Dear reader,

little over a year ago, I started this newsletter for experimental music, mostly to recommend new discoveries to my friends. Since then, a small community has grown, and you are part of it. So first of all, thank you for subscribing and reading.

By now you might wonder – yes, so far I’ve been writing in German, just because it felt natural to me. Still, the music I am covering is made and received in a very international community. This is why I made a decision:

In an effort to become more inclusive, Zen Sounds will be published in English moving forward. This change will open our community for many more readers and listeners. So please bear with me…

Looking back, 2022 was a year of change, departures and new beginnings. Life wasn’t all roses and flowers and unicorns. At times, I struggled with self-doubt, apathy and depression. Fortunately, there’s music, my spirituality, my small family and a few friends – some things I can always rely on.

I would like to use this year’s last issue of Zen Sounds to look back on the best music of the past 12 months. Below you will find my personal highlights, and those of a few artists, friends and music lovers, providing you with listening material for the holidays.

I’m wishing you some quiet days at the end of the year. We’ll hear from each other again next year.

Stephan

Year-End Charts 2022

Stephan Kunze

Writer, Berlin

Album of the year

Carmen Villain – »Only Love From Now On« (Smalltown Supersound)

Runners-up

Duval Timothy – »Meeting With A Judas Tree« (Carrying Colour)
Patricia Wolf – »I’ll Look For You In Others« (Past Inside The Present)
Maya Shenfeld – »In Free Fall« (Thrill Jockey)
Damian Dalla Torre – »Happy Floating« (Squama)

Songs of the year

Warpaint – »Champion« (Heirlooms)
Nosaj Thing / Julianna Barwick – »Blue Hour« (LuckyMe)
Kelela – »Washed Away« (Warp)

Bonus Beats

billy woods x Messiah Musik – »Church« (Backwoodz)
Roc Marciano & The Alchemist – »The Elephant Man’s Bones« (ALC/Marci Enterprises)

Heiko Hoffmann

Curator and music journalist, Berlin

Instagram

• Aldous Harding – »Warm Chris« (4AD)

• Arovane – »Tides (2022 Remaster)« (Keplar)

• Beth Orton – »Weather Alive« (Partisan)

• Caterina Barbieri – »Spirit Exit« (light-years)

• Kali Malone – »Living Torch« (Portraits GRM)

• Makaya McCraven – »In These Times« (International Anthem)

• Nu Genea – »Bar Mediterraneo« (NG)

• Sam Prekop / John McEntire – »Sons Of« (Thrill Jockey)

• SAULT – »11« (Forever Living Originals)

• Yasuaki Shimizu – »Kiren« (Palto Flats)

Nico Rosenberg

Sound artist and music producer, Santiago/Berlin

Bandcamp | Instagram

1. Burial – »Streetlands« (Hyperdub)

2. KMRU – »Other Times« (Seil)

3. Carlos Ferreira feat. Patricia Wolf – »Organism« (Mystery Circles)

4. Caterina Barbieri – »Terminal Clock« (light-years)

5. ESDLCP – »Corazón de Margarina« (New Latam Beats)

6. Overmono – »Gfortune« (XL)

7. Nick Leon feat. DJ Babatr – »Xtasis« (TraTraTrax)

8. Jungle – »Good Times (Sofía Kourtesis Remix)« (Caiola)

9. Floating Points – »Problems« (Ninja Tune)

10. Marina Herlop – »Kaddisch« (PAN)

Favorite album: The Smile – »A Light for Attracting Attention« (XL)

Maximilian Schachtner & Martin Brugger

Label founders Squama, Munich

Bandcamp | Instagram

• Asake – »Mr Money With The Vibe« (YBNL Nation)

• Roomer – »Skice« (Fun in the church)

• Eyes of the Amaryllis – »Sift« (Horn of Plenty)

• Boris – »W« (Sacred Bones)

• YeYe – »はみ出て!« (Rallye Label/Space Shower Music)

• Damian Dalla Torre – »Happy Floating« (Squama)

• Valentina Magaletti – »Rotta« (Blume Editions)

• RIP Swirl – »Blurry« (Public Possession)

• yaya bey – »Remember Your North Star« (Big Dada)

• Blu Samu – »7« (Animal63)

Patricia Wolf

Artist, field recordist and composer, Portland/OR

Bandcamp | Instagram

• Sofie Birch / Antonina Nowacka – »Languoria« (Intercourse) 

• Dania – »Voz« (Geographic North)

• Carmen Villain – »Only Love From Now On« (Smalltown Supersound)

