Dreamhouse by the Ocean: Best New Ambient Music - June 2026
A collection of some of my favourite new ambient music!
Featuring Julian O., Fereday, legwurk, Ａｇｅｎｚｉａ ｒｅｔｅ ｐｅｎｏｍｂｒａ, Polterngeist, Diogene, Ancient Astronaut, Visible Cloaks, Félicia Atkinson, GiGi FM & Caldon Glover.
Dreamhouse by the Ocean: An Ambient Music Collection
Caldon Glover - Wretched One
This is taken from the album ‘The Barren Gospel’ (out via label Cryo Chamber) and is inspired by the “found footage and analog horror” genre. My love of this genre was born as a teenager in Ireland; we used to get DVDs from an online DVD-by-post service (I believe it might have been called Lovefilm, I'm not too sure), where I finally got to watch ‘The Blair Witch Project’, as that movie was truly an international event.
Exploring this concept via audio format is a lot of fun. ‘Wretched One’ is the third track from the album, and it is terrifying. It makes you picture desolate, hostile landscapes, abandoned ruined structures hidden deep within the mist, noises of unknown origin skittering in the dark. It creates the foreboding sense of a brutal, inhumane world left behind after the collapse of society- the soundscape representing a vast apocalyptic world filled with the unfamiliar and hostile, with something dark rising from the chaos.
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Julian O. - the day they found whales in the water supply in Hagerstown, Maryland
This is taken from the Austrian artist’s album ‘the rest’. I was intrigued by the title of this song, as it sounded like the plot of an X-Files episode (some of the best episodes taking place in the sewer or other similar subterranean structures).
The artist also said something interesting in the album description section on Bandcamp, “recently, I've come to realize I spend a large chunk of my music creation process chasing what my music "should" sound like based on what is seen as "good". As someone who listens to vast amounts of music as part of my job, I am finding that what makes my ears perk up are unusual, strange, and imperfect soundscapes, as they sound alive, they sound like art, they retain the elusive quality of feeling the creativity and life of the artist behind the art. The aforementioned is something that I personally find gets lost in pedantic mixing and production that ends up sapping the life and soul out of a song.
Anyway, ‘the day they found whales in the water supply in Hagerstown, Maryland’ sounds like the vast unknown sounds you hear in the distance in a city, sprinkled with a bit of magical eeriness. It does indeed sound like distant whale-like sounds within creaking, vast industrial structures, such as pipes. Something about this makes it sound like it takes place at night, making it all the more bewitching.
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Fereday - Listen (ft Loraine James)
This is taken from the artist’s new album ‘Ever so slightly, just enough’, which you can purchase via Bandcamp here.
This feels like being underwater in paradise or being submerged in a shimmering rock pool - the instruments moving in a manner akin to bubbles moving in front of your face.
There is something kind of sleepy and psychedelic about the plush sonic textures; the aquatic feeling enhanced by the distant vocals swimming down from the surface. This is something to listen to under the deep blue skies of summer, lulling you into a state of calm and wonder. ‘Interlude’ is another one of my favourites from the album, as it reminds me of the anticipatory euphoria I felt from listening to underground UK electronic music as a teen (kind of a Young Fathers vibe to this, and the style of sound explored by Bimini’s ‘Rodeo’ and ‘Tommy’s Dream’ era).
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legwurk - bapseebooboo
This is taken from the collection of songs called ‘improv beats in the park’ which is a series of songs where the artist sat in the park and invited strangers to sit down, while she improvised beats for them on the spot.
‘bapseebooboo’ is so sweet, with a child saying the aforementioned words into a telephone, while glowing electronic textures build around the vocals. There is something about the synths in this that reminds me of learning-focused PC games from childhood.
I highly recommend watching the video, where the most heartwarming part is when the father (previously standing in the background) checking the time, has a listen, and lets out a burst of joyous laughter at what he is hearing, all of this being captured in the recording. This whole series will restore you, and also serve as a reminder that music is a means of connecting with others.
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Polterngeist - Dead Wave
This is taken from the album of the same name, which I gravitated towards immediately, as anything that reminds me of the animated horror TV show ‘The Kirlian Frequency’ (which is about a radio show that broadcasts only at night) interests me.
