Letter 4 - Ambient Space Jazz & The Hills of Donegal
From celestial soundscapes to Malin Head.

Hi,
Life has been a little loud lately, so I’ve been seeking out some quietness in the music I’ve been listening to.
This has taken me in two directions - firstly diving deep into Japanese ambient albums of the 1980s (mainly Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Music for Nine Post Cards (1982) and Green (1986)), and secondly revisiting two of my favourite albums of 2021 (Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra’s Promises (2021), and Nala Sinephro’s Space 1.8 (2021)).
The latter has led me down a rabbit hole of electronic ambient records, jazz records, and a handful of records which combine the two, and I thought I would share some of these with you, just in case you also need to turn the volume down a little.
Staying in that same headspace, at the bottom of this Letter I have recommended some quiet and contemplative films that I love.
Please like & subscribe, share with anyone who would enjoy, and let me know what you think of any of the recommendations (either directly or in the comments below).
Much love, Odhran x
Music - Recent Releases
You can listen to a playlist of the songs I’ve recommended in this Letter on Apple Music and Spotify.
One preliminary note, I write a fair bit about jazz below, and it’s important you know that I’m desperately out of my depth when it comes to (a) technical knowledge of jazz compositions; and (b) historical knowledge of jazz as a genre, so I have tried to keep my comments as high level and tied to my experience as a layman listener.
Nala Sinephro - Endlessness
Genre(s): Ambient, jazz & spiritual jazz.
For fans of: Floating Points, Alice Coltrane & Shabaka.
Songs to try: Continuum 1, Continuum 2 & Continuum 3.
Composer, producer, harpist and synth-player Nala Sinephro’s debut album Space 1.8 (2021) was a massive critical success, and alongside Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders & the LSO’s Promises (2021), heralded a new age for the crossover between jazz and ambient electronic music.
Sinephro composed and recorded Space 1.8 in 2018 and 2019 during her recovery from a tumour, a process she described as creating “a sonic world” to help her heal. Across Space 1.8, you mostly drift serenely through the stars, before occasionally being tossed through a black hole.
Endlessness is a 45 minute composition split into 10 movements, structured around a continuous arpeggio that flows in and out of the record in waves. Recorded by a woman 6 years older and in a different emotional place than Space 1.8, this record was inspired by “life cycles and birth”, an ever present theme in each movement.
There’s no black hole moments here - Endlessness is stripped back and calming, lulling you into a dream state within Sinephro’s sonic representation of the circle of life. The consistent presence or guaranteed return of the arpeggio is reassuring and comforting - an ambient version of adult peekaboo.
Despite its minimalist approach, Endlessness is so rich its hard to know what to praise, but the marrying of Nubya Garcia’s dreamlike saxophone with Lyle Barton’s pulsing electro-synths on Continuum 6, followed by the arpeggio’s gradual slowing to a trot on Continuum 7, is probably my favourite part of the album.
Sinephro’s band is a who’s who in the London jazz scene; Nubya’s album Odyssey is in the 2024 album of the year conversation, James Mollison of Ezra Collective tags in for her on the sax, drummers Morgan Simpson (Black Midi) and Natcyet Wakili (Sons of Kemet) rotate, and Kokoroko bandleader Sheila Maurice-Grey lends her trumpet.
I caught Nala Sinephro and her band supporting Sampha at the Ally Pally earlier this year performing Space 1.8 and it was mesmerising. Endlessness is a fantastic listening experience, and Sinephro’s on the festival circuit this Summer, so keep an eye out.
Spotify - Apple Music - Bandcamp
Deathbed Convert - Inverse Field Vol.1 - Inishowen
Genre(s): Ambient & post-dub.
For fans of: Brian Eno, Burial & the gorgeous and proud nation of Ireland.
Songs to try: Kinnagoe Bay, Carrickabraghy Castle & Grianan of Aileach.
Not three weeks ago I was boring some British and Australian pals about the unique edge-of-the-worldness of Inishowen, County Donegal, whilst dragging them around a particularly wet and windy Malin Head.
So it was serendipity when I discovered (courtesy of the Nialler9 podcast) that Deathbed Convert (an alias of underground electronic producer Connor Dougan) had released an ambient album featuring field recordings from the Inishowen peninsula just 2 weeks later.
