Various Artists - The Places We Carry (Home Normal) [Ambient]
*** This blog post first appeared in TSMM's August 16th Newsletter, where you can get all the tips (and more) first ***
I’ve been given Whitelabrecs quite a few props this year, possibly at the expense of what I consider to be the UK’s other great ambient label - Home Normal, run by Ian Hawgood, who as well as being a top-drawer ambient producer is also a great mastering engineer. I teamed up with him when I needed to get the TSMM label catalogue polished before release. Mastering is something of a dark, unsung art, but a good mastering studio works wonders, and Ian genuinely made each release shine so much brighter.
It’s been seventeen years since Home Normal’s inception, and I was somewhat taken aback when researching this release, to discover that Ian is winding the label schedule down to more of a release trickle, although having run a label I don’t blame him! It’s hard work, for many reasons becoming increasingly difficult and having artists’ hopes and dreams in your hands is serious responsibility.
Fortunately for those who are late to the party or have been distracted this year, Ian has decided to do one of his legendary ambient mixes to showcase 2026’s releases - including those still to be released. Taking tracks from a veritable who’s who of quality ambient music including: Wil Bolton, David Cordero, anthéne, Far away Nebraska, zakè, Federica Deiana, Tomosla, Tomotsugu Nakamura, Michael Scott Dawson, Rhucle, Aiko Takahashi, landtitles, maps and diagrams, midorinozu, Jason van Wyk, James Murray, Daniël Jolan, and Ian Hawgood, many of whom will now be familiar to newsletter followers, he’s skilfully blended the music into a seamless, two-hour-long trip through the ambient spectrum. So find a couple of hours to spare, lie back and close your eyes - you’re in for a real treat, and something of an ambient masterclass.
If Hawgood's selections and mixng is hitting your horizontal listening sweet spot then maybe check out another mix from the man? You could do a lot worse than this celebration of Broken Chips' music.
