First thought? It doesn’t sound like someone trying too hard, which is always a relief. It’s not that self-important throb you sometimes get with ambient. It’s... like catching the first snow after a summer that stretched on way too long. Remember those hazy August days? They feel like distant echoes now, don’t they? https://open.spotify.com/album/1tWE8Gn8bh0iIj8srA29wy?si=wNlwKXSzTNeet5-M87przg This single paints with sonic snow, and the whole picture is soft...

Listening to gnomes’ new EP, “Microclimbs,” feels less like hearing songs and more like stumbling upon a meticulously catalogued collection of internal weather systems. The Berlin artist has shed an acoustic skin, emerging with a sound that’s electric, nervy, and complex. This is music for feeling overwhelmed in a way that’s almost, dare I say it, cozy. https://open.spotify.com/album/6a9jnB0IcQDdP6BHLaHpdJ?si=1zS3355CRwe4oaDcdouNeA The warm, watery warble of a Wurli synth...