For his new album, Under a Familiar Sun, Sam Beste AKA The Vernon Spring further refines his unique sound…sitting somewhere between new age, neoclassical, jazz and a kind of pastoral electronica. It is the most immediately rewarding exercise in ambience you’re ever likely to hear, but it contains ideas and melodies, vague sensations and politically driven statements, that will stay with you long after the last notes fade away.

Those who heard our latest Monday Morning Brew playlist (No. 103) would have heard The Rust Belt, the latest single from Matmos (Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt). The accompanying video, animated by artist Jack Colbert, celebrates the myriad eclectic materials used to make the new Matmos album, Metallic Life Review, animating pocket-sized metallic objects that Colbert sourced from metal detecting.

Benoît Pioulard began his Stanza series as an early morning sonic journaling practice in 2015 using a Telecaster and tape recorder. The series evolved from hazy, unadorned experiments to more verdant and complex instrumental pieces, characterised by a blissed-out tape saturation and ambient grace that has become a hallmark of his uniquely meditative sound. Taken from his latest album in the series, Stanza IV, watch his video for Xaipe.

Safe Travels, the latest offering from Christina Alden & Alex Patterson, is an immensely well-crafted follow-up to their 2021 album, and while familiar, it rapidly delivers unexpected treats. From its beautiful illustrations and fascinating text to the final notes of The Mountain Hare, Safe Travels left a deep, appreciative smile on my face. It’s only May, but I feel I have a strong contender for my album of the year.

This week’s Monday Morning Brew Playlist features music from Sinéad O’Connor, Tapir!, The Budos Band, Mark Fry, Rogér Fakhr & Bruna-Maria Naufal, Shana Cleveland, Faith Eliott, The Gentle Good, The HP’s & Julian Taylor, Arooj Aftab with Moor Mother & Joel Ross, David Byrne, RÓIS, Raveloe, Felbm and Matmos. The playlist is available to all paid Substack Subscribers and can be heard via Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal.

Available for pre-order now, Shane Parish has announced a new live LP, titled Solo At Cafe OTO (out July 1st via his own label, Red Eft Records), on which he explores British Folk ballads by Anne Briggs and Shirley Collins, American folk ballads by John Jacob Niles, and a song by Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch, from the television program Twin Peaks, called “Sycamore Trees”.

Our Song of the Day comes from Lila Tristram, whose new single ‘Overtake’ is released today. Tristram isn’t afraid of sharing her inner thoughts, but how she presents them makes them outstanding and memorable. There’s a melancholic shimmer to her delivery that does recall some of the classic contemporary folk singers of the past, and she wholeheartedly deserves those comparisons to Drake and Mitchell.

For their second album, The World That I Knew, Dublin-based duo Varo perform alongside a revolving cast of collaborators including members of Lankum, John Francis Flynn, Alannah Thornburg, Junior Brother, Lemoncello, Niamh Bury, Anna Mieke and more, picked judiciously from that fertile Dublin scene, and fostered by the sterling production of John ‘Spud’ Murphy. They track contemporary concerns through traditional song, and do so with beauty and fierce compassion.

The Gentle Good’s latest album, Elan, is a concept album of sorts, a study of the Elan Valley in Powys through music, recorded off-grid in the Cambrian mountains. An admirable creation, it’s a broad and generous soundscape for a beloved area of Wales, containing both music and singing that is diverse, adventurous and rich in character. Gareth Bonello’s most ambitious album so far, this bumper collection is a triumph.

While she grew up in Yorkshire, Iona Lane’s new album, Swilkie, is a love song to Scotland’s islands and the people who live there, and an impassioned plea for the conservation of wild spaces and communities on the margins. A relative newcomer to the region, she spoke to KLOF about how she came to know and love her adopted homeland, and how it came to inform her music.

With Somnia, Katie Schottland’s Swimming Bell has created something quite magical. While just five songs, the moments, the magic, and the memories reveal a depth to her music that will draw you back for repeated listenings.

Another KLOF Mag mixtape: A tranquil, soft ambient journey with pockets of energy to wake you from your summer garden slumber. Featuring Swimming Bell, Avery Friedman, Friendship, Herman Düne, The Owl Service, Quinie, Poor Creature, Brown Wimpenny, Donald WG Lindsay, Geir Sundstøl, Iona Lane, Bells Larsen, Marc Ribot, Joseph Allred, Lady Queen Paradise, Hayden Pedigo, William Tyler, and Loose Diamonds.