2022 marked a year of returning, reopening, and regathering. After two years of standstill, post-pandemic club culture has undergone major shifts and developments, sometimes leaving us with a bittersweet taste. At the same time, more intelligent music has appeared, following some notable releases this year.
Officially returning to club spaces in 2022 has, for a great majority of people, translated into a 360-degree evasion from the past years’ confrontations with a tough reality. Distraction and absent awareness became for some the main associations with clubbing and as a natural extension of this mood, music selection has also been subject to a significant transformation. Hollow vocals, increasingly fast tempos for the mere sake of an increased rush, together with a general trend towards repetition became ubiquitous.
However, hand in hand with this occurrence is a parallel trend of a more intellectual sonic resurgence. Abstract melodies meet labyrinthine rhythmics. Tribal patterns merge with complex architectures and texturized soundscapes for music built all for the mind. Music that rather than guiding the hips into frenetic motion, has the potential of guiding the mind into a universe of mystical introspections and transcendental experiences. You simply close your eyes and let yourself go, let yourself be absorbed by the cathartic potential of sound.
Despite regularly less remarkable club experiences, the realm of sound design has seen some great releases. These are the best album releases of 2022, compiled by the collective, in order of release date.
![cypha - Cymatics/ Ghost Money [e_quarium]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/626247fd776b77414c8dcfc0/63a1962b0c6fd731fdb17653_cypha-landscape.webp)
1. Cypha - Cymatics/Ghost Money
A journey from ambient magnetism to DnB buzzing tones. e-quarium’s third release combines a spectrum of evocative imagery and droning undulations, with a touch of bounce provided by broken beats and stronger percussive elements. One for the late nights. Listen here.
2. Lucid Dreams - Lucid Dreams
Academic and philosopher Celia Green guides the listener’s mind into a state of subconscious awareness on the Astral Industries reissue of Lucid Dreams. Label co-founders Chris Allen and David Thompson, together with Tom Smyth and Will Joss construct the musical scenery with seamless inventiveness. Stitched into deliciously suggestive electronics, the narration touches upon key topics of Green’s studies such as extrasensory perception, hallucinatory states and out-of-body experiences. The mesmerizing atmospherics aid in evoking impressions of these altered states of consciousness, ultimately capturing the fascinating nature of dreams and dreaming. Listen here.
3. Huerco S. - Plonk
A delicate, nostalgic thread of emotion travels through each song of the album. With ‘Plonk’ Brian Leeds enters the skin of Huerco S. after a long six years of quiescence. Here we discover bizarre, atmospheric shimmers of beatless introspections. Soft pads and piano chords convey a feeling of bliss and mental abstraction. Stylistic intersections of symphonic melodies and drill-oriented pulsations will take your hand and walk you towards a land dedicated to dreamers. Listen here.
4. Sơn FM - Points of Light (ST๐๐๗)
The nine-piece ensemble put together by Bangkok-based label Siamese Twins is charged with serene and otherworldly energy. Glistening harps and whimsical textures meet with pensive harmonies, giving birth to a compositional ‘ode to the patterns of nature, which are repetitive but never quite identical’. Beautifully suspended subbase and subaquatic pads create an eclectic and intimate environment. Points of Light features Nic Ford’s and Attiss Ngo’s attempt to articulate how sounds are perceived in different spatial, temporal and psychological settings. A trip into the meanders of imagination. Listen here.
5. shjva - zemlia
Hypnagogic ambient master shjva proposes an album of pacifying sounds and abstract creations. Here, all sharp edges are smoothed by an abundance of arched pads and swirly synth lines. Panning layers build a mesmerising journey into the artists’ creativity, travelling from the slow-paced arabesque intro ‘imagine’ and the dubbed-out, lusciously liquid ‘sviata voda’ to a trippy journey through the acidic lines of ‘timelapse’, before taking a turn right and drifting over the subtly trancey scapes of ‘vtiha’. Hallucinatory dubs find comfort in the cosmic breeze of twisted polyrhythms. One not to miss. Listen here.
6. ZOHAR - OBJECT
Distorted and unclassifiable stand out as two essential descriptive elements for this album. The Amsterdam-based DJ and producer offers a 7 track mini LP ranging from mechanical and aggressive tones to distorted vocals and frequencies. Harsh and rough, violent and complex. Listen here.
7. Deepchord - Functional Designs
Romantic deep techno, dub, ambient, and electro-acoustics. Detroit’s Rod Modell is back to Soma with 11 melancholic sonic sculptures. Subterranean bass lines and fine reverberations yield the perfect contemplative accompaniment to late-night or early-morning meditations. Adding field recordings to a richly emotional synth work, Modell manages to shape sound through chimeric experiences of the real and unreal Listen here.
8. Konduku - Mantis0910
Per usual, this is not any music. This is the intricate, unique kind that you will want to experience through mind, body, and soul. Konduku returns to the Delsin Mantis series with an exotic kiss of tribal rhythms and a potent, absorbing spell of hypnotism. Maximally employing the versatility of tablas and congas, throughout the whole album intricate rolls and bass remind of a jungle’s floor being touched by monsoon rains… An ode to groovy hypnotism and polymetric construction takes the form of the Mantis0910 opener Trail and extends throughout the rest of the album. Percussion-heavy yet delightfully minimalist. Pleasure for the mind, body, and soul Listen here.
7. Deepchord - Functional Designs
Romantic deep techno, dub, ambient, and electro-acoustics. Detroit’s Rod Modell is back to Soma with 11 melancholic sonic sculptures. Subterranean bass lines and fine reverberations yield the perfect contemplative accompaniment to late-night or early-morning meditations. Adding field recordings to a richly emotional synth work, Modell manages to shape sound through chimeric experiences of the real and unreal Listen here.
8. Konduku - Mantis0910
Per usual, this is not any music. This is the intricate, unique kind that you will want to experience through mind, body, and soul. Konduku returns to the Delsin Mantis series with an exotic kiss of tribal rhythms and a potent, absorbing spell of hypnotism. Maximally employing the versatility of tablas and congas, throughout the whole album intricate rolls and bass remind of a jungle’s floor being touched by monsoon rains… An ode to groovy hypnotism and polymetric construction takes the form of the Mantis0910 opener Trail and extends throughout the rest of the album. Percussion-heavy yet delightfully minimalist. Pleasure for the mind, body, and soul Listen here.
9. Loek Frey - Decipher
Delft-based multidisciplinary platform and label Omen Wapta delivers its third sonic exploration through Loek Frey’s 11-track LP. A bipolar fusion of organic and metallic textures. Compositions transcend the limits of space and time. Layers of robotic signals caress the round, natural patterns of the beat resulting in modern and progressive, yet spiritually ancient pieces. Listen here.
10. RAMZi - hyphea
Versatile but coherent, Canadian artist Phoebé Guillemot aka RAMZi dives into a whimsical soundscape of dubby ambient and breaky downtempo rhythmics. hyphea exposes Phoebé’s fascination for musical experimentation, as the album is entirely constructed around arrangements originally meant for a documentary about mushrooms. Composed between 2021 and 2022, it presents an attempt to fight quarantine's monotony and reconnect with an all-spiritual desire for self-expression. Psychedelic vocals are rounded up by ethereal synth chords and rainforest atmospherics, conveying a smooth and jazzy feel. Listen here.
