Flow State

BCMC

Flow State — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 07:03:16 GMT

Today we’re listening to BCMC, an American duo from Chicago, multi-instrumentalists Bill MacKay and Cooper Crain. Their new album Stash is already on our shortlist for 2026 best LPs. It’s a psychedelic ambient drone record with elements of raga, kosmische, space rock, minimalism, and more. Crain plays keys in Bitchin Bajas, and he played with MacKay a bunch in the Chicago scene before the two formed BCMC. Stash is their sophomore LP following their 2023 debut Foreign Smokes, which is four longform tracks and can be classified as jambient.

Stash - BCMC (39m, no vocals)
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Foreign Smokes - BCMC (41m, no vocals)
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Have a nice Thursday.

Across the Horizon Ep. 67: "Jeopardy" Edition with Brad Rose

Flow State — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 07:02:43 GMT

On today’s episode of Across the Horizon, Bob Holmes of SUSS invites co-host Brad Rose to play the inaugural edition of musical Jeopardy. Bob plays a music segment, and Brad responds with the correct question. Brad is a man of many talents – musician, visual artist, label owner, journalist for Foxy Digitalis – as well host of the great podcast Songs of Our Lives. This episode includes a variety of experimental instrumental music including More Eaze, , Lake Mary, , Sarah Davachi, and more.

For Flow State, we’re listening to a couple albums by artists featured on the pod. First is More Eaze’s lacuna and parlor from 2024. That album opens with “waltz (in memoriam old ways of living),” a masterpiece which Bob and Brad play. The record is a brilliant combination of “left-field chamber music” and electronic experimentation, a real trip of a record. Second we’re playing Normal Sounds by Lia Kohl, which we’ve recommended before. That record finds the music in everyday audio, sampling a refrigerator’s hum and the buzz of tennis court lights.

lacuna and parlor - More Eaze (58m, no vocals)
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Normal Sounds - Lia Kohl (40m, background spoken vocals on track 3)
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Have a great Wednesday.

Flow State Ep. 336: James Bernard Guest Mix

Flow State — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:01:35 GMT

Today we have a guest mix by , whose new album In A Small Room, Decades Ago is excellent. About the mix, he wrote:

In the 1990s, the chill out room was where you would go to unwind and expand your mind to electronic music that wasn’t meant for the dancefloor.
While laying on the floor or lounging on a chair you could hear downtempo, dub, ambient, IDM, spoken word mantras, and psychedelic tunes all mixed into one sonic journey.
For my new album (In A Small Room, Decades Ago), I wanted to write a sort of love letter to those chill out rooms, and give my own interpretation of the variety of sounds they championed.
This playlist represents some of the music from those magical times, and these songs inspired me to want to create my own music (Atmospherics from 1994) to add to the conversation.

We hope you enjoy.

0:00:00 - Global Communication - 14:31

Sofie Birch

Flow State — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:02:22 GMT

Today we’re listening to , a Danish multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Copenhagen. We’ve recommended her music three times before. She grew up in rural Denmark and started out singing and playing the guitar, eventually getting into software production using Reason on her parents’ computer. She studied sound design at Sonic College, and since the 2010s has been releasing psychedelic ambient music. Holotropica from 2022 is a meditative record that shows her ability to create thoughtful atmospheres. Her latest record, Bivabippabualukka, is led by acoustic instruments, especially acoustic guitar, trumpet, and some voice. There’s a strong bossa nova element to it, with dreamy seven chords and samba style percussion. She recorded the album with her brother, Alfred, channeling the carefree playfulness of childhood. The We mentioned she’s a multi-instrumentalist; on Bivabippabualukka she’s credited with “clarinet, percussion, guitars, autoharp, zither, mouth percussion, synths, violin, hand chimes, whizzle and rhodes.”

Bivabippabualukka - Sofie Birch (34m, light vocals on tracks 1, 4, 6, and 10)
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Holotropica - Sofie Birch (40m, no vocals)
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We wish you a great start to your week.

