ok, i'm doing a thread of music i enjoyed in 2025.
it's going to be a large, large thread. acc'd to last fm, i listened to 655 different albums this year.
not gonna recommend them all, just some of the ones i really liked.
as per a prior post i made here, i don't really listen to brand new music, so most of these were not released in 2025. they were new to me, and could be new to you, if you want.
i'm just gonna list a few per day for a while, rather than try to blast em out in one go
Lucette Bourdin - Nordic Waves
4 and a half hours of some really well done, lovely new age / ambient compositions. there are many gorgeous moments in this collection.
32 track album
Percival Pembroke - Pembroke Autumn/Winter Catalog
i'm a huge fan of Percy's stuff, very classy arpeggiating synth works. this collection is from 2015.
https://percivalpembroke.bandcamp.com/album/pembroke-autumn-winter-catalog
19 track album
Scanner & Modelbau
i went through a big phase of listening to Frans de Waard's stuff as Modelbau recently, as i was really in the mood for grey, industrialish drones. his collab w/ Scanner is a lot prettier than any of his solo stuff, but you can hear the tension between Rimbaud's pastoral sounding loops and FdW's unsettling, noisier tendencies. fantastic record (and even released in 2025!)
10 track album
Yosuke Tokunaga - 5 doubts 5 occurs
strange rhythms and decaying atmospheres adding up to a kind of ambient that's hard to pin down, and constantly surprising. i've been digging into his albums and he's quite an interesting composer.
https://entangledvisions.bandcamp.com/album/5-doubts-5-occurs
10 track album
Shuta Hiraki - Fossils and Vein
i bought the entire discography of Chemifaserwerk's tape label Falt, and have been working my way through it. this has been a standout so far, some evocative little miniatures of electronic hum and crackle.
10 track album
Phil Struck - Schleswig-Holstein Aufnahmen
a lo-fi set of tones, beats, and textures vaguely informed by dub techno, but landing somewhere closer to the murkier output of Cluster.
https://philstruck.bandcamp.com/album/schleswig-holstein-aufnahmen
17 track album
Harold Budd - The Room
the beginning of the year had me at the tail end of a big obsession w/ Budd's music. this album from 2000, named after a track on the earlier album the White Arcades, is a typically beautiful work, with his simple piano motifs giving structure to quivering tonal atmospheres. longing and loss, calm, longing and loss.
no bandcamp link, sadly
Terekke - Improvisational Loops
how can i impart the weird way this album effects me? it's a soft, unassuming ambient album from 2018. to me it feels like echoes of lost pasts, and possible futures
8 track album
Forrest Fang - Perihelion
this is the first, so far only album by Fang to have made an impression on me. his work often feels cloying and saccharine. in this case his new age / world fusion thing really works for me. lots of very interesting microtonal percussive lines that feel like an alternate path between west coast minimalism & berlin school synth. does it still feel like something corny that would have played in a Natural Wonder store in the 90s? sure.
10 track album
Ø - Oleva
this is the only album i will recommend with a Pink Floyd cover on it. Mika Vainio's typical stark minimalist beats and unique sound palette is always captivating.
12 track album
Nikolaienko - Rings
2021 album from this Ukrainian artist based in Estonia. it is the interplay of many lo-fi tape loops adding up to something quite pleasant.
#crecs
https://nikolaienko-faitiche.bandcamp.com/album/rings
11 track album
Roedelius - Selbstportrait I
mostly it all sounds like bedroom demo recordings of ideas / sketches, but it's Roedelius, so it remains compelling. originally released 1979.
#crecs
https://roedelius-official.bandcamp.com/album/selbstportrait-i
11 track album
Gregg Skloff - And The Flairwell Four
i always think you can dip into any of Skloff's albums and you'll find something really great. this one's no exception. bass guitar + effects add up to a really serene set of vignettes.
#crecs
https://greggskloff.bandcamp.com/album/and-the-flairwell-four
4 track album
Bohdan Stupak - Microvariations
a 2025 release from Ukranian artist @wkalmar. glassy drones and overtones
#crecs
https://kahvicollective.bandcamp.com/album/microvariations
4 track album
David Edren - Daarbuiten
Edren, who also records as DSR Lines, presents more of his gamelan / mbira inspired electronic music.
8 track album
worriedaboutsatan - Glass Infinities
beatless synth noodling, quasi-psychedelic, sometimes moody
#crecs
https://worriedaboutsatan.bandcamp.com/album/glass-infinites
11 track album
Hideo Nakasako - Collected Sound Fragments
a little garden of comfy, but strange sound environments.
https://muzaneditions.bandcamp.com/album/collected-sound-fragments
8 track album
Tetsu Umehara - Handwritten
inspired by the architecture of imagined places, it's a compelling set of effervescent synth bubbling, field recordings, and the odd string instrument fumbling around and bumping into corners.
#crecs
https://tetsuumehara.bandcamp.com/album/handwritten-2
10 track album
Autechre - AE_2022－
i've been living with this gigantic collection of (so far) two years worth of concert recordings for most of the year, putting two or three on my work playlist for a few weeks, until i start to get my head around individual shows, then moving on. doing it this way, i can hear the progression of how s & r approached the material over time... it's been pretty rewarding process as a listener.
19 track album
Loula Yorke - speak, thou vast and venerable head
propulsive modular synth zones with a fuzzy, soft sound palette. someone else said "kosmische music" and yeah, i can see it.
#crecs
https://quietdetails.bandcamp.com/album/speak-thou-vast-and-venerable-head
6 track album
Scott Cortez - Twin Radiant Flux
lovesliescrushing guy. RIYL SOTL.
#crecs
https://lineimprint.bandcamp.com/album/twin-radiant-flux
9 track album
Field Lines Cartographer - Groundwaves
2018 release from @FieldLinesCartographer
he has a brand new one out that i'll probably list further down the thread, but i revisited this one in 2025, and i think it's overall my favorite of his things. really heavy synth zones.
#crecs
https://fieldlinescartographer.bandcamp.com/album/groundwaves
10 track album
Guenter Schlienz - Organ Studies
a 2023 release that sounds like ecstatic music from pre-new-age 70s. calm, droning throbs and crystalline pings echo through a thick bed of tape hiss.
#crecs
https://guenterschlienz.bandcamp.com/album/organ-studies
6 track album
TM404 - Syra
Andreas Tillander's third album from 2021, a warm, enveloping, fuzzed out take on acid as heard from the chill out room. many Roland devices utilized.
8 track album
50 track album
c.reider 
Dan Kletter 🥑
Michael U
YHANCI~1.TXT
Flavigula