Drawing heavily from Japanese kankyō ongaku, the Portland ambient duo explores mind-bending sound design and meditative states in a long-form piece at the nexus of the acoustic and the digital.

Aaron Maine’s latest collection is a pared-back, unpolished mixtape, recorded to his trusty four-track. The lack of digital refinement spotlights the songs’ unexpected rhymes and organic melodies.

With an assist from MJ Lenderman, the New Orleans singer and poet fine-tunes his storytelling instincts against a backdrop of bracing heartland rock.

Paying tribute to a South Carolina town destroyed in the 1950s for a nuclear materials plant, the Durham avant-folk trio's disquieting new album is both a community service and a spiritual offering.