I spent a solid hour this morning watching dust motes suspended in a single shaft of sunlight, my entire nervous system held absolutely captive by Magdi Aboul-Kheir and his devastatingly immersive new album, "Slow Heat". The Germany-based journalist and classically trained pianist usually writes across a massive spectrum of genres, pivoting wildly from trance to late romanticism. Today, he has dropped an ambient, contemporary...

There is a specific texture to the air in Chicago a kind of electric grit but listening to Joey P. unravel his latest project, "MISSING IN ACTION", feels surprisingly like peeling the protective film off a brand-new emotional state. Satisfying, smooth, but with a lingering static charge. This two-song release functions like a handwritten note tucked into a coat pocket, discovered months later when...