#10 Top Releases in Ambient / Experimental

Arteforma is a musical project devoted to exploring deep and introspective sonic landscapes, blending bright and dark nuances, intertwined melodies, and emotional storytelling. For Arteforma, music production is not only an artistic vocation, but a passion cultivated since 2009: a vital balance between inspiration and personal well being, and an ethereal expression of his inner self. With a dynamic and resilient approach, he continuously experiments with new sound textures, modulations, and production setups, crafting ambient and rhythmically rich experiences that connect deeply with the listener. After years of performing under different aliases, a new artistic path emerged in 2020 under the name Arteforma. His works, released on various labels, carry a distinctive and recognizable sonic identity built on refined aesthetics and compositional sensitivity. Over the years, Arteforma has performed in numerous clubs in Italy and abroad, both under this project and previous aliases including Juice, Fluid, and This is Not in Italy; Pratersauna and Sass in Vienna, La Terrrazza in Barcelona, Minimal Bar in Berlin, and Das Viertel in Basel. His new EP Cosmico, released on Traum, is a journey inspired by the profound connection between space, nature, and electronic music. The three tracks Cosmico, Jupiter, and Orion explore celestial atmospheres and organic rhythms, weaving a sonic narrative that blends cosmic exploration with earthly grounding. Each piece is a fragment of a sensory voyage, inviting the listener to get lost in an emotional and contemplative universe. The title track Cosmico is an anthem to the infinite, a deep, hypnotic journey that gradually opens into vast, weightless atmospheres. It evokes the feeling of drifting beyond the physical, where sound becomes a vessel for introspection and exploration. As the title track, it encapsulates the essence of the EP: cosmic travel grounded in emotional depth. Inspired by the majestic constellation, Orion pulses with forward motion and celestial energy. Bright melodic fragments float over a steady rhythmic backbone, painting a night sky full of direction and mystery. Its a track that invites movement, both outward and inward. Jupiter brings a sense of gravitational pull and expansive sound. Its deep, layered textures and slow-burning energy mirror the massive presence of the planet its named after. Equal parts powerful and contemplative, the track captures the duality of space: overwhelming scale and serene beauty. Stripped of rhythm, the ambient mix of Cosmico drifts freely in an atmosphere of stillness and wonder. It feels like observing Earth from orbit, quiet, suspended, infinite. A meditative version that invites deep listening and total surrender.

Arteforma

#27 Feat. New Releases in Melodic House & Techno

Jonas Schilling is an electronic music artist, composer and music producer from Berlin. After years of playing with different bands and soaking up Berlins vibrant electronic music scene, he started his solo project in 2019. Besides releasing music as a solo artist Jonas Schilling composes music for theater and contemporary dance projects. He received great acclaim for his track Rising Tide, which has been streamed over 7 million times to date. His music was played by countless radio stations and featured on BBC introducing. In 2023 Jonas Schilling was scholarship holder of music board Berlins Co-Creation Residency Berlin - Tel Aviv. For two months he collaborated with Israeli singer Odelly. Together they performed at Popkultur Festival Berlin, as well as Kuli Alma Club, Tel Aviv. As a composer and musician for theatre, Jonas Schilling has worked with many theaters and independent projects all over Germany, in Switzerland and Turkey. Jonas Schilling was born into a family in which music was an everyday expression of joy and togetherness. The experience of music as an immersive room that is not divided into performer and listener shaped his way of thinking about music and sound. Growing up with jazz, gospel and rock music he later recognized the transcendent potential of electronic dance culture and started to integrate its concepts to his own music. His tracks are often in search of an optimism and positivity that emerge through the experience of breaking and transgressing. He tries to question genre traditions and combine the seemingly contradictory: complex polyrhythms with immersive harmonies, elements of modal jazz with techno beats, underground with mainstream. His Traum EP We Tried To Turn Back Time pays tribute to the rave culture while at the same time incorporating classic instruments like piano, electric basses and jazz drums. The titles allude to the messianic hope of stopping time itself as well as the utopian localization of a space- and timeless place.

Jonas Schilling

#64 Feat. Staff Picks in Electronica

Johannes Motschmann combines classical compositional craft with a distinctive electronic voice. His work spans ambient soundscapes, experimental live electronics, and AI-assisted composition (referring only to AION2 written with the Software he had developed himself at German national radio station SWR), always shaped by his background in piano and contemporary music. Alongside his orchestral and chamber works, Motschmann has released several acclaimed electronic albums that highlight this unique fusion: Electric Fields (2016) electro-acoustic landscapes blending analog synths and piano Lifestream (2019) handcrafted electronica performed without loops or samples AION 2 (2022) an exploration of artificial intelligence as a co-composer His upcoming solo EP on Traum continues this trajectory, putting the focus firmly on his electronic side while carrying forward his deep compositional sensibility. With his Opacity Code release, Johannes Motchmann explores the interplay between clarity and obscurity in sound. By layering acoustic and electronic elements like an orchestra, he creates textures where transparency and masking coexist, leading to both intentional and accidental new soundscapes. Quote from Johannes Motschmann: Lately Ive been working a lot with acoustic instruments and somehow I always have a naturalistic and also a bit retrospective sound in mind for the electronic music I make. I always mix all kinds of synths until I get a mixed sound similar to an orchestra, where you dont always know immediately which instruments are involved when you first hear it. Just as in painting where you get many new colors by mixing the basic colors, I also proceed in arranging and mixing new tracks. Many factors determine whether an element becomes audible at all: the volume, the frequencies, the environment, everything influences each other. So when I try to make everything transparent and make the sounds shine, there is sometimes the exact opposite effect of too many layers masking each other. It can be annoying sometimes but as a side effect this often results in new soundscapes, some of which were perhaps not even planned. While working on Opacity Code, I was really looking for moments like this, so that in addition to passages of complete clarity, there are also episodes of only mysterious impression, so that you can feel how behind all the soundscapes there are still other levels that you can gradually track down.

Johannes Motschmann

#90 Top Tracks in Ambient / Experimental

2025-12-05 Ambient / Experimental

Cockpitcrew