A Closer Listen tends to be positive in its reviews, so sometimes it’s difficult to tell what we like the most. This page highlights the releases we have on repeat.
We’ve never before seen a single color dominate to this extent. The first blue album to arrive was Chris Watson‘s Planet Ocean (Touch) on January 2, in retrospect a foreshadowing, a field recording set recorded around the globe. A month later, Steffen Cordts extended the theme on Blue Element: one long, water-logged, weather-drenched piece that made us eager for summer. In March, Yoichi Kamimura contributed Waterfront (Hakari Contemporary), an expansion of a Kyoto installation.
Kamimura’s album was part of a massive blue wave of half a dozen blue albums released in nine days. Moving beyond field recordings, Rutger Zuydervelt translated the feeling of water into the score for a dance performance on Bodies of Water and its companion piece, Fog/Drops. Then Hey Elbow unveiled FLOCK, a single 40-minute performance that undulated like waves, available on blue vinyl. Emil Amos and Steve Moore added the feel of blue movies to the film music of ZONE BLUE (Bent Window). And Dobrawa Czocher drenched listeners in blue strings on State of Matter (FatCat/130701), preceded by the tinted video for “Blue.” 2026 is the year of blue; we invite you to dive into these sonic seas.
a closer listen 