• babyxxan – »lost tapes from lilac island in space« (Best Effort)

• Lawrence English – »Viento« (Room40)

• Diane Barbé – »A Conference Of Critters« (Forms of Minutiae)

• KMRU – »dont linger they might see you« (Savvy Contemporary)

• Katharina Schmidt – »Particles« (Slaapwel) 

• Cole Peters – »A Certain Point of Inertia« (Room40)

• Alexandra Spence – »Blue waves, Green waves« (Room40)

Adam Heron

Label founder Tonal Union, London/Berlin

Bandcamp | Instagram

• Caroline – »Caroline« (Rough Trade)

• Akusmi – »Fleeting Future« (Tonal Union)

• Lucrecia Dalt – »¡Ay!« (RVNG Intl.)

• Oren Ambarchi – »Shebang« (Drag City)

• Duncan Marquiss – »Wires Turned Sideways In Time« (Basin Rock)

• Roméo Poirier – »Living Room« (Faitiche)

• Salamanda – »ashbalkum« (Human Pitch)

• Carmen Villain – »Only Love From Now On« (Smalltown Supersound)

• Flore Laurentienne – »Volume II« (RVNG Intl.)

• Ernest Hood – »Back To The Woodlands« (Freedom To Spend)

Glenn Astro

Artist, DJ and producer, Berlin

Bandcamp | Instagram

1. Ulla – »Foam« (3XL) 

2. Guerrinha – »Cidade Grande« (Confuso Editions)

3. Rosalia – »Motomami« (Columbia/Sony)

4. ssabae – »azurescens« (Few Crackles)

5. Contour – »Onwards!« (Touching Bass)

6. Salamanda – »ashbalkum« (Human Pitch)

7. Carla dal Forno – »Come Around« (Kallista)

8. Yosa Peit – »Phyton« (Tax Free)

9. Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru – s/t (Re-Issue, Mississippi Records) 

10. loket & Hypno Discs – »Prophets Over People« (Tax Free)

Carlos Cipa

Artist, pianist and composer, Munich/Berlin

Bandcamp | Instagram

• Sophia Jani – »Music As A Mirror« (Neue Meister)

• Abel Selaocoe – »Where is Home / Hae ke Kae« (Parlophone)

• Elias Stemeseder – »Piano Solo« (Intakt)

• Matthias Lindermayr / Matthieu Bordenave – »Sequence« (Squama)

• Silvia Tarozzi / Deborah Walker – »Canti di guerra, di lavoro e d’amore« (Unseen Worlds)

• Konstantia Gourzi / Nils Mönkemeyer / William Youn – »Whispers« (Sony)

• Ensemble Dreamtiger – »Crumb: Dream Sequence, Cello Sonata, Vox Balaenae« (forthcoming)

• Lucrecia Dalt – »¡Ay!« (RVNG Intl.)

• Jeremiah Chiu / Marta Sofia Honer – »Recordings from the Åland Islands« (International Anthem)

• Astrig Siranossian – »Duo Solo« (Sirano)

Damian Dalla Torre

Tenor saxophonist, composer and producer, Leipzig

Bandcamp | Instagram

• Oh No Noh – »Kanzi« (Teleskop)

• Flowers & Fabini – »Digital Assisted Music Vol. 1« (forthcoming 14.12.22)

• Ralph Heidel – »Modern Life« (Kryptox)

• Popp – »Blizz« (Squama)

• Anna Erhard – »Campsite« (Radicalis)

• Fazer – »Plex« (City Slang)

• Max Stadtfeld / Stax – »Suboptimal« (Klaeng)

• Moritz Fasbender – »13 Rabbits« (XXIM)

• Hans Arnold – »Interim« (Teleskop)

• Elis Noa – »I Was Just About To Leave« (LasVegas)

Maya Shenfeld

Composer, sound artist, educator and researcher, Berlin

Bandcamp | Instagram

• Daniela Lalita – »Trececerotres« (Young)

• Yair Elazar Glotman – »Speculative Memories« (SA)

• Soundwalk Collective – »The Age of Mutation« (Analogue Foundation)

• Hüma Utku – »The Psychologist« (Editions Mego)

• Caterina Barbieri / Lyra Pramuk – »Knot of Spirit« (light-years)

• Moderat – »More D4ta« (Monkeytown)

• Moor Mother – »Jazz Codes« (Anti-)

• Bad Bunny – »Un Verano Sin Ti« (Rimas)

• Félicia Atkinson – »Image Langage« (Shelter Press)

• Hildur Guðnadóttir – »Tár« (Deutsche Grammophon)

