Bosques de mi Mente - Lo-Fi

Bosques de mi Mente (Spanish for Forests of my Mind) is an independent project started in 2007 in Spain. The music is melancholic, piano-based ambient/neo-classical. All the albums are available for free download from the artist's website. Recommended!

Artist: Bosques de mi Mente
Album: Lo-Fi
Year: 2007
Genre: ambient, neo-classical, piano, melancholic

Tracks:
1. Paseo 1, primavera 5:17
2. Los titánicos esfuerzos de una bicicleta oxidada por avanzar
3. Un niño que ya no existe jugando con el viejo piano
4. Paseo 2, verano (la niña de Hiroshima)
5. Tormenta de verano
6. El amanecer reflejado en tus ojos, parte 1
7. Paseo 3, otoño
8. El mensaje de las ballenas
9. El amanecer reflejado en tus ojos, parte 2
10. Paseo 4, invierno (el largo y tedioso camino a casa)
11. Cuando se hayan ido todos, tan solo quedará el crujir de sus columpios al viento

Official Website (free albums here!)
Last.fm
MySpace

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Catherine A.D. - The Bedroom Sessions

Catherine A.D. is the work of British multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Catherine Anne Davies. Catherine A.D. has scarlet hair (dyed) and a black throat (real). Her output to date consists of the three DIY EPs she’s been drip-dropping out into the world whilst finishing university. Apparently, this one was recorded in her bedroom ..."whilst I was supposed to be finishing my English Literature degree". A great, dark album that everyone must listen! I've seen her live at Latitude festival a few months ago; great performance!

Artist: Catherine A.D.
Album: The Bedroom Sessions
Year: 2009
Genre: dark, melancholic, indie

Tracks:
1. Long Year
2. Missiveh
3. Crave
4. Grow Out
5. Black Eyed Dog (Nick Drake cover)
6. The Heart is a Lonesome Hunter
7. Ripe
8. The Congregation
9. Bury Me
10. Instrumental #21

Official Website
Other releases@bandcamp.com
Last.fm
MySpace

Download/listen from here (if you like it, buy it):

Soap&Skin - Lovetune for Vacuum

Soap & Skin is the piano-driven musical project of 19-year-old Austrian artist Anja Plaschg. After releasing a string of songs on compilations and a series of live appearances throughout 2008, Plaschg released an untitled EP the same year, consisting of four tracks and including a cover of Nico’s “Janitor of Lunacy.” This is her first full-length album, released on Coach Records. Absolutely brilliant debut!

Artist: Soap&Skin
Album: Lovetune for Vacuum
Year: 2009
Genre: piano, dark, melancholic, experimental

Tracks:
1. Sleep
2. Cry Wolf
3. Thanatos
4. Extinguish Me
5. Turbine Womb
6. Cynthia
7. Fall Foliage
8. Spiracle
9. Mr. Gaunt PT 1000
10. Marche Funèbre
11. The Sun
12. DDMMYYYY
13. Brother Of Sleep

Official Website (buy from here)
Last.fm
MySpace

Check the comments to listen before you buy.

Chinawoman - Party Girl

Chinawoman is a solo recording artist from Toronto, Canada. Her sound can be traced to the exclusive Russian-only clubs of Toronto, where men in silk shirts croon tales of heartache over bossa nova synth, and to the ballet school where Chinawoman spent her youth a spectator of melodrama set to Chopin. Songs are lush with 70’s epic and/or Red Army Choir-style choruses, East-European melodies and restrained low-spoken vocals. All songs are written, performed and engineered by Chinawoman, who plays all the instruments. Chinawoman self-released her debut album “Party Girl” in the spring of 2007. Moscow based label Exotica-Soyuz did a reissue of the album in the fall of 2008. This is a fantastic debut! Dark, melancholic and beautiful! Highly recommended!

Artist: Chinawoman
Album: Party Girl
Year: 2007
Genre: dark, melancholic, folk

Tracks:
1. Lovers are Strangers
2. Aviva
3. Party Girl
4. I Kiss The Hand of My Destroyer
5. Left You at The Farm
6. Friday Night
7. I’ll Be Your Woman
8. Montreal Love Theme
9. Party Girl (Party Mix)

Official Website
Last.fm
MySpace

Buy from CB Baby.
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Last Harbour - Hold Fast, Pioneer

Last Harbour are a Manchester-based band playing rustic, cinematically atmospheric songs that rattle and loom, at once epic and intimate, harsh and beautiful. The seven-piece band operate as a collective of like-minded musicians, all of whom are involved in other artistic work including illustration, photography, writing, filmmaking and recording.