The droning, ominous sounds that sweep over your ears will make you feel like you are standing beneath a vast radio tower, one that no one has ever fully known the purpose of. The alien-like bloops and disembodied voices in the distance are unsettling; there is something at the core of this that will make you want to get to the bottom of the opaque mystery at its centre. ‘Dead Wave’ is very intriguing. I would definitely watch a show based around whatever is going on here.
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Visible Cloaks - Steel
This is taken from the Portland duo's new album ‘Paradessence’.
There is something about this track that makes me think of light streaming in through a stained glass window. There is also something about ‘Steel’ that embodies partaking in rituals that bring you a sense of deep calm and peace, something that, while listening, will get you to take a full, deep breath and be present.
The soundscape gets more enchanting and crystalline as time goes on, transforming around the main instrument like a glittering spell. This will make you seek out the magic and wonder in the everyday world around you.
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GiGi FM - Neptune
I have been checking on the status of this EP monthly on Bandcamp, as I was captivated by the dreamy azure artwork the moment I laid eyes on it.
‘Neptune’ sounds like jungle/D&B/ambient laced music that a mermaid made under the ocean on her shell-shaped synths. The pads have the motion of waves, there is a burst of noise every so often that makes you feel like you are underwater, seaweed flowing by you, flowing through the turquoise world of the sea. It all flows together as one - the results being a celestial, heavenly soundscape.
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Ａｇｅｎｚｉａ ｒｅｔｅ ｐｅｎｏｍｂｒａ - LaVideoteque - ...E il mio sogno sarà...
There is something about the soundscape in this that tugs at your heartstrings; something at the core of it that communicates a time and a sense of memory that is gone forever, and isn’t coming back. There was also a touch of the sort of music found in the most emotive and crescendo-like scenes in Twin Peaks. This invoked such a specific response in me that I was curious about what the theme of the album was; the artist details on Bandcamp that “During the 1980s and 1990s, Milano 2 came to represent the construction of a perfectly controlled world, separated from the reality surrounding it. An artificial landscape of immaculate lawns, ornamental lakes, and permanent security, where every element was designed to eliminate conflict, unpredictability, and even the diversity of urban life. What appeared in the 1980s as the reassuring face of progress now evokes a different feeling: that of a showcase city, suspended in an almost unreal atmosphere—elegant and orderly, yet strangely isolated, like the permanent set of a promise that was never fully realized. The dream of the future. The promise of a future that never arrived..”
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Diogene, Ancient Astronaut - Distant Realms
This is taken from the upcoming space ambient EP ‘Another World is Lost’ (out June 19th) from the French producers.
This sounds as if it shimmers down from the cosmos, from a crystal-like cloud of light suspended in space. This made me think of the scene in a science fiction movie I watched recently, where the main character sees a glittering, complex gold structure in space, something that would usually induce a sense of dread and fear as it indicates an unfamiliar lifeform, but, instead, it induces a sense of wonder at witnessing the radiance of an unknown intelligence.
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Félicia Atkinson -Les Yeux II
This is an all-consuming wall of concrete horror that threatens to crush you; it feels oppressive, like humid air or smoke that catches in your throat and burns when you try to breathe.
This is taken from the upcoming album ‘SANS VISAGE’, which was created when the artist “was approached by the Belgian cultural center VIERNULVIER to create a new score for Les yeux sans visage (a horror film by Georges Franju) for its celebrated Videodroom series” [via Bandcamp]. ‘Les Yeux II’ sounds like dread, like unidentifiable noises coming from opaque corners. I will be adding this 1960s horror movie to my list.
Connect with Félicia Atkinson
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Spotify Playlist
About Eimear O Sullivan
Eimear Ann O Sullivan is a multi-genre music producer, audio engineer and vocalist. After receiving a Masters in Music Technology from the CIT Cork School of Music, she went on to operate as a producer under the name Blakkheart. Her releases have received critical acclaim from Ireland's biggest music publications, such as District Magazine and Nialler9, alongside receiving heavy commercial radio airplay. She currently works in Cork recording studio Flashpoint CC. Previous clients of hers include the likes of Comedy Central’s Dragony Aunt star Candy Warhol, rapper Darce and Outsider YP. (Photo credit @Fabian Boros)
Contact Eimear O Sullivan at eimear.o.sullivan@musicngear.com
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