Simon Lovermann

Artist, composer and cultural entrepreneur, Munich

Bandcamp | Instagram

• Wilma Vritra – »Clean Me Clean« (from »Grotto«, Bad Taste)

• DOMi & JD BECK – »SMiLE« (from »NOT TiGHT«, Blue Note / Apeshit)

• Miguel Atwood-Ferguson – »Fall In Love« (from »Suite for Ma Dukes«, Mochilla)

• Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann – »Jakarta« (from »perform the compositions of Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann«, Leaving)

• Mount Kimbie – »dvd (feat. Choker)« (from »MK 3.5: Die Cuts | City Planning«, Warp)

• Duval Timothy – »Up« (from »Meeting with a Judas Tree«, Carrying Colour)

• Kendrick Lamar – »Crown« (from »Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers«, TDE)

• Wandl – »Fakin’ It« (from »Body Memory«, Sichtexot)

• Photay with Carlos Niño – »Feeling, Now« (from »More Offerings«, forthcoming 9.12.22, International Anthem)

• Sam Gendel – »Two-Tone« (from »SUPERSTORE«, Leaving)

Kabuki

Artist, producer and lecturer, Frankfurt

Linktree | Instagram

• PJS – »Times« (Kudatah, 2019)

• Nala Sinephro – »Space 1.8« (Warp, 2021)

• Tony Scott & Jan Akkerman – »Meditation« (Universal, 1977)

• Jordan Christoff – »Flipside« (Phinery, 2020)

• Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement – »Jungle is a Shapeshifter« (Hospital, 2017)

• Steve Hillage – »Rainbow Dome Musick« (Virgin, 1979)

• Jordan De La Sierra – »Gymnosphere: Song of the Rose« (Numero Group, 2014)

• Daniel Hayn, Israel Strom, Noah Denton – »RGB« (Ooooooooweaaaahhhh, 2022)

• Lionclad – »Almighty Princess« (Azikazin, 2020)

• Charles Ditto – »In Human Terms« (Telephone Explosion, 2019)

Christian Bachmann

Artist, synth geek and producer, Berlin

Youtube | Instagram

1. Sofie Birch – »Holotropica« (Intercourse)

   As a synth geek and ambient producer, this album has impressed me deeply. Outstanding compositions, timeless artwork and an amazing piece of art as a whole.

2. Akusmi – »Fleeting Future« (Tonal Union)

   Discovered this through Zen Sounds and ordered the vinyl within ten minutes. Love at first sound, an audiophile masterpiece. During the first track, I shed tears of joy.

3. Jon Hopkins – »Music For Psychedelic Therapy« (Domino)

   With this album released in November 2021, Hopkins created a tripping masterpiece. It’s actually perfect for soundtracking your research around psychedelic experiences.

4. Swartz et – »Desert Meditations« (Utter East)

   In his very own improvised sound world, this rather unknown artist creates dense atmospheres on the modular synthesizer.

5. Nils Frahm – Music for Animals (Leiter)

   A meditative 3+ hour longplayer without any piano. For me it’s still a mystery how it was recorded, somewhere between electroacoustic live recordings with actual musicians and peculiar, dubby jams that really take their time.

6. Taylor Deupree – »Harbor« (12k)

   One of the real masters of ambient music. This record lives off its amazing textures and a coherent base emotion that just wants to embrace you.

7. Tony Rolando – »Breakin’ Is a Memory EP« (Important)

   As a returning customer of Schneidersladen, of course I know Tony, the founder of Make Noise Instruments. The first single of this EP hypnotized me immediately.

8. Supersport! – »tveir dagar« (Intenselab, 2021)

   »Hello, we are Supersport!, soon Icelands most beloved pop group. We’ve written some very nice songs« – this is how Supersport! introduce themselves in their appearance at KEXP. These musicians not only play their instruments exceptionally well, but they also write songs that you thought you had already known forever.

9. Bamberg Symphony, Jakub Hrůša – »Hans Rott: Symphony No. 1 in E Major« (Deutsche Grammophon)

   Through meticulous precision work with the Bamberg Symphony orchestra, conductor Jakub Hrůša takes Rotts Symphony No. 1 to new emotional heights. A perfect example of what a great conductor can actually accomplish.

10. KMRU – »epoch« (Seil)

    Kenya born, Berlin based ambient artist Joseph Kamaru increases intensity on »epoch«. Because of its lightness, it appears very hypnotic and makes for the perfect listen during public transport rides after sundown.

Find a selection of this year’s best music in the Zen Sounds playlist.

© 2022 Stephan Kunze