Most music that arrives with the label “meditative” feels like an instruction to relax—a gentle but firm command. Karen Salicath Jamali’s “Angel Gabriel’s Light,” however, doesn’t instruct; it simply arrives. Listening to this single for the first time is like walking into a room to find the light has changed color, subtly and without explanation. You don’t question how it happened. You just stand...

Have you ever felt a strange sense of nostalgia for a time you never lived in? Like a phantom limb for a past that isn’t yours. It’s a peculiar sensation, that anachronistic ache. Listening to “Lost,” the debut album from Dallas artist Jake Vera, evokes a similar feeling. It’s a record built with the tools of the 21st century, a collaboration forged in the crucible of...