Compilation NWA022

Featuring 25 tracks across over two hours, Fragile States is a collection of ambient / experimental / electronic works that seeks to soundtrack our perilous times.

Ambient Music was defined by Brian Eno as “atmosphere … a surrounding influence”, and designed to induce “a space to think”. Fragile States aims to capture the atmospherics and influences of today’s environments, and in doing so, highlights the notions of “doubt and uncertainty” that were so present, and so prescient, in Eno’s work.

Although he sought to make his Ambient Music “as ignorable as it is interesting”, such a stance is not at all viable or desirable in these times. Rather, Fragile States proposes a ‘conscious ambience’, one which is entirely in lock-step with our social and political malaise. It is not music to be ignored, it is music for connection and purpose. Atmospheres for change and action; for tuning in, not tuning out.

The Fragile States cover artwork features a painting by Tahlia Palmer, aka amby downs, who also contributes an unreleased work for the compilation.

Tracklisting.

1. Madeleine Cocolas – Exhale 86 (6:17)
2. JWPATON – Clearcut (4:24)
3. Travis Cook – heaven_2022 (4:03)
4. Okuesha Kills – Version 1 (3:07)
5. salllvage – Gaguru Revenant (3:13)
6. ilex – Kodamas (10:11)
7. Reuben Ingall – Thinking About Something Else (2:53)
8. Third Space – Dowlais (4:16)
9. Nina Buchanan – Special K (4:37)
10. Hantu – New Memory (3:36)
11. amby downs- a lightning ridge opal mine anxiety (4:28)
12. alsi – When You Touch Me, I See Visions (5:16)
13. Chloë Sobek – Metamorphosis (7:54)
14. Puscha – The Heathens Who Long For Night, Not To Be Forgotten (8:06)
15. Sebastian Field – Vanishing Point (4:32)
16. Madenda – Serenity (2:57)
17. Silonics – Homebuyer’s Dream (Excerpt) (2:36)
18. James Hazel – bodies stretched beyond the mediant (12:18)
19. Mookoid – Transgressor (9:04)
20. Bradfield Dumpleton – Out Of The Frying Pan (6:07)
21. K Wilson – Open Palm (4:10)
22. Timothy Fairless – DisConnective Tissue (5:45)
23. Melanie Velarde – Donuts (2:32)
24. Ambient Lights – Trying To Stay Positive (4:15)
25. Freya Berkhout – Maudlin (3:38)

Compiled by Stuart Buchanan.
Cover Painting by Tahlia Palmer. ambydowns.bandcamp.com

Released December 2022

The compilation is available as a ‘Name Your Price’ release on Bandcamp. All proceeds to Seed Mob, Australia’s first and only Indigenous youth-led environmental organisation; and Firesticks Alliance, who provide Indigenous leadership, advocacy and action to protect Country through cultural fire and land management practices.