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...

After a lengthy career of working with others, Grey Tower Heights was created as a solo effort. Melancholy permeates the tracks, which deal with the loss of love, fragility, and our frail sense of self. https://soundcloud.com/grey-tower-heights Songs with haunting voices and rich harmonies boost the piano-driven, lyrically sombre, and narratively oriented compositions. In Grey Tower Heights, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave are among the...