California-based David Henderson, the man behind Many Hands, is perhaps best known for his radio show, where he pulls together various strands of left-field music. The avant-garde, the beatless, the conceptual, drones, electro-acoustic experiments, found sounds: all these and more are given space within Henderson’s purview. And he carries that open-minded attitude into his own practice. There are Moss Balls in Paradise takes ambient music as its starting point but opens up to countless other influences, and in doing so makes a kind of music that feels democratic and lighthearted.
As if daring us not to take him too seriously, Henderson uses a dead fish as the thematic basis for his album. And while it’s not devoid of humour, there is an underlying sense of loss or melancholy that makes itself known at various points. Henderson’s neighbour, a four-year-old girl called Emma, had become obsessed with his aquarium fish, a betta called Durk, and when the fish died, Emma’s sadness triggered Henderson’s own memories of grief. He channelled this unexpected wellspring of emotion into his work, and the result is a decidedly earthy take on ambient music, rough at the edges and hauntingly human. On opening track Filter Stone, elements of something approaching a voice kick in halfway through, overcoming the background drone with the aid of some noisy, glitchy electronics. Baleen has a suitably sub-aquatic – almost abyssal -feel to it, the echoing noise approximating the song of a lamenting whale.
Risso is a subtle, shifting drone, leading to a denouement of strange, percussive knocking and an almost occult chanting. It treads the line between tranquillity and uncanny, bathyphobic depth with great skill. Closing track Dover trembles and builds, a synthy, bass-driven composition that thickens into something resembling minimal techno. Its final minutes create an understated euphoria, as burbling electronics rise to the surface then fall wavy dramatically. The most beguiling piece is Walleye, a collection of three apparently true (and fish-related) stories from Henderson’s past backed by wave-like patterns of minimal synth. The spoken word elements prove beyond doubt just how sincere – and how singular – Henderson’s vision is.
The brief length of some of these tracks – Risso is the longest at just over six minutes – might feel at odds with the received narrative about ambient and experimental music being an immersive experience rooted in deep time. But Many Hands doesn’t abide by this – or any – agenda. This is ambient at its most restless and freewheeling, a watery ode to humanity and our fragile relationship with the natural world.
There are Moss Balls in Paradise (January 9th, 2026) Variable Recording Co
Order via Bandcamp (Digital/Cassette): https://variablerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/there-are-moss-balls-in-paradise