GISKE’s "The Sound of Birdsong" doesn’t so much begin as it seeps into the room, like the pale, perpetual twilight of a Norwegian summer night where sleep feels like a theoretical concept. This is a song for the space between the last page of a book and turning off the light; a four-minute float in that strange, conscious stillness when the world is quiet...

"Snap," the most recent release from independent music pioneers Love Ghost, is a song that can only be described as a sonic adventure. It paints a moving image of the battle against despair and the change that results, encapsulating the struggle of metamorphosis in a way that is both powerful and tragic. Love Ghost has been an unstoppable force since they emerged from Los Angeles, developing...