I’ve made an effort over the last few years to read more and one of the side effects of this project is an increased appetite for various strains of experimental, jazz, and ambient music. It’s easier for me to focus on whatever I’m currently reading with some kind of wordless but still engaging music playing, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite albums from these worlds that were released in 2023. These are records that have become part of my life over the last twelve months, far beyond background music or the mid-30s guy version of lo-fi beats to relax/study to or whatever; they’ve edged out a lot of the more conventional genres that normally dominate my year end list.

In tribute to this multimedia experience I’ve paired each album with one of the best books I’ve read this year (none of which were actually published in 2023, sorry). Some pairings may have overlapping or contrasting themes, some are just two things that I find to be very good and think you’d like. 

Romantic Piano by Gia Margaret and Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion

A stunning collection of brief but cinematic sketches comprised of field recordings, piano, voice, and guitar, there are few records I’ve listened to more this year than Gia Margaret’s playfully named Romantic Piano. Margaret cites the influence of minimalist piano geniuses like Erik Satie and Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guébrou on these twelve bite-sized pieces, the majority of which come and go in less than three minutes. Let Me Tell You What I Mean collects early nonfiction work by Joan Didon, who, like Margaret, also excels when working in miniature. The collection’s precise, penetrating prose touches on a variety of the subjects that would go on to define Didion’s career, alchemizing the political and the personal into a wholly unique vision of the world.

Magnolia by Okonski and The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

While a Loveland, Ohio-based jazz pianist and a burgeoning conman inflicting himself upon Western Europe may not have much in common at first glance, the late-night, relaxed ambiance of Okonski’s Magnolia brings to mind the sublime first act of Patricia Highsmith’s acclaimed The Talented Mr. Ripley, where everything is going well and Ripley is enjoying his time on the Amalfi Coast (before the bodies start to pile up). Led by pianist Steve Okonski and featuring double bassist Michael Isvara Montgomery and Aaron Frazer on drums, Magnolia is a collection of spontaneous collaborations that grew out of a scrapped recording session of more formal compositions. The album has been on heavy rotation for the last few months, soundtracking low-lit dinners, road trips, and yes, some time spent reading Ripley before bed.

Music Is Victory Over Time by Sunwatchers and Remainder by Tom McCarthy

Transcendence through repetition and the search for meaning in the face of the universe’s seemingly uncaring chaos are key themes explored in Tom McCarthy’s mind-melting 2005 novel, and also the sort of things I think about any time I listen to the profoundly psychedelic freak rockers Sunwatchers. Their latest album, Music Is Victory Over Time, is thematically dense despite being effectively wordless, with the band’s radical politics shining through courtesy of some utopian album artwork, a few provocative song titles, and an overall sense of communal joy. The music itself often leaves me with the feeling that my brain has been put through a blender, a sensation that became familiar throughout my time spent with the cerebral Remainder. McCarthy’s narrative follows a neurotic protagonist through a series of increasingly self-reflexive scenarios that will sound familiar to fans of Charlie Kaufman and Nathan Fielder, though this was written years before Synecdoche, New York or Nathan For You arrived to throttle your subconscious.

Migrant Flocks by Mute Duo and True Grit by Charles Portis

The sprawling, vivid compositions found on Mute Duo’s Migrant Flocks complement the deep-fried cowboy archetypes and deadpan humor of True Grit, Portis’ masterpiece. Both use tools of vintage Americana, pedal steel guitar and Western genre storytelling respectively, to create something new and thrilling. The two works innovate on an established form: Migrant Flocks finds Mute Duo’s foundational drum and pedal steel instrumentals enriched by a slew of new sounds and textures courtesy of vibraphones, flutes, drum machines, and more, just as the genre signifiers of a classic Western revenge tale are elevated and subverted by True Grit’s iconic narrator, a plainspoken 14-year-old girl.

The Ceiling Reposes by Lia Kohl and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead centers around a character struggling between modernity and nature, between the need for human connection and the impulse to move to the forest and live as a hermit. We’re charmed by her quirky mannerisms and fierce love for animals but as the cracks begin to show, we start to wonder if our narrator is a bit… unreliable. The friction between the natural and the industrial is also central to cellist Lia Kohl’s latest full length, The Ceiling Reposes. A series of improvisations that incorporate bits of live radio samples captured on Vashon Island in Washington state, the album is a fascinating listen, balancing warm, organic string textures and harsh, distorted samples of aural detritus. 

Signs by Purelink and Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill

Sometimes a bit of spaced-out ambient techno is just the thing needed to ease the strain felt as your third eye is pried open by a sprawling conspiracy narrative that implicates some of the biggest names in 20th century American history. Electronic trio Purelink’s cavernous collaborations are all texture and atmosphere, the perfect backdrop for tracking journalist Tom O’Neill’s decades-long examination of the CIA’s potential links to the Charles Manson murders. Beyond their contrasting tones, these two works find common ground in their ambiguity, leaving their audience to parse the sprawl to draw their own conclusions.

Ballads by Dave Easley and Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

As the title implies, pedal steel guitarist Dave Easley’s Ballads is a collection of eight lovely, sad covers of songs written by a diverse array of musicians, including Duke Ellington, Ornate Coleman, and Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon. A fragile melancholy that transcends time and place also runs through Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson’s 1919 story cycle that documents the quiet lives of the citizens of a fictional Midwestern town. Drawn from Anderson’s memories of growing up in a small Ohio town, the slim book covers a lot of ground across roughly two dozen short stories. Easley’s gentle compositions are an ideal backdrop as we encounter over a hundred Winesburg residents, many of whom struggle for connection in an era marked by repression and shame. 

Let the Moon Be a Planet by Steve Gunn & David Moore and Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

A collaboration between one of our finest songwriter/guitarists Steve Gunn and David Moore, leader of ambient classical ensemble Bing & Ruth, Let the Moon Be a Planet features eight delicate, spacious duets with Gunn on nylon-stringed guitar and Moore on piano. Bringing to mind the new age meditations of 1980s Windham Hill Records, the duo’s intimate improvisations pair well with 1987’s Crossing to Safety, Wallace Stegner’s semi-autobiographical final novel. The book is a warm, compassionate reflection on adult friendships, well-meaning competition, and aging, chronicling a decades-long relationship between two couples. Throughout these two works, Gunn, Moore, and Stegner ponder time and collaboration in intriguing and compelling ways.

If you’ve made it this far, I feel like you’d be happy to discover that I went ahead and put together a Spotify playlist featuring tracks from each of the albums featured here. If you like what you hear, please support the artists by buying things from them on Bandcamp (all of the links for the albums on Bandcamp are in this piece). 

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