Per the album’s release notes, inspired by the outdoor recording techniques “on John Martyn’s ‘One World’ and a clip of Pharaoh Sanders playing in an abandoned tunnel” Dougan wanted to escape “endless late night hours twiddling knobs and gawping at screens” by recording his electronic productions and field recordings simultaneously in nature. He chose Inishowen as it is a “magical, tranquil area, ringed by a wild stretch of coastline strewn with secluded beaches, cliffs, forts and ruins. The whole place has a bit of an ‘edge of the map’ vibe to it.”
As Dougan says himself in a captured conversation with a local on penultimate track Malin Head, “the idea is to record music in the spots that the music was made for”. If you’re familiar with the locations after which the songs are named and it would be hard not to conclude he achieved that goal when listening to the circular synths, not dissimilar to a steel drum, and accompanying gusts of wind, on Grianan of Aileach.
My favourite track is Kinnagoe Bay - the lapping waves crashing against echoed drum beats, layered underneath with two sets of synths; one reminiscent of a sirens call heard across the bay, and the other akin to whale sounds, perfectly captures the feeling of Inishowen’s rugged coastline.
Culdaff is perhaps a conspicuous missing location in this geographical album, but I’ll forgive that for a beautiful record that does justice to the atmosphere of this special place. I’ve created a Google Map of the locations from the album accessible here.
Spotify - Apple Music - Bandcamp
Rich Ruth - Water Still Flows
Genre(s): Ambient, jazz & drone metal.
For fans of: Ishmael Ensemble, Lankum & Jon Hopkins.
Songs to try: Action at a Distance, Crying in the Trees & Aspiring to the Sky.
Water Still Flows is Nashville’s multi-instrumentalist and composer Rich Ruth’s forth release in the jazz and ambient crossover space, following Calming Signals (2019), and the covid-recorded albums Where There’s Life (2021) and Survived, It’s Over (2022). With each release Ruth has continued to experiment and push the boundaries of his music, introducing rockier elements into his 2022 album, and in Water Still Flows, Ruth continues to experiment with fantastic results.
The opening track Action at a Distance starts typically for an ambient jazz album - some gentle flute, the plucking of a harp and some drawn-out subtle synths. It builds intensity by adding jazz drums alongside electronic beats, the quiet of Rich’s guitar and a higher tempo synth melody, but the suspicion that I’m listening to something unexpected is aroused when elements of The Who’s Wont Get Fooled Again begin to come through the synths and drums. The song really takes off when Rich’s guitar comes into focus with some distorted riffs and a lengthy solo, which completes this pastiche of an 80s arcade game soundtrack.
By the time the drone metal guitar riffs hit on second track Crying in the Trees, it’s clear this record is going in a different direction from his previous releases. A feeling hammered home with the combination of increasingly heavy broken beat drums, faster harp plucking, higher tempo synths and muffled flutes all crashing into one another, building in a crescendo that’s eventually broken by the sudden and louder return of the drone guitars, before finally exploding into a sax solo that sounds like it should be from the end of a multi-hour jam, not at the saxophonist’s introduction to the album.
The frantic nature of Crying in the Trees is repeated in Aspiring to the Sky except this time instead of the disparate elements of the song fighting for dominance, they’re supporting each other in a cacophony of noise. Ruth’s marrying vastly different playing styles into what at its core is an ambient jazz record is exhilarating, and I’ll be revisiting this album for years to come.
Spotify - Apple Music - Bandcamp
Jasmine Myra - Rising
Genre(s): Jazz & spiritual jazz.
For fans of: Nubya Garcia, Bonobo & Shabaka.
Songs to try: Rising, Glimmers & How Tall the Mountains.
Hailing from Leeds, composer, saxophonist and flautist Jasmine Myra has followed up her critically acclaimed debut Horizons (2022) with another superb record. Like Horizons, Rising has been produced by fellow northerner Matthew Halsall, and primarily features the same accompanying musicians, most of whom, like Myra, graduated from Leeds Conservatoire. So it’s no surprise that the quality has remained at a consistent baseline.
What appears to have changed however, is Myra’s confidence as a leading artist. Where her saxophone at times may have only played a supporting role on Horizons, it’s front and centre throughout Rising. This prominence in her solos allows Myra to shine and makes for a more engaging listen.
My favourite song on the album is, shockingly, the one that reminds me most of dance music. The second half of Glimmers has this repeating melody that strains against its serene surroundings, desperate to be played at a faster pace to a baying dancefloor. Glimmers has notes of hip-hop beats - a hit at the origins of Jasmine’s song writing being in jazz rap - Jasmine credits MF DOOM and Madlib’s classic album Madvillainy (one of my favourite records) as a key influence.