GENDEMA

Flow State — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 07:02:35 GMT

It’s Friday so we’re listening to something more upbeat. Today we’re listening to GENDEMA, an Argentinian electronic musician from Morón, Buenos Aires. Or to quote his own description of the project from an (amazing) interview with Amar Adjona: “amateur musician and professional designer,” “excessively Argentine and proudly Moronense.” He doesn’t think about genres at all when he produces, which is why so many genre associations appear across his work. He moves from ambient to jungle to downtempo to trip-hop across an album and even across a single track. His standout record sassy things from 2024 evokes ‘90s UK drum n bass music, though its drum breaks are punctuated by ambient concoctions. To quote the blog I Thought I Heard A Sound, the album is “a copacetic gallery of vividly patterned ambiance – a breathable space in a digital refuge.” We’re also playing Eternal Morning Loft from 2021, which is a similar home remedy.

sassy things - GENDEMA (41m, momentary vocals on track 8)
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Eternal Morning Loft - GENDEMA (40m, vocal sample on track 6)
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Have a super weekend.

René Urtreger

Flow State — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 07:02:36 GMT

Today we’re listening to René Urtreger, a French jazz pianist and composer from Paris. Born in 1934, he started playing piano classically at age four, and in the ‘40s got into jazz. American pianist Bud Powell inspired him to play bebop, to the point where Urtreger’s first LP (released 1955) is called Joue Bud Powell. We’re playing that record as well as a recently released compilation Early Trios 1954-1957, which unfortunately isn’t available on all streaming services yet. In the late ‘50s, Miles Davis selected Urtreger for his European tour, which also led to Urtreger performing on Davis’s score for Elevator to the Gallows. That score was improvised in a Paris recording studio in one night, a session of which the Criterion Collection has footage. Urtreger passed away last week at age 92.

Joue Bud Powell - René Urtreger (25m, no vocals)
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Early Trios 1954-1957 - René Urtreger (78m, no vocals)
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Have a great Thursday.

Kane Parsons

Flow State — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 07:03:22 GMT

Today we’re listening to Kane Parsons, an American filmmaker and composer from Petaluma, California. He got interested in filmmaking at a young age and studied it at an arts high school, but two health related issues steered him towards visual effects. First was an arthritis diagnosis at age 13, which restricted his motion; the second was covid which yielded at-home screen time he used to become proficient with Blender.1 He made a series of YouTube videos about the online folklore of backrooms, which eventually became a blockbuster horror movie. He also did the score for the movie with Canadian composer Edo Van Breemen. We’re listening to Backrooms OST which conjures liminal spaces and opens a portal to influences like Boards of Canada, The Caretaker, and vaporwave. Parsons has put out several other LPs since 2022, mostly scores, but also several ambient albums including Highway 101 from 2024.

Backrooms - Kane Parsons & Edo Van Breemen (92m, basically no vocals)
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Highway 101 - Kane Parsons (53m, no vocals)
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Have a great Wednesday.

via YouTube

Hollywood Reporter

Flow State Episode 335

Flow State — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 07:02:08 GMT

Today’s mix opens with a newish ambient track from James Bernard, who’s put together a guest mix for next week. There’s some more ambient after that by Hayes Bradley, Haruhisa Tanaka, Slow Attack Ensemble, and Hirotaka Shirotsubaki. Then a period of sort of psychedelic/electronic instrumentals from Jonny Nash & Tomo Katsurada, Damian Dalla Torre, and Croz Boyce. We revisit a standout track from Eiko Ishibashi’s score for Drive My Car. There’s a new dub cover of “Wichita Lineman” which is sensational. The pace picks up with DJ Plead, Mr. Fingers, and Object Hours. Maxime Denuc gets the last word, so to speak. We hope you enjoy.

0:00:00 - James Bernard - A Place To Rest

0:03:28 - Hayes Bradley & Dreamsome - Faded Fields

0:07:38 - Haruhisa Tanaka - 7 Days Later

Haruhisa Tanaka

Flow State — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 07:03:27 GMT

Today we’re listening to Haruhisa Tanaka, a Japanese ambient musician based in Tokyo. He learned piano and guitar growing up, then in 2017 began focusing on ambient music. Since then he’s released seven LPs, which use vintage synths and tape loops to create what this newsletter is always looking for: atmospheres of profundity. His latest album, Tamayura, came out on June 5 and is a continuation of that style. He creates a warm synth foundation and then rains melodic droplets over it, blending guitar and piano and other instruments as well. We’re also revisiting his debut LP, Reflections, from 2017, which is more of a drone record and includes the beguiling “Mist in the Morning.”

