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Billow Observatory
It seems like most (if not all) of the better ambient artists have moved onto other things in recent years, but Auburn Lull guitarist Jason Kolb and Danish producer Jonas Monk (Manual) have done their best to pick up the torch left behind by bands like Stars of the Lid.  Then again, perhaps this is just sort of an inadvertent time capsule of an earlier era, as Monk and Kolb's trans-Atlantic collaboration has been painstakingly unfolding since 2005.  In any case, the duo have done a fine job filling that languorous void (even if I was not terribly concerned about that particular void remaining open).
I generally think that entirely too much emphasis is placed on process in abstract music, but these 15 pieces originated in a somewhat unusual way, as Jason and Jonas set out to create imagined soundscapes for places they had never been (ie- Jonas would describe some place in Denmark and Jason would attempt to compose something that captured its essence).  Also, most of the music here was originally performed on only a guitar with some effects pedals, which is noteworthy only because it is recognizable as such only rarely.  I recognize that the whole album could have been recorded on a goddamn kazoo if Monk had an infinite amount of time to shape and process it with his software, but that origin gives the album a bit more of an organic flow than is common with ambient of the "I bought a synthesizer!" variety.
That said, Monk was much too overzealous in his processing for my taste, as many of these pieces are too edgeless and pastoral to offer anything particularly distinctive.  It is clear that the duo purposely set out to make an album of endless warm and shimmering swells, however, and they definitely succeeded at it, so it may be a bit unfair to critique them for not transcending their chosen genre.
Unfortunately, the handful of occasions where Billow Observatory allow themselves a bit of crackle and grit ("Helsinki Radio," for instance) stand out as obvious highlights and offer glimpses of what could have been a better album.  As it stands, it is merely a good one: anyone looking for slow-moving, dreamy ambiance will be quite happy with this effort (there is quite a lot of it), but I was hoping for a bit more.
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