I used to wonder if readers cared at all about more ambient and electronic music that I review. I received a message recently saying that they appreciated the fact that I provide them with “music for every mood”, and not just a constant barrage of technical work. That really struck a chord with me. Today, I want to talk about ambient project Drifting in Silence, and his new album Timeless. It released on May 26th.
Drifting in Silence comes to us from North Carolina. It is the project of multi-instrumentalist Derrick Stembridge. The project seeks to help us feel the sensation of movement through light and shadow, all through the medium of music. I think he does that well.
This is ambient electronic music. It doesn’t have any crazy adjectives, but it certainly is atmospheric and hovering in style. When it seeks to show light and shade, it does so with purposeful touches, and while at times the music can be rhythmic, much of it is truly ambient in how it slowly transitions through various spectrums of beauty, light, and texture.
One of the things I like about Derrick’s style is the subtle cinema within his music. The music often feels strangely epic and vast, despite being a fluid stream of grey emotions and delicate highs and lows. The music here is absorbing and hypnotic in how it flows and grieves, muses and emotes. Once you start the album, it needs to pour through to the end, or else you end up with that anxious feeling of needing closure.
The album has six tracks and lasts about 43 minutes. Each of the tracks is around 6-8 minutes long, which I think is a great ambient length to allow for evolution and progression. The first half of the album has some terrific tracks, such as the opener “Clocks” with its soothing atmosphere and subtle machinations in the distance. “I Wish You Were Here” has a burning greyness within it, and it is truly ambient in how it floats, but somehow also communicates emotions. “IV XV MMXXII” comes next, and is one of my overall favorites for its cinematic yet slow burning, bird’s eye view. I feel like Derrick adds notes in perfect places on that one.
The second half is just as good. “As You Drift Away” is another favorite for its luscious synth tone and magnetic ambience. I can lost in that one easily. The title track is the long one on the album, and it leans heavily into the ambient direction with subtle shifts in texture and volume, and it does such a great job of transmitting its theme. The closer, “Dreamcatcher”, is like a dense fog with hints of magicka and the supernatural. It fades beautifully.
I really like this Drifting in Silence album. I think it’s a good place to start if you haven’t tried ambient, but ambient fans will find plenty to enjoy here, too. Derrick’s choices of texture and tone are 100% calming and gorgeous, and so this album is one to use when your mood says that you need something different, something evocative, something whispering on the edges of your consciousness. It will lull you into a calmer state of mind.
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Find Drifting in Silence online:
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The PROG Mind 