Ambient is not concerned with accelerating, but with decelerating the passage of time. Hence, within the genre stasis is a feature and not a bug: Rather than striving for innovation, it is either dialoguing with the past or taking its cues from contemporary styles. The music of Florian TM Zeisig regularly moves between the two poles of neon-coloured nostalgia and esoteric presentism. 2024’s “Planet Inc,” his first release for STROOM, saw him delve into hazy memories of Germany’s iconic Space Night late-night television show, while for his second album on Nosedrip’s label, he embraces a spiritual jazz-inspired take on ambient—though the release note, accompanied by a poem apparently penned by Zeisig, points out that “A New Life” is neither to be understood as an album nor as belonging to any genre at all.
This kind of posturing does the album, which is what it is, a disservice precisely because it is rather typical of the genre to which it definitely belongs because it positions itself in its various traditions and strains. Zeisig works with common new age tropes such as field recordings of waves crashing on the shore and blends this with partially improvised harp and saxophone contributions by Róisín and Cathal Berkeley as well as cello recordings by Lia Mazzarri in ways that evoke the aesthetics of the Leaving label. None of this means that the patchouli-scented soundscapes that Zeisig conjures up and expands upon with these acoustic contributions—something he does with a stunning sense for dynamism—sound cliché, though they definitely border on kitsch.
Like any good ambient artist, Zeisig isn’t too concerned with the future but rather with prolonging the present, injecting his music with a sense of ephemeral presence: atmosphere, feeling, vibe.
A New Life
