Bell Monks (Jeff Herriott and Eric Sheffield) create slow, dreamy, haunting music. They call their music sleepy rock, blending lush sonic textures with slower, mostly traditional song structures. The Onion’s AV Club, back when they still had a Madison-focused section, fairly accurately referred to the band as “combining the minimalism of Brian Eno’s ambient work with the gloomy songwriting of Low“, though experimental composers like Morton Feldman and John Cage were equally on their mind when the duo first started working together more than fifteen years ago. Eric and Jeff cherish the creative aspects of the recording process, often finding songs in the studio; recording and mixing become tools to conjure aural magic, almost like sleight of hand, through the misdirection of multi-tracking, layering, and the subtle use of processing techniques they’ve developed in their academic careers (both are music professors). Inspiration for their music regularly comes from their natural environment – the birds, the sun, the trees, and the landscape. Jeff routinely walks in the parks near his home in rural Wisconsin, spaces that have served as lyrical inspiration for much of their recent music, both in the specific description of visual environments as well as the philosophical sensations that these spaces conjure. For their new album, Watching the Snow Fall, Bell Monks have partnered with Wayside & Woodland Recordings, a label that is focused on “a psychogeographic approach to the exploration of music, photography, field recordings and landscape.” In some small way, this music invites people to slow down and take a break from technological onslaught, perhaps so they might notice more of these kinds of spaces themselves, or at least to enjoy the sound of some cool synthesizers.

Edinburgh-based Gurry Wurry is the solo project of Scottish “indie-psych-pop pedlar” Dave King. He’s featured on BBC 6 Music, Triple R, Apple’s New In Alternative, Hype Machine’s Top 10, and Tom Robinson’s Fresh on The Net; been acclaimed by the likes of The Skinny, Snack Magazine, Clunk and Is This Music; opened for indie darlings Florry and Dent May; and been championed by the BBC’s Roddy Hart and Vic Galloway. Having been an avid record collector for over two decades, he’s now sharing his own highly original and thoroughly enjoyable sonic output: In March last year, his homemade debut Not As Bad As It Sounds came out (and made Vic’s 2023 Albums of The Year). The follow-up Happy For Now was recorded with indie legend Rod Jones (Idlewild, Hamish Hawk) and is an ode to caring less. Or trying to. The vibe sits in a half-dreamt world where a California breeze blows through the streets of Leith. A world where Randy Newman digs The Beta Band. And Steely Dan go lo-fi. Where Kraftwerk share a writers’ room with John Martyn and Thelonious Monk. It’s as eclectic as you’d expect from a guy who’s been collecting records for the last 25 years. A sort of warm, woozy, anaesthetic pop for times of trouble. An alternative medicine. In the words of The Skinny, ‘the good kind of weird’.

The Pearlfishers are a Scottish, Glasgow-based band (among its contributors: drummer Jim Gash, Dee Bahl, Brian McAlpine, Mil Stricevic and Duglas T. Stewart, also of the BMX Bandits) and now the solo project of the singer and songwriter David Scott, its only constant member. The Pearlfishers mixes acoustic-based music with subtle orchestral flourishes, refined and broadened their sound while maintaining coherence and uniqueness. Scott began writing songs while a teenager in Glasgow in the early ’80s and, after founding Chewy Raccoon (!) and Hearts and Minds, formed The Pearlfishers (named after the Bizet opera), with drummer Jim Gash, featuring Brian McAlpine on keyboards and bassist Mil Stricevic. Their debut single, Sacred, was out in late 1990 and an EP, Hurt, followed shortly. The Pearlfishers’ debut album, Za Za’s Garden, was released in August 1993. Signing with the German label Marina Records, Scott and McAlpine released, in 1997, The Strange Underworld of the Tall Poppies and in 1999 The Young Picnickers. 2001’s Across the Milky Way  was the first (almost) solo album by Scott (with a dozen guest musicians), followed by Sky Meadows in 2003, A Sunflower At Christmas in 2004 and Up With The Larks, three years later. After a seven years’ hiatus, Your Colouring Book arrived in 2014 and Love & Other Hopeless Things in 2019. Another five years hiatus led The Pearlfishers to Making Tapes For Girls, produced with Johnny Smillie (Thrum), which was out in May, as usual via Marina Records.