WINTER 2025 is an eight and a half hour long collection of 154 songs by 143 artists spanning 26 countries (mostly the U.S., U.K. and Germany but also Egypt, Lithuania and Peru) and who knows how many genres. Gonna be honest, it's mostly instrumental and experimental with some ambient in there too.
The first track I'm psyched about, it's from Norwegian tenor saxophonist Bendik Giske who I saw play his first-ever show in the states in June, it was transformative. Giske practices circular breathing and uses the keys on his woodwind as percussion, it's an otherworldly sound.
Other artists on the playlist I'm enjoying: Sam Gendel and his weirdo jazz, Nicolas Jaar and his dark instrumentals, WHITE HORN is a noisy band with only a handful of songs to their name, looking forward to seeing where they go, just got into Janek Schaefer this year and their discography (experimental, abstract, minimalist) is extraordinary. Same goes for Marc Barreca, who's a bankruptcy judge in Seattle but also has a decades-long catalog of ambient and experimental music to his name. Love that guy.