10 Favorite Albums from 2025 Discovered in April & Early May + 14 Honorable Mentions

April and the beginning of May have been both exciting and busy months here at PCC headquarters (Frederiksberg, Denmark). On the musical front, I’ve updated Quiet Sonia’s demo collection (chamber rock/avant-folk), and released archival material from two of my old groups, My Tjau is Kapow (IDM/shoegaze) and Sunn Paw (post-rock). I'm currently working on releasing an album with J. Leonhard (also known as Tettix Hexer), consisting of a series of new compositions that originally took creative inspiration from a set of samples taken from QS’s debut EP, Wild and Bitter Fruits. The album is set to be released in June to mark the EP’s three-year anniversary.

On the label side, we’ve released Zeki Jindyl’s debut album, STRETCH//RELATIONS (avant-rock/post-minimalism), as well as Homesickness’ second album Anamnesis (chamber folk/post-rock). In the coming months, we’ll be releasing Taxidermy’s second EP Let Go (noise-rock/post-punk), and Vamilla’s debut album You Are Freed (avant-pop). There’s a lot going on - but in the midst of it all, I’ve also had time to listen to a lot of new music from around the world, which I’ll be sharing a few thoughts on here. Hope you’ll read along.

Best,

Nikolaj

Forankring - hjerte, løft din glædes vinger (DK, Afvikling)

Genre: Ambient / Experimental

Rating: ****½

Jonas Torstensen, the artist behind Forankring, is really something of a living legend in Denmark’s musical underground. Even though I think he’s only in his early 20s, he’s been a prominent figure on the scene for years. Ever since he was a child, Jonas has possessed an impressive, unique, almost encyclopedic knowledge of music. Before he began releasing music through the cassette label Afvikling, he spent many years as the driving force - together with a small inner circle (Alba Liv, Jakob Folke Ivarsson, Camille Helt Haarder) - behind the label Kornmod. Both of these cassette-based labels have attracted a decent amount of international attention and have steadfastly supported the most stripped-down, sensitive, and resolutely anti-commercial strands of Danish underground music. It’s DIY to the core, a labor of love that demands deep respect. Jonas has released music under a variety of names - including his own, Eva, Francisca – and the two monikers I want to highlight here: Forankring and L.F. There’s a wealth of gold to be found for those who take the time to dig into the back catalogue.

Although Jonas has released a great number of moving and fascinating works over the years, I feel that with these two releases - which share a great deal in common - he may have reached his highest level yet (at least within this particular stylistic branch of his discography). Technique and emotion seem to walk hand in hand in perfect balance. I don’t expect to come across any ambient this year that will challenge or move me in quite the same way, and I imagine - at the risk of sounding solemn - that I’ll come to view these two releases as significant pieces of Danish experimental music history. The distinctive compositional approach - where small harmonic and melodic fragments are drawn from longer improvisations and assembled into a coherent aesthetic whole - is something I’ve rarely heard executed so effectively. And of course, I’m simply incredibly excited to see what Jonas creates next.

Let’s begin with the Forankring tape 'hjerte, løft din glædes vinger', released earlier this year (January 19, 2025). Side A opens with a relatively abstract, gently disorienting - yet unmistakably melodic - synth passage. A fluid, shifting melodic line evokes early Mike Paradinas, though placed firmly within an ambient/tape music context. There are traces, too, of kosmische krautrock (echoes of Cluster or Popol Vuh). The piece then transitions into something dustier - almost new age-tinged, even Twin Peaks-like - where the chords carry that ineffable emotional blend of early spring: hope tinged with melancholy, fragile textures like sunlight on cracking ice. There’s pain, tenderness, reassurance and quiet reconciliation. Think Stars of the Lid or early-2000s Kranky Records. The synths are soft, lo-fi, warped, but still vivid and detailed.

Around the five-minute mark, the music shifts into one of the most emotionally raw, minimalist sadcore passages I’ve encountered in a long time. A ghostly ‘guitar solo’ hovers above hopeless, lamenting synth chords - breathtaking in its restraint. This feels like emotion transferred directly to tape: unfiltered, alive. It brings to mind the fragile guitar work of Loren Connors, as if secrets from the night before are being quietly confessed: disappointments, shame, self-loathing, and the softest promises that maybe things will be okay. There’s a spiritual vulnerability here that calls to mind Talk Talk at their most bare. Around 7:00, the piece rises into something more skybound - vast, radiant, sensorially immersive ambient. A weightless, light-saturated melody glows within surging, ethereal chord swells. The music breathes. You can feel the analog textures shifting in real time. At about 9 minutes, we’re lifted into a distorted, shoegaze-inspired zone of tape ambient: synths modulate so intensely it feels as if the sky itself is shimmering, warping. Everything is fluid and on the brink of dissolving into chaotic, overwhelming, textural beauty.

