar projects. Not bad, but not enough to hold my interest.

'These Clouds…' is a compilation in celebration of the label’s 100th release, only the second ever Sound in Silence compilation. 'These Clouds…' consists of 18 exclusive new tracks, by an equal number of great artists, with a total duration of 80 minutes. Some of the artists have already been important members of Sound In Silence all these years, having released many wonderful albums on the label, and some others are new friends who just joined the label’s family and will probably present more of their music on the label’s future releases. Carefully compiled and mastered by George Mastrokostas (Absent Without Leave), this compilation is a dreamy blend of ambient, modern classical, electronica and post rock. Artists on this compilation are: Panoptique Electrical, Sven Laux, Yellow6, The Green Kingdom, Benoît Pioulard, Wil Bolton, David Newlyn, Akira Kosemura, Halftribe, A Lily, SineRider, Absent Without Leave, Hotel Neon, worriedaboutsatan, r beny, Jakob Lindhagen, The Humble Bee, and Hainbach. I have previously reviewed releases by only 8 of these artists, but have reviewed many more SIS artists that aren't on this compilation. With 18 tracks to get through (the longest SIS release at 79 minutes) I will just be covering the highlights.

As 'These Clouds...' suggests, there is a lot of amorphous drifting in these tracks. Panoptique Electrical sets the tone with "Slowly The Sorrow," an ethereal ambient piece with neoclassical leanings on the strings. Yellow6 gets a lot of mileage out of only a few well-placed guitar chords on "Everything And Then Nothing." The Green Kingdom's "Unspoken" seems to be the logical followup to Yellow6's previous track, seeming so much like Yellow6 that it may be difficult to tell them apart. I love the title - "Empty Packs of Thai Cigarettes" by Benoît Pioulard, but some of the sonics were just a tad too harsh. Akira Kosemura's "Echoes Of Water" is fluidly murky in a sea of tranquility. "Halftibe's"Distant Sky" sounds like a song from another galaxy. SineRider presents a gorgeous dream-like piece called "Vermilion" that is sure to spark some nostalgic rumination. Absent Without Leave weaves a wistful melody over subtle drone tones. Hotel Neon gives us some shoegazy experimental ambience with a beat on "Shadowed," and worriedaboutsatan's "Keygen Variations 2" is mysteriously enigmatic. r beny's "Farawayself" is so full of sound that it threatens to boil over. Jakob Lindhagen's "Thicker Than Water" is a more elaborate composition than most on this album nut nevertheless intriguing. The Humble Bee's"Small Copper" was just too staticky and noisy for me and Hainbach's "Trans-Atlantic" seemed just too experimental for this comp, not that it's a bad track, just kind of incongruous.

As far as bang-for-the-buck goes, 'These Clouds...' is a pretty good deal. This is a limited edition of 500 handmade and hand-numbered collectible copies. It is packaged in a lovely hand-stamped 127mm x 127mm 250 gsm light brown recycled cardboard envelope with the front cover image printed on a polaroid style photo paper and two insert sheets containing tracklist and information printed on a 120 gsm off-white recycled cardboard. It also comes bundled with a download code coupon and a Sound In Silence card. Or, you can just buy the digital version for 7 Euros.

It is always a pleasure getting new material from Phil Klampe, who is Homogenized Terrestrials, and when the package arrived in an LP-size box, I knew then and there it was going to the head of the cue in the waiting for review bin. This is the first of three releases that arrived together, the only LP in the lot, and the first Homogenized Terrestrials album I ever received on vinyl. Visually the packaging is quite in line with Klampe's style of art- gorgeously and bizarrely minimal, with even more minimal text. On Bandcamp Klampe describes the album simply as "a trip into the realm of the intangible," and while it is that, there's more to be added descriptively.

