The Orb                          
Buddhist Hipsters    
(Cooking Vinyl)             
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ALEX PATTERSON started his career as a roadie for Killing Joke, before he formed The Orb in 1988; a pioneering experimental ambient dance act. Buddhist Hipsters is the 18th studio album from the now two-man outfit with Patterson joined by engineer and writer Peter Rendall.

The album opens up with Spontaneously Combust featuring Steve Hillage’s trademark guitar textures, Miquette Giraudy on vintage 70s synth, working around deep groove bass and backward vocal samples.

P~1 builds around drum ’n’ bass influences, while the Kraftwerk-inspired Baraka is an ode to a famous Kenyan blind rhino and a symbol of resilience. A Sacred Choice provides a healthy dose of reggae skank, with contributions from Killing Joke’s Youth along with drummer Paul Ferguson. The Oort Cloud features cult Manchester DJ Dr D, providing Techno influences. Kharon, named after the sister planet of Pluto, is a cosmic masterstroke complete with Roger Eno’s sparse piano work.

Meredith Monk
Cellular Songs
(ECM)                                                
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US COMPOSER and experimental performer Meredith Monk has recorded 13 albums for the ECM label. Her latest an exploration of vocal techniques, utilising her five-piece Vocal Ensemble, a variety of unusual percussion instruments, piano and violin. The starting point for the material is Monk’s own ecological consciousness and research into medicine, the dimensions of the cell, and a sculptural, at times medieval folk approach.

It opens with Click Song, based around off-centre rhythms and vocal power clusters. Cell Trio further engages high intellectual debate. Nyems, a nine-minute vocal only work, is full of exotic dynamics and bold phrasing. Co-operation, interdependence and kindness are the qualities that Monk is keen to emphasizes, as an antidote to the values that are being propagated now in the US.

Recorded at New York’s Power Station Studios in 2022 and 2024 the sonic detail is exceptional, creating a clarity across the vocal range that highlights the composer’s unique approach.

Marconi Union  
The Fear of Never Landing       
(Just Music)                                  
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MARCONI UNION are a Manchester-based electronic ambient duo formed in 2003. Their 12th album is a 55-minute atmospheric journey presented as nine movements.

The album opens up with Through The Heat Waves, where distant wind sounds give way to slow tempo drone patchworks, pastel-tinted synth and, at times, something close to bagpipe drones, deep bass and driving simple melodic piano refrains. Next, Eight Miles Alone, morphs into up-tempo sci-fi mood, pulsing off-centre rhythmic fluctuations, sliding basslines and heavily processed robotic vocoder vocals. Hints of Vangelis’ score for Blade Runner are never far off.

Crystalline is full of pristine beauty and dreamlike optimism, working from a rain-soaked dramatic opening, and giving way to full-on quickfire modern electronic dance. Cloud Surfing, concludes, reworking the opening track’s theme, as if suspended in a pool of dim lights and shifting layers.

Marconi Union continue their epic ambient journey with courage, vision and ambition.