If you’d like to cover anything listed below, please shoot an email to michael@thetonearm.com
Please don’t share any of the (listen) links.
The release dates give an idea of when we would like to publish a story on a release, but they’re a guide, not a rule. We can still cover a release or artist if the date has passed.
Aho Ssan & Resina – Ego Death (Subtext – July 11)
Experimental / Cinematic Dark Ambient
Across the album’s eight chapters, Ego Death brims with cinematic intensity, pushing the tonality of the cello to its limits. Crackling noise, field recordings, and expansive synthesis shape the compositions, generating an ever-shifting sonic landscape where dissolution gives way to reassembly, and presence emerges through distortion.
(listen)
Hannah Marcus – Ten Bones from a Virgin Graveyard (July 11)
Post-Rock / Post-Folk
Released at last into the wild after well over a decade in hibernation, this early 2000s gothic quilt of dark and tender lit-folk, filmic instrumentals and post-rock musical theatre numbers by unrepentant singer-songwriter Hannah Marcus features a host of luminaries and n’er-do wells – including several acknowledged emperors of anarchist caravan Godspeed You! Black Emperor, genius horn player-composer Matana Roberts, violinist-sound sculptor Jessica Moss, tuba playing artist-activist Nadia Moss and drummer Kevin Shea. A collection that revels in human fallibility.
(listen)
Isaac Sherman – A Pasture, Its Limits (July 11)
Electronic / Indie / Kosmische
Drawing on a hybrid palette of synthesizers, woodwind-like samples, electric guitar, watery field recordings, and processed vocals, Sherman constructs swirling collages of sound—at once tactile and ephemeral—where pop fragments are suspended like snapshots between granular textures and recursive loops. Themes of weather, longing, and personal transformation saturate fragmented falsettos and repetitive grooves, evoking the diaristic intimacy of Arthur Russell and short poetic verses of Laurie Anderson. Elsewhere, instrumental moments evolve with a slow meditative repetition echoing the reflective minimalism of Terry Riley, Laurie Spiegel, Maman Sani and Hans-Joachim Roedelius.
(listen)
Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer – Different Rooms (International Anthem, June 20)
Electronic Meets Acoustic
Los Angeles based duo of modular synthesist Jeremiah Chiu and violist Marta Sofia Honer — Different Rooms collects songs and musical motifs composed, edited, and collaged by Chiu and Honer in the weeks between late 2024 and early 2025. Except for pieces composed from improvisations recorded with Jeff Parker and Josh Johnson in 2023, most of the ideas were initially developed during live performances on the duo’s fall 2024 EU tour, then fully realized when they returned to their home studios to record, arrange, and shape the music into album form in the beginning of 2025.
(listen)
jess joy – Won’t Be Kicked Out the Garden (Joyful Noise, May 30)
Carnivalesque Odd-Pop
New Orleans-based multi-disciplinary artist jess joy — some music artists have out-of-the-box sounds, while others make music that sounds completely out of this world. jess joy is an artist who alchemizes life’s experiences — love, joy, death, and pain — and transforms them into experimental, audible, and visual art expressions. Her music is more than theatrical voice changes, fierce vibratos, wisecracks, and energizing tunes. The lyrics are deep, heartfelt, and often heavy. Produced and mixed by Greg Saunier of Deerhoof.
(listen – “dreams” + “owed the spring“)
Lenny Pickett and John Hadfield – Heard By Others II (Adhyâropa Records – June 6)
NYC Jazz / Experimental
Pickett and Hadfield are two artists equally comfortable and adventurous working within either acoustic or electronic mediums, or both at the same time as in this project. The musical freedom and personal connection they found in each other is evident right from the start. Pickett’s writing on ‘Dance Music for 4 Saxophones #5 and #8’ is of a piece with the contrapuntal, deeply grooving arrangements he did for Borneo Horns and other artists, but with the added element of Hadfield’s dancing, skittering drum work. Counterbalancing the Dance Music movements are Hadfield’s compositions, ‘Joshua Tree’ and ‘Jungle Room.’ The textures here are more atmospheric and synth-based, a chance for Hadfield to showcase his soundscaping skills on the Teenage Engineering OP1 and K.O. II synth/samplers.
(listen)
Lucrecia Dalt – A Danger to Ourselves (RVNG Intl. – Sep 5)
Avant-Pop
Lucrecia Dalt’s A Danger to Ourselves is a fearless reflection on the unfiltered complexities of human connection. Stripping away fictional narratives present on the artist’s last several albums, A Danger to Ourselves arrives from a place of emotional sincerity. Sonically unravelling like a deeply personal conversation, Dalt’s voice is foregrounded and formidable, supported by a lush array of acoustic orchestration and processing, collaged percussive patterns, and an esteemed cast of collaborators.A Danger to Ourselves features David Sylvian joining as co-producer and guitarist on select tracks. Vocal contributions from Juana Molina, Camille Mandoki, and Eliana Joy appear throughout, while the instrumental landscape is shaped by Cyrus Campbell on upright and electric bass, and Chris Jonas on saxophone.
(listen – “divina” + “cosa rara (ft. David Sylvian)“)
Pan American & Kramer – Interior of an Edifice Under the Sea (Shimmy Disc – June 27)
Organic Ambient
Interior of an Edifice Under The Sea takes Nelson & Kramer deep under the earth’s seas, pulling the listener down beside them as they explore the uncharted currents that fuel the human imagination–fluid, always moving, and always changing. It is an excursion into the lowest depths of ambient music, and a new beginning from the very place where life itself began. The floor of the ocean has a new sound, and it is breathtakingly beautiful.
Stars of the Lid – Music for Nitrous Oxide (reissue) (Artificial Pinearch – July 25)
Post-Rock / Ambient
Releasing two of the most important and influential ambient/drone albums of the 21st century, Stars of the Lid have inspired generations of musicians, authors, artists, and filmmakers, developing a cult following and near-mythic status. Over the course of their career, they have excelled at designing subtle, minimalist epics that sound as if they’re being played on a single multifaceted organic instrument. This 30th anniversary edition follows the death of Brian McBride who passed away in 2023. Adam Wiltzie is available for interview.
(listen)
TL;DR and Peter Knight – Too Long; Didn’t Read (Earshift Music – July 4)
Fourth World / Atmospheric Jazz
TL;DR is a new quartet led by trumpeter and composer Peter Knight, featuring Helen Svoboda (bass, voice), Theo Carbo (guitar), and Quinn Knight (drums). Blurring the boundaries between jazz, ambient, and electronic music, the group’s sound draws from influences like Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, The Necks, and vintage analog electronics. Knight writes: “We all wanted to form a band that makes music for its own sake… music that is not trying to ’say’ anything, not telling you how to feel, but rather creating a space into which your own thoughts can drift”. Crossing the boundary between jazz and electronica is something very natural for next generation musicians and this is integral to TL;DR’s approach.
(listen)