The album is two lengthy tracks - the A-side- "Powers" at 19:47, and the B-side- "Principalities" at 17:47. I have listened to this both on vinyl and digitally, and I can tell you the experience is quite different. While on vinyl you may miss some of the sonic incidents that stand out in the digital version, the analog vinyl gives the impression of a closed environment, perhaps interstellar travel on a FTL ship where every nuance of the ship, the journey, the interior and exterior environments are explored and exploited. The environments are consistent throughout, yet with sonic incidents representative of phases of the sojourn. I say Faster-Than-Light because sub-light might potentially be too noisy. Not that this doesn't have elements of noise( it certainly does) but that noise is quite sophisticated and alludes to the possibilities of "other events" along the way. I imagine that bending or folding space in order to achieve FTL travel is not a silent operation, and while none of us are likely to know in this lifetime the sounds of a warp engine, it's fun to imagine something more interesting than abject silence. If the laws of physics do not work the same way in subspace or hyperspace, who's to say what really happens sonically in those dimensions. You could be traveling through any number of quantum fields to reach your destination, and each of those may produce its own unique environment. That's what the imagination considers here, but wrapped in an envelope of momentum, which Homogenized Terrestrials achieves easily throughout both sides. Of course, "Powers" and "Principalities" are both different in subtle and obvious ways. While not giving much away, I can tell you that the last few minutes of "Principalities" hints at the music of the cosmos.

I find this release particularly interesting at this point in time sinvce I have just begun reading science fiction author Iain M. Banks' 'Culture Series' books after getting hooked on a YouTube explanation of it with stunning still visuals and spoken word description. I strongly recommend the record version because there are very few releases these day like this on vinyl and it does sound different than the digital. Absolutely worthy!

Dark ambient music from Norway, courtesy of Are Mundal, who has been active since the ’90s and are releasing new stuff on an irregular basis. Obviously the title alludes to previous releases by the artist, CD1 comprised of the 'Interloper' LP (2020) and the "Nocturnal Discombobulation" 7" two-track single with a bonus track. CD2 consists of the 'Nocturnal Perambulation' LP + the 'Kreis' 12" vinyl EP. These were all vinyl limited editions (100 copies each), and all sold out now, so what better way to revive some great dark ambient than with a 2-Dsic compilation!

Beginning with the 2-track "Interloper" (presumably one track for each album side), the listener is treated to some really spooky, varied stuff. The rumbling looped percussion in the background gives the impression of a railway journey while other muted instruments and a moaning synth herald a bleak destination. Sure enough, the first stop is in the middle of nowhere and an overheard phone conversation leaves you with no doubt you don't know what the hell is going on. An echoey percussion track, strange foley sounds, and the emergence of a quasi-gamelan/Harry Partch-like interlude in a dream state makes for pleasantly uncomfortable listening. There's much more to this piece, but you just have to hear it for yourself. Side 2 is the stuff of nightmares, as Are Mundal ratchets up the tension musically and otherwise, with some dialogue samples pilfered from a radio broadcast about people who thought they're vampires. Ghostly voices and more haunt this realm and I wished I had opened this package before Halloween. Although there are percussive incidents on this side, it is generally less rhythmic than the preceding track. While still being along the lines of the preceding tracks, "Nocturnal Discombobulation" is a bit more playful on the A-side and more dour on the B-side with some samples alluding to an autopsy. The bonus track was nicely atmospheric, but non-essential.

CD2 begins with "Nocturnal Perambulation" a much more disjunct soundscape that is no less eerie but seems to wander all over creation on the first track/side. On the second track/side there seems to be more attention devoted to musicality but the dialogue samples (grim as they are) tend to detract from that, in my opinion. There are still moments of brilliance, but in an uber-dark way. Next comes "Kreis" in two parts (A-side, B-side) which are more abstract soundscapes. Some of it was quite interesting and all of it was dark, probably requiring more time to delve deeper into than I have currently, but if you like what went before, you will probably like it as well. Even though this comp is twenty bucks, it has good value for the dark ambient enthusiast, especially those of the more adventurous sort.