Side B opens with another blend of kosmische kraut and 1990s English slowcore, psychedelic folk, and post-rock. It's a hopeful, springlike miniature, understated yet radiant. Around the two-minute mark, the piece turns inward, descending into a contemplative passage of saturated synth strings that gestures toward modern classical. By the eleven-minute mark, we reach a majestic, mournful climax, like a distillation of miserable optimism. It’s as if Cluster, Stars of the Lid and Flying Saucer Attack joined forces to make a tape: tender, wounded, and wide open to the sky. Let’s now turn our attention to L.F’s Treat me like your own.”

L.F - Treat me like your own (DK, Afvikling)

Genre: Ambient / Experimental

Rating: ****½

Side A opens in a gently swelling, droning atmosphere, an expansive, ambient world where delicate melodies drift in the background. Around 4:25, following a stretch of subtly disorienting and expressive tape experiments, a luminous, dreamlike, and strikingly pop-infused passage emerges. It's disarmingly beautiful, unfolding with a weightless tenderness, almost (to risk a well-worn cliché) like stepping into a sun-drenched forest clearing. This moment flows into another highlight at around 6:30: a melancholic, haunting ambient section that feels like an echo of the previous harmony, but darker, more fragile. By the 9-minute mark, this melancholy crests in a sharply distorted synth line - like a wounded electric guitar - surrounded by percussive noise and a soft, angelic drone. Side A ends in a state of emotional ambivalence, where light and shadow intermingle in a space that’s both uneasy and quietly hopeful.

Side B begins with a beautifully fatigued, starved kind of ambient - again perhaps reminiscent of Stars of the Lid - before gently lifting off in the next fragment. With subtle glitches, it hints at distant horizons and warmer skies. The following section introduces reversed-sounding synths and glockenspiel, weaving together a fragile, understatedly melancholic story. Then, about five minutes in, a more expansive, shoegaze-tinged tape-ambient piece unfurls - dreamlike and distressed - with a bright, warping synth that quivers with pain, all wrapped in a wash of glorious tape hiss. Around 6:25, a short, synth-led composition appears, laced with lightly atonal and dissonant elements, before giving way to a stretch of creatively manipulated field recordings, bell-like and spectral. The final piece returns to synth-driven ambient, once again drawing from dreampop, this time conjuring echoes of Seefeel, with shimmering glissandos that close the tape in breathtaking beauty.

Thank you, Jonas, for the beautiful music.

SY/N - Life Anew (IT, A Flooded Need)

Genre: Ambient / Noise / Progressive Electronic

Fav tracks: Eyes Like Molten Gold, Where Dreams Collide

Rating: ***½

Truly beautiful, intensely melancholic, rich and detailed ambient/noise/progressive electronic music from an artist I wasn’t previously familiar with. These tracks have a genuinely physical effect on your body. I’ve read that some people consider their earlier releases to be even stronger - which of course makes me incredibly curious to explore the rest of the discography as soon as possible...

BackxWash - Only Dust Remains (ZA/CA, Ugly Hag)

Genre: Experimental Hiphop

Fav Tracks: Wake Up, Undesirable, 9th Heaven, Dissociation, History of Violence, Only Dust Remains

Rating: ****½

This hip hop release is one of the most important albums of the year. A brooding, atmospheric and melancholic album (that still manages to be strikingly melodic and catchy) from a fiercely innovative rapper and producer. Beyond hip hop, the album draws on ambient, industrial, and other kinds of experimental music, blending deeply personal stories of depression, addiction, upbringing, and religion with powerful, incisive political commentary. Sure to become one of my most-played albums of the year and hopefully one that will rank high on many year-end lists.

"These are the songs of a person who was brought back to life but is now haunted by death itself" (from the official Bandcamp album page)

Nicolas Gombert & James Weeks - G O M B E R T (UK, Another Timbre)

Genre: Renaissance Music / Modern Classical / Chamber Music

Rating: ***½

A beautiful, calm release - once again equal parts innovative and rooted in tradition – from the outstanding UK label Another Timbre. Known for releasing often minimalist, atmospheric contemporary classical music with cutting-edge composers and ensembles, excellent sound quality, and beautiful covers – everything you could possibly dream of.... It’s one of those labels where you just want to hear everything they put out, really. This release features the brilliant ensemble Apartment House, frequent collaborators with the label. It presents seven works by Renaissance composer Nicolas Gombert, arranged by James Weeks, who also composed the album’s interludes.

Vanessa Amara - Café LIFE (DK, Posh Isolation)

Genre: Collage / Plunderphonics

Fav Tracks: Love You For Eternity, When You Love Someone

Rating: ***

The final release from Posh Isolation. An era has come to an end. One of the most distinctive and influential Danish labels of all time... This album may be slightly flawed as a whole, but there are some absolutely stunning and important tracks (like “Love You For Eternity” and “When You Love Someone"), hyper-melodic, euphoric plunderphonics mixed with elements of contemporary modern classical, etc.

