Ambient Country Fall Festival 2023

New York based trio SUSS bridge atmospheric minimalism with classic Americana instrumentation, pioneering a genre they call “ambient country,” – a term aptly defining their vivid and singular sound.
SUSS have been described by UNCUT as if “Eno’s Apollo Atmospheres crash-landed in America’s Sonoran Desert,” and by Pitchfork as “Neither rawboned nor ramshackle… elegantly composed brand of ambient country stands as tall and clean as a brand-new pair of cowboy boots.” In the spring of 2023, SUSS sold out four nights at New York City’s CultureLab and made their festival debut at Big Ears Festival. Their self-titled album SUSS was #5 on Popmatters’ Top 10 Best Ambient Albums of 2022.
Comprised of veteran musicians Pat Irwin (B-52s), Bob Holmes (Rubber Rodeo), and Jonathan Gregg (The Linemen), the group made the decision to carry on as a trio after the loss of founding member Gary Leib in 2020. Crafting their cinematic soundscapes with the resumes to back them up, SUSS weaves pedal steel, harmonica, a harmonium, mandolin, baritone guitar, and a National guitar interwoven with synthesizers and loopsall together, creating a massive and high lonesome sound.

www.sussband.com/

The Royal Arctic Institute is an instrumental, post-punk, cinematic jazz quintet.
Members John Leon (guitar), and Lyle Hysen(drums) combine 50+ years of experience (Das Damen, Roky Erickson’s backing band, & more). The quintet is rounded out by David Motamed (bass), Lynn Wright (guitar), and Carl Baggaley (keyboard). The group self-describe their music as “post-everything.” The new album “From Catnap To Coma To Catharsis” compiles the bands two previous cassette releases onto vinyl that Aquarium Drunkard called " a gorgeous mini-album’s worth of dreamlike compositions, like Tortoise covering Santo & Johnny."

www.theroyalarctic.com/

Seawind Of Battery: Clockwatching is the debut instrumental solo endeavor of Mike Horn. He leans deeper into the cosmic realm with his project, Seawind of Battery – an ambient, experimental exercise that acts as a sonic balm for those in a state of existential anxiety.Atmospheric and expansive, at first listen you would never know that Clockwatching was city-made music. Like his New York neighbors SUSS, Horn transports you to a wider sky with its patient, meandering flow. Guitar loops and call-and-response lap steel fill the space just so, and as the project title invokes, there’s a touch of an aquatic vibe here a la fellow New Yorkers Gunn-Truscinski Duo’s Soundkeeper, with its shimmering, endless drone behind intricate strums and haunting licks. Clockwatching is around-the-clock listening, unassuming and beautiful start to end.

seawindofbattery.bandcamp.com

Kendraplex - Dusty neofolk noise grunge. Singing songs with electric guitar. In the ether solo or grooving with band. At times organ/tape loop longformist. Relentlessly improvising on theside. Releasing music as or in collaboration with Kendraplex, Kendra Calhoun, Kendra Amalie, Names Divine, Mind Crush, The Eagle Greene, Psydye. Freaking Out with Kendraplex on WFMU. Live Cassette Tape DJ. 

http://kendraplex.xyz

DJ STEPDAD is an ambient and house project from Ted Davis, a writer and music journalist based in New York City. He will be performing a DJ set of walk-in music and accompanying music in between sets:
https://on.soundcloud.com/4xUJtjQXnxDWeyrU9