Tamayura - Haruhisa Tanaka (30m, no vocals)
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Reflections - Haruhisa Tanaka (40m, no vocals)
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We wish you a great start to your week.

Larry Heard

Flow State — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 07:01:35 GMT

It’s Friday so we’re listening to something more upbeat. Today we’re listening to Larry Heard aka Mr. Fingers, an American electronic musician from Chicago. We last recommended his music in 2022. Born in 1960, his formative musical influences came from local radio in the late ‘60s and ‘70s – “blues, rock, jazz, soul, gospel,” he told RBMA. He played guitar and drums in high school, and in the ‘80s drums led him to drum machines (Roland TR-707) and then-novel synthesizers (Roland Jupiter-6). As DJs like Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy formed the Chicago house scene, Heard developed a jazz-influenced style that came to be known as “deep house.” His first LP, 1989’s Amnesia, defined this style, with iconic dance tracks like “Mystery of Love” and “Can You Feel It?” In April, Heard released his latest LP, Leev Ur Mynd, a solid collection of deep house in his signature style – to quote the liner notes, “hypnotic grooves and heartfelt compositions.”

Amnesia - Mr. Fingers (70m, no vocals)
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Leev Ur Mynd - Mr. Fingers (80m, vocals on tracks 8 and 10)
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Have a swell weekend.

Nicolas Godin

Flow State — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 07:01:57 GMT

Today we’re listening to Nicolas Godin, a French multi-instrumentalist and composer from Versailles. He’s one half of the duo Air with Jean-Benoît Dunckel. Godin played guitar and keys in rock bands in high school, then briefly studied architecture before forming Air with Dunckel in 1995. The duo put out several incredible records which there’s never a bad time to revisit. Godin began releasing solo music in the 2010s, with a score for the TV series Au service de la France. That 2018 record has the crisp, high fidelity sound of an Air record with callbacks to ‘60s and ‘70s film scores. First, though, we’re playing his score for the 2022 documentary Fire of Love about volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. Its tracks are mostly synth-led, sometimes without accompaniment, and convey at turns the romance, sublimity, and danger of the film.

Fire of Love - Nicolas Godin (39m, no vocals)
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Au Service de la France - Nicolas Godin (40m, no vocals)
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Have a great Thursday.

Hanakiv

Flow State — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 07:03:29 GMT

Today we’re listening to Hanakiv, an Estonian composer and pianist from Tallinn. She has many musicians on her mother’s side, and she started playing piano and handbells around age eight.1 She studied electroacoustic composition and eventually settled in London, where she remains based. When covid hit, she resumed daily piano practice which eventually led to her debut LP, Goodbyes, in 2023. The album is primarily prepared piano, which she layers to create ambient neoclassical pieces. Track five features English saxophonist Alabaster DePlume. We’re also playing her new album, Interlude, which bring in string and percussion accompaniment.

Goodbyes - Hanakiv (41m, vocal moments on track 3)
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Interlude - Hanakiv (36m, vocals on tracks 2, 7, and 9)
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Have a great Wednesday.

Sound of Life

Flow State Ep. 334: Trip-Hop

Flow State — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 07:02:32 GMT

Today’s mix is all trip-hop, mostly from the ‘90s. Trip-hop is a subgenre of electronic music that uses the beat template of hip-hop – drum loops and samples – with elements of jazz, lounge, ambient, and dub. There are some usual suspects in this tracklist like Massive Attack, Portishead, and Nightmares on Wax. But in preparing the mix we found many masters of the form whose names were blasts from the past or brand new: Funki Porcini, Howie B., DJ KRUSH, A Forest Mighty Black, Neotropic... There are some borderline cases like Air, Bowery Electric, and Pete Rock (whose influence on trip-hop was huge). The mix is almost entirely instrumental, but because it’s trip-hop it was hard to avoid the occasional scratched vocal or random sung melodies. We hope you enjoy.