Surgeon - Shell-Wave (UK, Tresor)

Genre: Birmingham Sound, Acid Techno, Ambient Dub

Fav Track(s): Soul Fire

Rating: ***½

Anthony Child aka Surgeon has a nice quote about the record on the album's Bandcamp page: “To make this project, I had to dig really deep in terms of what my relationship was to techno; I’ve been involved with it for a really long time and there’s a lot about it I feel dislocated from, so I had to really think hard about what techno is to me. I often get asked “what is techno to you?” but I can’t answer that with words; this album is the answer.” If I were to introduce a friend unfamiliar with the genre to some serious, hard-hitting, semi-paranoia-inducing, minimalist, dark and atmospheric techno, a handful of tracks from this release would definitely do the trick. There's an incredible rawness and beautifully elegant minimalism in these compositions and soundscapes. Released on legendary Berlin-based label and club, Tresor.

Joy Moughanni - A Separation from Habit (LB, Ruptured Records)

Genre: Ambient / Experimental

Fav Tracks: For a Moment We Stopped to Listen, To Loose a Friend / A Separation from Habit

Rating: ****

I may have been late to the party, but I only discovered Lebanon’s Ruptured Records this month. It's already become one of those labels where I feel compelled to hear everything they put out. Beirut has long been home to a vibrant and thriving art scene, and it’s moving to witness how such powerful, beautiful, and imaginative music continues to emerge from the city, even in times of crises.

Joy Moughanni is, as strongly implied, a Lebanese musician, producer, and sound engineer - and this is Moughanni’s debut album. A remarkably powerful and emotional debut. On Bandcamp, the album is described as “a deeply personal yet universally resonant exploration of trauma and memory (...) blending archival tape recordings, electronic manipulation, and sonic collage (...) that examines cycles of conflict and emotional survival.” It is said to “transcend the narrative of post-war identity, offering a raw meditation on grief and the struggle to process collective and personal histories" and framed as a a personal reflection on life “in a country where upheaval is constant, and grief often gives way to survival.”

Right from the beginning, it’s clear that this is an intensely personal work. The sound design at times feels almost documentary-like - as if emotions, experiences, and memories are being painted vividly and in fine detail with the most delicate sonic brushes. The emotional weight is so palpable that tracks like the final one – To Lose a Friend – have left me with a lump in my throat on several occasions. Highly recommended.

Kronos Quartet & Mary Kouyoumdjian - WITNESS (AM/US, Phenotypic Recordings)

Genre: Modern Classical / Spoken Word / Post-Minimalism

Rating: ****

I’ve followed Kronos Quartet for many, many years and have likely listened to nearly all of their releases. Mary Kouyoumdjian was a new name to me, but this Kronos Quartet release - featuring her compositions - stands out as one of the most powerful works they’ve put out in years. Mary Kouyoumdjian is a Pulitzer Prize–nominated Armenian-American composer and documentarian who, on WITNESS - according to the album’s Bandcamp page - combines “testimonies of the composer’s family, friends, and community impacted by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide, alongside the exquisite harmonies and disharmonies masterfully delivered by the Kronos Quartet.” This is incredibly powerful and moving contemporary classical music that, in the most immediate and vivid way, artistically conveys the suffering caused by war and destruction - inviting to 'empathy by humanizing complex experiences around social and political conflict' - and stands as a strong aesthetic defense of freedom of expression and social justice.

Peter Garland - Plain Songs: "Love Comes Quietly" (After Robert Creeley) (US, Cold Blue Music)

Genre: Ambient / Experimental

Rating: ***½

I wasn’t familiar with Peter Garland, but when I saw that there was a new release on the excellent Cold Blue Music label - a consistent source of high-quality contemporary classical and post-minimalist music - with a title referencing Robert Creeley, I had to check it out. And I’m glad I did. In many ways, I can hear strong parallels between Garland’s compositions and Creeley’s poetry: Creeley finds profound aesthetic power in minimalism - short lines, simple syntax - and isn’t afraid of everyday language, of the direct and immediate. But it’s all delivered with an intensely refined sense of precision: small snapshots and close-ups of lived life, action, and thought... In a similar way, perhaps - as is often the case in post-minimalism - Garland isn’t afraid of harmony, consonance, formal simplicity, or what the label itself describes as “understated work.” But that never makes the music dull. On the contrary, these compositions possess an extraordinary, subtly sophisticated elegance. Read this beautiful and personal reflection from Garland about the album:

“I wanted to write an organ piece that would be intimate and mostly quiet, emphasizing the nature of the organ as a wind instrument capable of long, sustaining tones. I wanted the musical textures to be open and transparent. I also had in mind smaller, historic organs and their music. The reference to poet Robert Creeley (1926–2005) is relevant to the above-mentioned goals. I greatly admire the simplicity and clarity of his poetic language: its lucidity and how it rarely strays from the directness of popular, vernacular speech. I wanted to emulate those qualities in my music to the extent that it was possible: to transfer the music of his poetry into the language of my music.”

