Aarktica’s eleventh album is characterized by a peaceful, contemplative interplay between guitar, cello, and viola.

The Declining Winter’s latest album is their finest yet, a stark-yet-lush affair filled with haunting arrangements and lyrics.

These eight songs are effortlessly pretty, weaving delicate guitar melodies together with dreamy atmospherics.

LN’s first album in almost a decade uses haunting lyrics and arrangements to explore loss and sorrow.

The New York outfit’s music conjures up wide-open spaces and desert vistas perfect for a pandemic-inspired getaway.

The duo’s latest collection of nostalgia-soaked songs contains some of their most abstract and affecting music to date.

This is music for ambling through wide open spaces that aren’t encumbered by the detritus of urban sprawl.

Hanson’s dulcimer often takes the lead in these songs, but in ways that are consistently beguiling.

Johnathon Ford’s instrumental rock outfit enters its third decade with its heaviest and most assured album to date.

The band’s first release in a dozen years boasts a heavier, more expansive sound.

Some of the most challenging music of Low’s career, but also some of the most daring, intriguing, and rewarding.

These songs move in directions that are more interesting than the simple “shoegaze + metal” equation implies.

Unwed Sailor’s latest EP is particularly ambitious in scope and sonic diversity.

The Romanian trio will beat you down one massive riff at a time, but they’ll also build you back up, stronger than before.

Post-rock, electronic music, film scores, modern classical, and jazz figure into Grails’ graceful, sublime music.

Leave it to a guy from Denmark to compose the perfect soundtrack for driving across the Nebraska prairie.

A chilled, challenging psychedelic album that will reward the patient listener.

The sort of meandering instrumental music that makes you yearn for autumn to paint the leaves and bring a sharp edge to the air.

If you’re expecting subtlety and restraint from a band calling themselves Infinity Shred, then you’ve got another thing coming.

Kveikur makes me feel like I’m listening to Sigur Rós for the first thrilling time, and after nearly fifteen years, that’s a true pleasure.