By: Kyle Rutherford

Ambient music and its producers don’t get enough of credit, sad to say, but Interchill Records has put in 20 years of solid work trying to change that. Aimed to showcase “organic electronica for expanding minds,” the Canadian label has released records and compilations featuring artists like Shpongle, Ott, Bassnectar, Phutureprimitive and many others. Their recent self titled compilation, Interchill, features some of the label’s favorite tunes they’ve released over the years.

Much of the album is focused primarily on ambient styled electronic music, with strong influences of world music and bits of psychedelia thrown in. It isn’t exactly the kind of music you want to play if you feel like dancing, but more the type for relaxing, studying and even falling asleep in hopes of lucid dreaming. Artists like Alucidnation and Kaya Project do a wonderful job at recording organic string sounds over their electronics to create a fairly superb sound.

Sun:monx (OPIUO + Austero) bring the tempo up on their two tunes and adds extra electronics to their organic strings to create a fuller sound. Bluetech, Lynx & Jamie Janover’s “To Mend” is the only tune where vocals are showcased more than instrumentals, creating a stripped down and beautiful world music sound.

Bass music powerhouse Liquid Stranger has two contributions on the record, as well. His sound on the record seems fresh compared to his more forward thinking bass music he has been toying with recently. “Zero Gravity” still features his gritty bass patch sounds, but keeps with the spacey ambient theme of the compilation, while “Fragments” is a seven and a half minute track of heavily reverbed dark and bright sounds.

If ambient music is your flavor, this Interchill compilation is going to be your holy grail.