With “Island Lantern Festival”, Tony Frissore manages to soundtrack a specific kind of mental vacation I didn’t realize I was overdue for taking. Ostensibly an instrumental nod to the Lunar New Year and the hopefulness of renewal, this piece operates less like a celebration and more like a gentle exhalation. https://open.spotify.com/album/3n43BcxSnavYKC0wt28GNu?si=E_50eQ_lQomyHT1RsD2Jrg It starts wet with the actual crash of ocean waves before slowly drifting inland. I...

Some tracks grab your attention by screaming, but the best ones pull you in by speaking softly about the things we usually hide. That is exactly what happens the second you hit play on "Heroin Blue Light." The latest release from Angel of the Evening, an independent music project created by New Zealand artist Isis-Joy, is a masterclass in emotional gravity. It is a six-minute descent...