Alaskan Tapes Releases ‘For Us Alone’

An artist I’ve personally followed for years, Toronto-based ambient producer Alaskan Tapes shares 9 track album ‘For Us Alone.’

Alaskan Tapes has been such a unique listen for some time, and is the reason I bought myself a record player to listen to his previous albums on vinyl. Seeing a new new track, let alone album, is day automatically better than the last. His unique blend of electronic ambience and acoustic instrumentals has been my soundtrack for life on many occasions.

What to expect:

I’m caught deeply in my emotions while listening, and the 40 minute album will certainly be too much for me to dive into in a simple blog post. So, let me explain what this album will do for you as a whole, and highlight my most impactful songs/instances.

Alaskan tapes once again blends his acoustic and authentic instruments with ambient electronic production. The sense of longing and anticipation is overwhelming. Your focus will immediately be taken from whatever else your doing to be placed solely on the music.

The first place I want to draw your attention to is the piece ‘One Thousand (Mighty) Voices.‘ There’s no other way to explain this section other than waves of rich emotion and thought washing over you. Everyone has complicated and difficult times in their lives. If you’re going through that now, this album and this piece will help in the process of thinking and feeling those oh so necessary things. You may not consider when your life turns upside down that the questions and frustrations must be explored in order to come to a sense of contentedness.

The album continues in a style reminiscent of bands such as This Will Destroy You or Explosions in the Sky, giving off so many emotional impressions it is hard to put every one into coherent words.

I’d like to next bring you to track 6, ‘We.” I believe I added this track to the piano mix I curated as I was blown away. The slow moving song is lead by beautiful contemplative piano chords, supported by quiet strings that pulse louder and quieter from time to time. Perfectly mixed foley adds such tender character to this piece that you can’t help but replaying. It was hard for me to move onto the rest of the album.

The final tracks are a mixture of post rock and ambient atmospheric music. I absolutely adore the albums’ battle back and forth between the more vocal (in spirit) tracks that seem to be airing out their emotions and the quiet, more subdued ambient tracks that slow down and give way to thought. The album ultimately ends with one of these lower toned ambient piece with droning atmospheres and Foley that leave you with a sense of end. You may not be quite where you want to be yet, but you’ve stopped your outbursts of emotion and met the world with your mind, at least open to what it may have in store.

If you’ve stayed with me this far, thank you. This was a longer post, but it would have been much, much longer if I broke down each piece, and I tried to spare you of that…

Please consider giving this record a listen and potentially a purchase.

Where to Stream/Purchase

You can follow the embedded links to stream the album on SoundCloud, or you can follow the Bandcamp link below. The album is available to purchase digitally, on Vinyl, or on Disc.