5 out of 5

Label: self-released (digital)

Produced by: ?

While the distant echoes and overheard-conversation vibe of this ambient set could be thematically hyped up as tying in to the ARG that led to its release, the ten tracks on Iglooghost’s Solar Church absolutely stand on their own. Buzzing from droning hums and occasional clicks and swells to snippets of birds and outdoor sounds, to voices saying vaguely something, to the distant chipper cheer of a babbling child, Church can function meditatively – soundtrack to a walk, be it in a crowded park or some emptied late night expanse. But the floating and linking waves of electronic noise – as well as the kind of purposeful distance of the atmospheric additions – can also give it an interestingly unsettled undercurrent, tickled by Iglooghost occasionally urging slightly stronger bubbles of sounds, as though a track or the album is just about to tip over into something else…

But it doesn’t. Listen to the birds or babbling instead.

Gorgeous, and/or pleasingly offbeat, delivered in quite a perfect, bite-sized set.