Music makers

A duo creating a mix of dramatic downbeat electronica and electronic washes (perhaps a fancy way of saying “sometimes there are drums, sometimes definitely not”).

An Auckland group of improvisers that has been around for more than a decade. Expect shimmering drifts of guitars and a bit of synth on the side.

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.

George has self-released a bunch of ambient music in recent years, from the glitchy piano loops of In Perpetuity (2019) to the more smooth and spacious Interpolation (2020).

“Improvised soundscapes and dreamscapes”, Ava Althia’s project Vōtiv is sometimes fairly dark ambient, often built around looping voice and field recordings.

Auckland soundtrack composer Peter Hobbs has also released solo albums in recent years based around thick synth improvisations and sounds of the natural world, often recorded simultaneously.

While they’re a post-rock trio, this Christchurch band sometimes go completely beatless and did a whole album of drifting guitar-led drones recently.

Deep and heavy drones mixed with field recordings of South Island environs. A soundtrack for a Super 8 film that screened in the NZ International Film Festival.

Tonkyn Pearson make longform tracks combining hardware, field recordings and software. It’s the duo of Shanan Holm (Octif) and Michael Upton (Jet Jaguar). They made music as Montano for about 20 years, until 2021.

Dark and brooding soundscapes and more recently gentler piano pieces.