Music makers

A guitarist from Christchurch, Roy has his own Wikipedia page, has a 40th-anniversary 4-album vinyl release in 2021, has released on US ambient giant Kranky and had his music reissued by Grouper / Liz Harris, as well as collaborating with her.

Rotor Plus / Rotor+ is an alias of Leyton, who is also known for more trancey dancey work as Epsilon Blue and dub techno as son.sine. Rotor+ tracks are long and comparable to suites, with multiple parts that shift between small chamber works, radio and field recordings, and rhythmic electronic moments.

Rosy Parlane released on UK label Touch and came from an arty rock background, in the trio Thela – all of whom have ended up doing something ambient-related.

While Chris Knox is undoubtedly best known for lo-fi pop songs or early punk stuff, he did put together one electro-acoustic album, under the alias Friend, in 2003.

Dial seem to have been a group of varying sizes improvising with “radios, toys, gadgets and keyboards”, a few years into this new millenium. While the music is pretty noisy, in an off-station radio kind of way, I think it’s still probably of interest to some ambient music fans.

So the guy probably best known for his hip-hop beats has an album called Foraging (2019) that I’m 100% comfortable including on this site. It’s a great flavour of psychedelia, with no beats, for what it’s worth.

As far I know Buildings were an Auckland duo who released one album, Travel In A Balloon (2003), which was released through the improv and experimental label Eden Gully.

A performing trio who released CDs of their improvisations in the early years of this millenium. Instruments played live include drum machine, sampler, bass guitar, CDs, turntables, and fx units.

Aspen is the earliest alias of Bevan Smith aka Signer, producing very chill IDM with moments of pure ambience. His sound leans towards hardware synths and syncopated beats.

Under the alias Aquaboogie, Wellingtonian Stuart McDonald released several singles and EPs during the heyday of net labels around the turn of the century, as well as more self-releases, including three albums.