Performed by acclaimed concert organist Carson Cooman. Check it out below.

Honorable Mentions:

Lawrence Hart - Come In Out of the Rain (UK, Domino)

Very melodic, very English future garage. I enjoyed this quite a lot.

Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson - What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow (US, Nonesuch)

Beautifully performed Appalachian old-time folk music. Wonderful. Here's a bit from the official Bandcamp page: "Through our many years of playing together on many stages across the globe, we have been able to share our Carolina roots with lots of people. But our tradition really doesn’t live on the stage; it lives on a back porch of Mebane, in a living room in Morganton and in countless other places wherever a musician might find themselves. We wanted to revisit the sounds, places, and textures at the beginning of our musical journey together and to share that experience with y’all."

Satamimagae - Taba (JP, RVNG Intl.)

Very interesting, atmospheric avant-folk / ambient from Japan.

Dietrichs - No Bahdu (US, Relative Pitch)

Extremely intense, extremely noisy saxophone/cello free jazz improvisation from father and daughter on the legendary NY-label, Relative Pitch. Mind-bending high quality stuff.

J - Little Lock (AU, se Dessaisir Publishing)

Great glitchy / electroacoustic ambient from the Australian label. Interesting textures, great warmth, emotional weight, calming and soothing...

Billow Observatory - The Glass Curtain (US/DK, Felte)

Beautiful, delicate and detailed new ambient album from Billow Observatory (Jonas Munk and Jason Kolb). Artists always known for delivering high-quality work.

VA/Anvar Kalandarov: Digging Central Asia: Musical Archaeology along the Silk Road (Death is Not the End, UK)

An interesting release from the great record label & NTS Radio show. According to the Bandcamp page, Anvar Kalandarov is "a music archaeologist, musician and producer from Tashkent, Uzbekistan with a focus on unearthing rare and hard to find gems from across Central Asia (...) Digging Central Asia is a mixtape that journeys through the psychedelic landscapes of the Silk Road, featuring recordings recorded between the 1970s through to the early 1990s."

Ball - Satanic Ecstasy (SE, Sublime Frequencies)

One of the most fun albums I’ve heard this year. Ugly, heavy, dirty, psychedelic heavy psych from Sweden with a wonderful late ’60s / early ’70s horror B-movie charm. Great creative production - and I love the bubbling, swirling analog synths...

France - Destino Scifosi (FR, Standard in Hi-fi)

Dark, occult, repetitive and noisy avant-folk/kraut from France. Takes things to some wildly mind-expanding heights.

Araz Salek - Peripheries of Nahavand (IR, Worlds Within Worlds)

Beautiful contemporary yet tradition-rich Persian classical music "inspired by Turkish and Arabic makam music with influences from the Iranian dastgāh tradition."

Kesairbai Kerkar - Her First Recordings, 1935-36 (IN, Canary Records)

Very raw archival recordings featuring impressive musical performances by the Indian vocalist (released on the incredible Baltimore-based archival label, Canary). A bit from the Bandcamp page: "Kesarbai Kerker (b. July 13, 1892, in Keri village near Panjim, Goa; d. Sept 16, 1977) was, for me, among the most wonderful singers to have recorded - anywhere, ever. To describe her art as hard-won or her spirit as independent radically understates the case. She was and is an exceptional force."

Moin - Belly Up (UK, AD 93)

Super contemporary, interesting, and hip-sounding blend of experimental electronics, post-rock, and minimalist post-punk from this London group.

Paul Flaherty - A Willing Passenger (US, Relative Pitch)

Extremely impressive saxophone playing from this jazz legend, released on Relative Pitch. According to Relative Pitch, this is all about “soul healing” and “demon dashing” through “freedom music” – and honestly, that feels entirely accurate. From the official Bandcamp page: “Six pieces of alto and tenor saxophone steeped in the theme of loss and channeled through blasting improvisations that showcase his fabulous wailing and inferno of sound to stark bluesy melodies.”

Primitive Art Group - Live Cuts 1981-1983 (NZ, Amish)

While New Zealand was busy inventing Kiwi rock in the early '80s - with a wave of high-quality, highly melodic indie pop and jangle rock emerging from the island nation - there was apparently also a group of outsiders deeply immersed in the worlds of Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, and the like.

There’s a wonderfully raw, fresh creative energy in these recordings. And while it does get a bit intense for me at times, it’s a truly fascinating document of musical history, and I’m sure fans of the genre will deeply appreciate this release (along with the other archival material from PAG that’s surfaced this year).