Spotify - Apple Music - Bandcamp
Some similar records I recommend
Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman - Ash Grey and the Gull Glides On: A Scottish collaboration between folktronica producer and multi-instrumentalist Wasylyk and ambient producer Perman, produced using experimental methods - “Tommy posted to Andrew three envelopes containing ‘Recording Instructions’, ‘Tempo Cards’ and ‘Chord Cards’ Nodding towards the Fluxus instructions of Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit … the cards inspired exploration and improvisations which were then cut up and collaged”. The resulting delicate matrimony of Wasylyk’s piano and synths, and Perman’s warming beats, brilliant. Try Clime Like a Floating Vapour and Blessing of the Banners. Spotify - Apple Music - Bandcamp (Clay Pipe Music).
Amaro Freitas - Y’Y: Brazilian composer and pianist Amaro Freitas intertwines the sound of the Amazon with expansive jazz piano. Maintaining a theme of this Letter in the marrying of two disparate entities, throughout the album Freitas consistently plays different metres with each of his hands - one rhythmic and soothing, the other frantic and darting, creating the feeling that you’re almost listening to two different songs at once, and giving the album incredible depth, complexity and re-listenability. Check out Y’Y' and Encantados. Spotify - Apple Music - Bandcamp (Psychic Hotline).
Four Tet - Three: It feels that, despite his recent late-career dalliance with mainstream fame, Kieran Hebden’s album from earlier this year went a little under the radar. I’ve revisited Three recently with an eye on my album of the year list, and think its a strong return to his ambient and folktronica roots, with Loved and Three Drums being the ambient highlights. Spotify - Apple Music - Bandcamp (P+C Text Records).
TV & Film
A complete list of every film and TV show I’ve recommended in the Odhracle is available on Letterboxd.
Quiet and Contemplative Films
Perfect Days (2023)
Genre(s): Drama.
For fans of: Lost in Translation, Columbus & Paris, Texas.
UK Streaming: Mubi (& in the cinema).
A film about finding joy in small moments amongst the mundanity of the routine of life, and seeking that joy to distract from sadness, loneliness & loss. From legendary director Wim Wenders, Perfect Days follows Hirayama throughout his daily routine as a cleaner of public toilets in Tokyo. Given the toilets were paid for by the Nippon Foundation, I presume 90% of Perfect Days budget was spent on its stellar soundtrack of 60’s and 70s US radio hits. A beautiful film that made me cry in the cinema - 4.5 stars.
Memoria (2021)
Genre(s): Drama & mystery.
For fans of: Arrival, Mulholland Drive & Annihilation.
UK Streaming: Channel 4.
Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s first English language film, follows Tilda Swinton as a Scottish botanist visiting her sister in Colombia, seeking the source of a mysterious loud noise that wakes her up every night and which only she can hear. She befriends an audio engineer who recreates the sound for her, and her journey to find the source of the sound takes her to remote jungle villages to find the source. The sound design in this film is incredible, and auditory sensation is at its core - 4.5 stars.
Into The Wild (2007)
Genre(s): Drama & Adventure.
For fans of: Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Nomadland & Castaway.
UK Streaming: Rental only.
Sean Penn’s adaption of the 1996 novel with the same name, featuring Emile Hirsch in a career-best performance as Christopher McCandless on his hike away from civilisation and into the Alaskan wilderness following his high school graduation. A brilliant film about how we fit into society - the book and film were really important for me for as a 16 year old. Soundtrack by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam - 3.5 stars.
Lost in Translation (2003)
Genre(s): Comedy, drama & romance.
For fans of: Her, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, In the Mood for Love.
UK Streaming: NowTV.
Sofia Coppola’s Oscar winning melancholic story of Billy Murray as a washed up movie star, and the neglected wife that he meets in a hotel in Japan, played by Scarlett Johansson. An examination of isolation and the need for human connection. No need for me to say more, literal books have been written about this movie - 4 stars.
Drive My Car (2021)
Genre(s): Drama.
For fans of: Perfect Days, Lost in Translation & Past Lives.
UK Streaming: Rental only.
Japan’s first Best Picture nominee, Drive My Car is a 3 hour film about a theatre actor and director struggling with grief, who accepts a position to direct a multilingual production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. A young woman is appointed to be his driver, and the two spend long car journeys sharing stories and secrets. The film is a examination of loss and betrayal with a masterful original score - 4.5 stars.
Fantastic recommendations Odhran, especially Nala Sinephro’s album! I resonated the most with this newsletter :) keep up the great work
Loved PERFECT DAYS – ending hit me like a bag o’ bricks.