Artist: Last Harbour
Album: Hold Fast, Pioneer
Year: 2005
Genre: folk, melancholic, slowcore

Tracks:
1. China White
2. Circle
3. We Always Said
4. I Come For The Unsaved
5. Corrosives
6. His Cold Hand
7. Part II
8. Your Verses
9. Johnny Row
10. Serpents
11. Silver Leaves
12. The Ties That Bind
13. The Note

Official Website
Last.fm
MySpace

Please support this band. Buy from here.
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Escape the Day - Ghostless

Escape The Day was a post-rock band from Berlin, Germany, formed in 2003, who took influence from acoustic and ambient music. Their unreleased album “Ghostless” (2005) was put on hold due to the suicide of band member Christoph Florian Rehse (1979-2005). After 2005 Escape The Day has stopped, and is forever dedicated to the love and memory of Florian. Their work was described as “Great music for lonely walks, hangovers or just falling asleep.”. Their music can sweep you into its arms of melancholy. Pure brilliance!

Artist: Escape the Day
Album: Ghostless
Year: 2005
Genre: post-rock, melancholic, downtempo, ambient

Tracks:
1. Hallways
2. Ghostless
3. Days
4. The Hour Undone
5. If I Told You
6. Still
7. This Wave's Length
8. Last Words

Fanpage
Last.fm
MySpace

Check the comments to listen.

Perry Blake - Still Life

Perry Blake is an Irish singer and songwriter, known for the delicate, downtempo, melancholic style of his songs and his soft singing voice. His 1998 self-titled debut album was very successful in the UK and won critical praise. Perry Blake has gained a lot of popularity in France, where his music was used for the soundtracks of the films Presque rien (2000) and 3 petites filles (2004). His musical influences are Leonard Cohen, David Sylvian, Scott Walker, and Nick Drake. This is his second album released in 1999. Highly recommended!

Artist: Perry Blake
Album: Still Life
Year: 1999
Genre: indie, downtempo, melancholic

Tracks:
1. Sandriam
2. This time it's goodbye
3. Leave it all behind
4. No lullabies
5. If i let you in
6. Bury me with her
7. Still lives
8. Friend (you've been whispering again)
9. War in France
10. Stop breathing
11. Driftwood
12. Give me back my childhood
13. Wise man's blues

Official Website
Last.fm
MySpace
YouTube channel

Buy from here.
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Vinterriket - Horizontmelancholie

Vinterriket is one of the three ambient projects of the German artist Christoph Ziegler (Nebelkorona, Nocternity, Atomtrakt, ex-Graven). This project is mostly used to output his cold and melancholic soul into music. In 2004, Vinterriket joined Nocternity (for whom he had already created two instrumental outro and intro tracks) as a permanent keyboard player. Vinterriket is Norwegian and Swedish for "The Winter Realm". Most of the work is dark ambient or ambient black metal. Not aggressive and very calming in both genres. This is his most recent album. Really good!

Artist: Vinterriket
Album: Horizontmelancholie
Year: 2009
Genre: ambient, dark, experimental

Tracks:
1. Schattengeraeusche
2. Durch die Weiten der Landschaft
3. Herbstreich
4. Irrlichterscheinung
5. Bergtal
6. Wogen des Firmamentes
7. Waldkult

Official Website
Last.fm
MySpace

Check the comments to listen before you buy!

Early Day Miners - Let Us Garlands Bring

Early Day Miners is an American group from Bloomington, Indiana, and is self-described as "musical cooperative". They spin American rural music into richly cinematic, experimental textures that contain a prominent streak of melancholy (and some slowcore tendencies). In my opinion, this is their best album, released in 2002. Enjoy!

Artist: Early Day Miners
Album: Let Us Garlands Bring
Year: 2002
Genre: slowcore, ambient, post-rock

Tracks:
1. Centralia
2. Santa Carolina
3. Offshore
4. Silvergate
5. Summer Ends
6. Autumn Wake
7. Light In August
8. A Common Wealth

Official Website
Last.fm
MySpace

Check the comments to listen before you buy!

Elizabeth Anka Vajagic - Stand With The Stillness Of This Day

Elizabeth Anka Vagajic is a singer and guitarist from Montreal who writes dark folk/blues music. This is her excellent debut album released by the great independent label Constellation Records, the label of some of the greatest post-rock bands in the world (GYBE, Silver Mt. Zion and Do Make Say Think). A few members from those bands play in this record. Absolutely brilliant album!

Artist: Elizabeth Anka Vagajic
Album: Stand With The Stillness Of This Day
Year: 2004
Genre: folk, blues, dark, melancholic

Tracks:
1. With Hopes Lost
2. Around Here
3. Where You Wander
4. Iceland
5. Why
6. And The Sky Lay Still
7. Sleep With Dried Up Tears

At Constellation Records
Last.fm
MySpace
A few live performances at archive.org here

Check the comments to listen before you buy!