Alaskan Tapes and Blu Miles - Blank Slate Open Space (We All Speak In Poems) [Ambient / Jazz]

*** This blog post first appeared in TSMM's June 7th Newsletter, where you can get all the tips (and more) first ***

With his long history of ambient, and ambient-adjacent tinkering - something of an odd evolution from his metal-inspired drumming youth, Alaskan Tapes has serious TSMM blog and Slow Ambient Playlist form. Oddly, Blu Miles seems to have had a similar epiphany, ditching his lo-fi alt-folk/pop singer songwriting from the last few years ago, to hop over the border with his sax and dip his toes in the ambient water too, and I have to say it suits him.

Alaskan Tapes

Blue Miles

This is another smooth, almost borderline musak affair at times - several tracks saved from hotel lobby playlists, by dint of their attention to sonic detail: the sounds of studio shuffling, creaking piano wood and distant field recordings revealing themselves as the musicians contemplate their next precision placement; not to mention a couple of tracks also have mild electronic sugar rushes, and the album’s second half a fuller-bodied, spiritual jazz vibe. Wisely, Ann Annie and Luke Howard were also invited to the studio to join what sounds like a laid-back session by good-listening friends rather than musical colleagues, and the result is a reflective and really pleasing ambient jazz listen.

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Playlist Companion

Find them in the Slow Ambient Playlist.