Maja Ratkje

New isolationism is a contemporary strain of isolationist ambient and post-industrial minimalism that emerged in the 2010s, particularly around Scandinavian experimental labels and studios. It foregrounds intimate, close-mic’d sound, negative space, and a quiet-but-present noise floor; its pieces feel both internal and architectural, like rooms built from reverb tails, tape hiss, and soft electronics. Sonically, the style blends glacial drones, fragile chamber timbres (strings, organ, piano), lo‑fi electronics, and field recordings into stark, slow-evolving tableaux. Melodic information is sparse—often only a few tones or gestures—while rhythm is either absent or reduced to distant pulses, heartbeats, or mechanical cycles. Vocals, when they appear, are murmured, diaristic, or abstracted by pitch and time manipulation. Aesthetically, new isolationism is post‑internet and diaristic: it captures solitude, memory, and dislocation with a palette that feels personal yet estranged, drawing as much from contemporary gallery sound practice as from classic dark ambient.

Experimental vocal is a boundary‑pushing approach to voice that treats the human vocal tract as a full-spectrum instrument. It privileges timbre, texture, and technique over conventional melody and lyric, foregrounding breath, phonemes, and raw sound just as much as sung notes. Artists employ extended vocal techniques such as overtone singing, multiphonics, shrieks, growls, glottal stops, ululation, whistle register, inhaled phonation, tongue clicks, and non-lexical glossolalia. These are often combined with live electronics, tape and granular processing, looping, and spatialization to expand the voice beyond its natural limits. While it overlaps with avant‑garde classical, sound art, and performance art, experimental vocal is not bound to any single tradition. It can be stark and ritualistic, viscerally intense, or meditative and textural, ranging from solo explorations to choral sound masses and multimedia works.

Jazz is an improvisation-centered music tradition that emerged from African American communities in the early 20th century. It blends blues feeling, ragtime syncopation, European harmonic practice, and brass band instrumentation into a flexible, conversational art. Defining features include swing rhythm (a triplet-based pulse), call-and-response phrasing, blue notes, and extended harmonies built on 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths. Jazz is as much a way of making music—spontaneous interaction, variation, and personal sound—as it is a set of forms and tunes. Across its history, jazz has continually hybridized, from New Orleans ensembles and big-band swing to bebop, cool and hard bop, modal and free jazz, fusion, and contemporary cross-genre experiments. Its influence permeates global popular and art music.

Mandible is a name found on Every Noise at Once, a map of genres identified by Spotify, and in the playlist “The Sound of Mandible” by The Sounds of Spotify; little has been written about it. The music ranges from beatless ambient drones to abrasive industrial and glitch-driven electronic music. Some tracks move through slow swells or sustained tones without a clear pulse, while others use electronic drums, stuttering rhythms, metallic hits and sharp snares. Deep bass and low rumble are common, and the pace can range from slow and spacious to fast and driving. Synthesizers, electronic percussion and heavily processed sounds are central. Distortion and compression can make the music feel raw and forceful, while wide stereo space and generous reverb give both harsh and quieter passages an expansive sound. Melody and harmony are often secondary to texture, dissonance and repetition, though some pieces use minor or modal tonal centers. Most tracks are instrumental, with vocals appearing occasionally. Its artists are also associated with drone, ambient, dark ambient, IDM and experimental music. The mood is often dark or tense, though calmer, meditative music is also part of the selection. Titles appear in several languages, including English, French and German. The listed releases range from 1981 to 2024.