0:00:00 - Massive Attack - Exchange

0:03:29 - Air - Playground Love (Vibraphone Version)

0:07:13 - Zero 7 - Polaris

Damian Dalla Torre

Flow State — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 07:02:19 GMT

Today we’re listening to Damian Dalla Torre, an Italian multi-instrumentalist and composer from South Tyrol. His dad was a DJ who played Italo pop around the house, Torre’s first influence, but his musical direction was set when he got into jazz.1 He studied jazz at the Vienna Conservatory and later moved to Leipzig, where he’s still based.2 Since 2022 he’s released three LPs of ambient jazz arrangements, reminiscent of Nala Sinephro or Sven Wunder. His latest, People Pleaser, came out in June and skews more ambient than jazz. First, though, we’re playing I Can Feel My Dreams, his LP from 2024, which came out of a residency in Santiago, Chile. Andean quena flutes and field recordings accompany the guitar, harp, strings, piano, and pedal steel.

I Can Feel My Dreams - Damian Dalla Torre (29m, basically no vocals)
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People Pleaser - Damian Dalla Torre (32m, vocals on the last two tracks)
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We wish you a great start to your week.

TalkHouse Music

Occhimag

Smezkh

Flow State — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 07:02:12 GMT

It’s Friday so we’re listening to something more upbeat. Today we’re listening to Smezkh, a Ukrainian electronic musician from Kremenchuk. “My relationship with music started when a friend from school gave me a cassette with The Prodigy album on it,” he told A Closer Listen; “it was back in the 90s and it split my life into before and after.”1 He started listening to electronic music on local radio and eventually got a computer and started making his own music. He’s been actively involved in Ukraine’s underground scene, in his hometown and Kyiv. We’re first playing his 2024 EP, Joyful & A Little Sad, which could be called ambient techno, with an emphasis on track texture, but also leans into synth arpeggios on a couple tracks. The EP includes three remixes. We’re also playing Polissia from 2022, which uses more percussion and reminds one of the industrial origins of techno. The title means “woodland” in Ukrainian.

Joyful & A Little Sad EP - Smezkh (41m, no vocals)
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Polissia - Smezkh (34m, no vocals)
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Have a nice weekend.

A part of the excellent Ukrainian Field Notes series

John Williams

Flow State — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 07:02:40 GMT

Today we’re listening to John Williams, an American composer from Queens, New York, where he was born in 1931. His father, Johnny Williams, played drums for CBS Radio and Raymond Scott’s quintet. The family moved to Los Angeles in ‘48, after which John finished high school, studied composition at UCLA, served in the air force, and then studied piano at Juilliard.1 Early in his Hollywood career, he wrote music for film and TV and worked as a studio pianist; he performed on the scores for West Side Story and To Kill a Mockingbird. His 50+ year partnership with Steven Spielberg began in the 1970s, over which Williams produced an unbelievable number of iconic scores. His latest in that partnership, Disclosure Day, is subtler than his previous scores, with a central motif of intrigue and mystery, but with classic evocations of suspense, relief, foreboding, and triumph. We’re pairing it with E.T. for obvious reasons. Both scores illustrate perhaps Williams’ defining ability, which is his ability to express and amplify the feeling of wonder.

Disclosure Day - John Williams (64m, no vocals)
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E.T.: The Extraterrestrial - John Williams (75m, no vocals)
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Have a really good Thursday.

The artist’s website

Across the Horizon Ep. 66: Croz Boyce

Flow State — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 07:02:10 GMT

On today’s episode of Across the Horizon, host Bob Holmes of SUSS sits down with Animal Collective members Geologist (Brian Weitz) and Avey Tare (David Portner) to discuss their new instrumental electronic/acoustic duo Croz Boyce. Brian and David also bring along a playlist of music that inspired them from their Baltimore high school years, including Wendy Carlos, Apples in Stereo, Climax Golden Twins, Pink Floyd, The Cure, and much more. Their free-flowing conversation ranges from their love of horror films to music concrete and the band Pavement.

