Music makers

A prolific Dunedin synth artist, releasing ambient for 21 years so far. He first started making electronic music while studying Forestry Science at the University of Canterbury, and in the following years at the University of Otago while completing a degree in Botany.

Berlin-based duo Vases is made up of Mitchell Sullivan and Ross Alexander. Their album 17 Vignettes (Cosmic Compositions, 2019) is made up of short, bright synth pieces.

A duo of Rosy Parlane and Dion Workman that released murky lo-fi loops in the late 90s, sometimes with the Geiger counter pulse of the most minimal techno.

The ambient solo act of Spook The Horses’ guitarist Donnie Cuzins, Loam made music ranging from big synth drones to light pieces laced with delicate electric guitar.

Anita Clark’s Motte project is focused on looping violin and more recently her voice too. Synthy embellishments floats freely, with her occasional pizzicato as direct as the rhythms get.

Gydja is an alias of Abby Helasdottir, actively creating “dark ambient for dark goddesses” since 2001. Expect deep, heavy drones. In April 2021, Dutch label Winter-Light released Ár var alda. (Icelandic for “In ancient times”.) There are also plenty of releases on Gydja’s Bandcamp page, stretching back to Machina Mundi (2007). To my ears, this… Continue reading Gydja

The work of Christian Unkovich-McNab, the one Acid Police release currently online looks and sounds like ambient takes on what may have started as dance material, with the last track stretching out over 25 minutes to take up the whole B-side of a tape.

His Bandcamp says he’s a 17-year-old boy making music from his bedroom. He works with guitar, ebow and pedals a lot. Nice cat pic too.

RST’s “garden shed psychedelic space drone” is another link between NZ indie and ambient music: before RST, Andrew Moon may have been best known from drumming for The Goblin Mix (Flying Nun) in the 80s. Early RST releases showed up on Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)’s label Ecstatic Peace! and NZ noise label Corpus Hermeticum.

Nick Guy’s High Harbour project is the electronic end of what he does: in his own words, eco-industrial volcanic port vibes and windswept instrumentals. The looping, digital textures are like the murky end of dub techno – think labels like Chain Reaction, Motion Ward, West Mineral Ltd maybe.