Triple Feature: Aisha Vaughan, Dynatron, David Arkenstone

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Aisha Vaughan is a New Age, ambient artist from Wales. She’s been featured on various TV series and scores through the years. She’s back with a gorgeous solo EP called Water World. I was a big fan of her 2024 album The Gate, but I might like this even more.

She offers music that is incredibly soothing and healing. Yes, it is ambient, but her style features extensive vocal harmonies. Sometimes it feels like she’s forming words, but most of the time it is just pure, glorious abstraction. This EP is particularly celestial in tone with lots of water (go figure), environmental forest or garden sounds, and warm vibrations. I find it astonishingly beautiful from beginning to end, brimming with sparkling chimes and golden flute.

This isn’t really the sort of album where you’ll pick favorites, but I find myself drawn to the opener “Changing With You” with its subtle electronica and homey feelings, “The Water” with its crystalline serenity, and “Cascade” with its pouring, flowing, nuanced energy. The entire experience will leave you feeling whole and happy.

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Dynatron recently returned with his first album since 2021’s excellent Origins. The mastermind here is Jeppe Hasseriis of Denmark, a well-known purveyor of synthwave and electronic music in his own right. Dark Matter might be my favorite outing from him thus far.

The music is electronic in nature, but there are also walls of guitars. I know that’s not normal, which is why it draws my attention. Yes, you’ll hear the meticulously crafted synth lines, which feel conversational and cinematic. But you’ll also hear dark riffs, ever present shadows that add layers and character. The music plays like a winding cinema score at times, but other moments feel more personal, deep in solitude.

I have a few favorites. One is the title track, which balances those two aspects of the music perfectly. I love the interplay between introspection and energy. I also love “Aeons of Secrets”, more ambient and abstract, like formless shadows you are trying to decipher. I also love the three-part “Endless”, an evolving piece that moves from subtle cinematic anticipation in Part 1 to colorful metallic mountains in Part 2 and on to New Wave vibes and neon in Part 3. The whole album is a peaceful energy, active and lightning vibrant, but still calming.

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David Arkenstone has a decades-long discography that features a wide array of music, everything from New Age to ambient to neoclassical and even metal. He releases multiple albums per year, and this time around I was grabbed by Astral Journeys: A Window to the Soul.

The music here is ambient in a cosmic, spacious way. It’s like a tesseract to other galaxies and heavenly bodies, but within your mind and heart. While it is mostly about atmosphere, you’ll hear plenty of keys and swooning, swaying waves of emotion, color, and time. Every track has its own flavor, but they meld together like one flowing river into eternity.

Again, this really isn’t the type of album for favorites, but I really like the opener “Pathways of Luminescence” with its gently spiraling color, “Floating Between Dreams” for its nuanced keys, “Silk Veils of Cosmic Consciousness” with its mirrored, shimmering tone, and “Luminous Realms of Consciousness” for its subtle choral and orchestral harmonies—I don’t think there are actually choirs or orchestrations present, but it feels that way—and the strong notes that emerge as it progresses. The album is utter heavenly ambience that will cast your thoughts a million light years away, but also drawn them inwards.