For Flow State we’re listening to the new Croz Boyce self-titled debut LP, which came out in May. It’s guitar-led, synth-textured, psychedelic, a little weird, and most importantly, instrumental. Really cool record we weren’t aware of until Bob’s conversation. We’re also playing a Weitz solo record as Geologist, Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights, which is also from this year (January to be specific). That one is more post-rock, with touches of Indian classical and free jazz.

Croz Boyce - Croz Boyce (40m, no vocals)
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Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights - Geologist (49m, no vocals)
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Have a great Wednesday.

Flow State Ep. 333: Noémi Büchi Guest Mix

Flow State — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 07:02:59 GMT

Today we have a guest mix from Noémi Büchi, a Swiss-French composer and pianist from Zürich whom we recently featured. She recorded a mix of instrumental favorites from around the world – over a dozen countries across 23 tracks. Artists include Oneohtrix Point Never, Thomas Bangalter (new record), Nico Jaar, Laurel Halo, Father Dionysios Tabakis (π. Διονύσιος Ταμπάκης), Klara Lewis, Grand River, Daniel Lanois, and more. This mix is available to everyone. We hope you enjoy.

And: check out Flow State Radio, a new way to listen through all of our mixes. Paying subscribers can link their account for unlimited listening.

0:00:00 - Alberto Iglesias - Tema de Vera

0:02:17 - Oneohtrix Point Never - Andro

0:05:30 - Thomas Bangalter - Mirage Part VI

0:11:01 - Tom Weatley - Arthroscopy

0:12:40 - Sote - Lips Seeking the Forbidden

0:18:08 - Ben Frost - Permcat

0:20:50 - Nicolas Jaar - Telellás

0:30:08 - Aho Ssan - 100 Suns Pt. II

0:36:53 - Laurel Halo - Abandon

0:40:30 - π. Διονύσιος Ταμπάκης - Ἠλεκτρικαὶ Ὑμνωδίαι

0:43:31 - Tomat - Gita

0:45:53 - Violeta García & Hora Lunga - i think i just died a lil bit

0:49:46 - Klara Lewis - Ukulele 1

0:51:02 - Klara Lewis - 4U

0:57:21 - Sébastien Forrester - Ármo, recess

1:02:48 - Martina Berther - Cymbal

1:04:35 - Grand River & Abul Mogard - Ricordando il giorno

1:06:43 - Vanessa Amara - Cembalo & Carillon

1:11:41 - Daniel Lanois - Rocco

1:13:09 - Heikki Lindgren & Mika Rintala - Kirkkoherra penkoi arkistoja

1:16:33 - Fennesz & OZmotic - Motionless Image of Eternity

1:23:23 - mmph - Elegy

1:26:51 - Perfume Genius - Just a Room

Marconi Union (Interview)

Flow State — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 07:03:03 GMT

Today we’re listening to Marconi Union, an English electronic group from Manchester. Richard Talbot and Jamie Crossley met in a record shop and formed the group in 2003, later adding Duncan Meadows as a third member; Talbot later stepped away. Their music started out as electroacoustic, with Talbot composing synth pieces and Crossley layering guitars over them. Their sound has shapeshifted over the decades, with their omnivorous listening habits influencing their sound in various directions, including post-rock, ambient techno, dub, and more. Within their discography is a series called Ambient Transmissions, whose three volumes came out in 2011, 2012, and last month. Multiforms is the third volume, taking an Enoian approach to contemporary ambient, with thought-provoking synths and impromptu activity thereupon. We’re also playing the series’ second volume, Weightless, whose first part has been studied by researchers for its clinically observed relaxation properties. You can try this study at home. A conversation with Crossley and Meadows follows the streaming links.

Multiforms: Ambient Transmissions, Vol. 3 - Marconi Union (42m, no vocals)
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Weightless (Ambient Transmission Vol. 2) - Marconi Union (43m, no vocals)
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What’s your earliest memory of music?

Jamie Crossley: Probably at primary school 5/6 years old. One of our teachers played the acoustic guitar and he would sing us folk songs that we all sang along with, of course I didn’t know at the time but we were actually singing songs of Bob Dylan, Donovan, and Pete Seeger.

Duncan Meadows: My Dad had a Bix Beiderbecke cassette in the car when I was young, though I can’t remember how old I was. There was music before then but nothing I have specific recollections of, though it would have been classical music as that was what was generally played at home. My first memory of live music was hearing Bach being played on a church organ when I was five.

