zakè & City of Dawn - Ash (2023)

American ambient masters zakè (a.k.a. Zach Frizzell) and City of Dawn (a.k.a. Damien Duque) return with a mesmerizing follow up to last year's "Agape". The music the two create together reflects the expansive landscapes of their native Texas and Indiana. Slowly unfolding melodies that seem to rise like the sun from a Texas horizon, and drones that resonate like leaves in an endless Indiana woodland. It's a sound that's both beautiful and slightly haunting – a sound that encompasses the listener and demands attention. This is music to get lost in.

Zach and Damien can both be considered veterans of ambient drone by now, and the five composition on Ash present a rarefied ”complex simplicity”. With few means they manage to create sonic and compositional depth, on par with classics of the genre from the likes of William Basinski, Brian Eno and Stars of the Lid.