Arctic Sleep Arbors (2012)

How one goes about surfing in the Arctic remains to be seen; perhaps our changing climate will make such a thing soon possible. Until then, we have to perform such a feat metaphorically, or at least do so vicariously, through the windswept beatscapes provided by the duo of Jarkko Turkulainen and Petter Friberg. The two Surfers manage to do a helluva job navigating their way across an icy tundra of expertly designed rhythm programming, over which skirt jittery synths making the most of sharp angles, steep inclines, and immaculately poised atmospheric tribbles that reflect a multitude of sun-dappled colors.

This double album consists of Tchaikovsky performances that have been issued in several different forms. The Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 was recorded in 2012, when the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, a joint project of the cities of Tromsø and Bodø, was still called the Nordic Philharmonic; from a marketing point of view, with graphics showing the orchestra members, instruments and all, standing in the snow, the name change was a good one.

Slightly more experienced than the ranks of artists discovered online, Danish singer/songwriter Mads Langer had already released two studio albums through Copenhagen Records before impressing Sony bosses with his MySpace-uploaded acoustic EP, Fact - Fiction. Pop - Or??? Despite his new major-label deal, an impressive array of producers including Martin Terefe (KT Tunstall), Ethan Allen (Tricky), and Sacha Skarbek (Bon Jovi), and a backing vocalist in the shape of Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins, his third effort, Behold, is entirely void of bombastics or studio trickery, sticking closely to the emotive Nordic guitar-based pop sound that helped him to get signed in the first place.

Liquid Mind, aka Chuck Wild, is a Los Angeles-based musician specialising with slow, ethereal and atmospheric ambient music. Liquid Mind's music is calm, tranquil, serene. It is a beatless electronic ambient with a pinch of space music attached to it.
Unity (2000). The fourth in Liquid Mind's elegant electronic series of slow relaxation music albums takes many listeners to a place of deep calm and tranquility. This peaceful album may be used by parents to help quiet hyperactive children, to assist themselves in going back to sleep in the middle of a difficult night, to aid in general relaxation, or to relieve the stress of a busy day at a computer terminal…