What were your first recordings like? What did you use to make them?

JC: Our first album was recorded on an Akai DR16 which I acquired from a previous band I’d been in. Richard would create various textures and burn them to CD, then I would start to build the rhythms and music around those textures, using electric, acoustic, and bass guitars. Programming the drums using Cubase triggering an Akai S3200 sampler and a few keyboard plugins. Most of it was just played live with a little editing, I’ve always liked the combination of electronic sounds with “real” instruments and still apply that to our music now.

What were the albums/artists early on that most pointed you in the direction of your sound?

JC: Me and my friend who was older than me use to write music together and he would play me lots of albums introducing me to likes of Miles Davis, Penguin Cafe, Harold Budd, Bowie’s Low and “Heroes,” Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. I guess that’s when I started thinking and hearing music in a different way.

DM: Similar to Jamie really. In A Silent Way showed me the less is more approach. Aspects of Steve Reich and Philip Glass also had an influence.

You’ve always been interested in ambient music, and you’ve taken detours into post-rock, ambient techno, dub, and more… How do you feel your musical output has evolved over the 20 plus years you’ve been making music as MU? What experiences, if any, stick out to you as catalysing certain moments of change?

JC: I think our development has been a natural process really. When you have an eclectic taste in what you listen to, that must influence you along the way, subconsciously or consciously. I think all of the genres you mention have appeared in all our albums one way or the other. The melody, chord structures, etc. are just the natural aspect to how we play and I think that’s what bonds all our albums and gives us our sound and identity.

DM: I’d just add that for me personally playing piano to a track called “Blue Lights” that we wrote with Giorgio Li Calzi was an significant point in time. The piano was semi-improvised and it was the first time I contributed creatively; it was the moment where things clicked for me.

What’s your current studio setup? What instruments/gear/software do you use to make music now?

JC: We are currently using Ableton to trigger midi to various bits of kit, Moog, Prophet, Electron, etc., and that all comes back through an Audient mixing console. I’m not precious about equipment and never have been. I don’t get attached to gear like some do, it’s just a means to an end for me. The computer is becoming less important to our writing and is now being used more like a tape machine. In some ways I’m getting back to how I first started to make music, mixing through a console and looking less at the screen.

DM: Over the last few years I’ve sold most of the hardware gear I had at home so now everything I make is done at the studio through the Audient. I don’t use software at home either anymore other than to try things out. I have an upright piano at home which I play and sometimes write on (and occasionally record). All I have is the gear I use live, a Nord and Novation Peak. I like the simplicity of that set up.

How does it feel to have made the most anxiety-reducing track of all time as proven by science?

JC: It’s not something I think about really and it’s certainly not a claim that we would ever have made.

DM: It’s a track which doesn’t feel as though it belongs to us really. We didn’t write it thinking it was a particularly important piece of music, but I understand that for some people it has a significance.

Name an underrated artist from the past 50 years.

JC: Apart from ourselves (ah ah), it would have to be one of my favourite bands from Manchester, MAGAZINE.

What are you working on next?

JC: Nothing specific, just more music.

DJ Plead

Flow State — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 07:02:31 GMT

It’s Friday so we’re listening to something more upbeat. Today we’re listening to DJ Plead, a Lebanese-Swiss electronic musician from Sydney.1 Thanks to for surfacing his music, in particular his latest album, Please, which came out last week. The record places traditional Lebanese folk music over an idiosyncratic cocktail of trip-hop, dancehall, post-dubstep, and more. The drum samples alone are a reason to tune in. Mutek wrote, “If ever on a dance floor setting you find yourself thinking, ‘This sounds just like traditional Lebanese wedding music but with a tough, stripped-back, clubby twist of sorts,’ you may just be listening to the work of DJ Plead.” We’re also playing Bborn Again, Plead’s “PPP” collaboration with Piezo and DJ Python, which is dubbier and four-on-the-floor.

Please - DJ Plead (33m, basically no vocals)
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Bborn Again - PPP (29m, momentary vocals on track 1)
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Have a glorious weekend.

DJmag