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...

KAYTIE’s new single "Evil Person" arrives with the pristine, deliberate clarity of a single ice cube cracking in a silent room. For a piano-driven ballad, there is a surprising amount of sharp edges here. Kaytie Kear, the 20-year-old singer and songwriter behind the name, doesn’t just perform a song of heartbreak; she presents evidence. This is the autopsy of a connection so personal and...