Sadly, this West Bend, WI (due north of Milwaukee) instrumental dreampop quintet, led by guitarist Ross Severson and his wife Aggie on keyboards, announced in August they’d be playing their last show. But they’re forming a new band with Aggie on vocals, so I’m betting they’ll continue to make captivating music. With compositions like the alternately twinkly/thundering “Wake,” the sorrowful, cavernous “Veil,” and the drifting-then-crashing “Drift,” the aptly-titled Farewell ends their seven-year alliance on a snow-peaked high.

About this elusive, eccentric Cleveland duo’s 2011 Lights Lights Lights, I said: “Labeling them is ultimately a fruitless endeavor – they’re like nothing you’ve heard.” Unlike that LP, which was recorded live, keyboardist Molly Pamela (AKA McKay) and drummer Joseph Joseph (AKA Rafidi) have been working on this follow-up since 2010. Does that mean Sunblur sounds more “planned out”? Nope – it’s just as frenzied, unsettling, spontaneous, and weird as its predecessor! It’s also similarly ear-tickling, and it’ll accompany a Sunblur movie, due in March.

I remember being mesmerized by Topeka, KS experimentalist Aaron Martin’s haunting sound collages on 2010’s Worried About the Fire. I called it “the perfect antidote for serious late-night contemplation,” and that’s also true of this collaboration, done with Swedish electronic artist Dag Rosenqvist, who records as Jasper TX. Martin’s disturbed, oddly-tuned cello continually hovers around Rosenqvist’s eerie, enveloping keyboards, creating mind-expanding music. Give it time, and it will deeply permeate and revitalize your soul.

I liked the breezy, trippy pop of this NY group’s self-titled 2007 debut, led by ex-Ankles frontman Shaun Towey, and recorded with members of Higgins. But Towey has since veered into instrumental avant-garde music, taking an off-the-cuff, unconstrained approach. No two tracks on Plastik sound alike, whether the motorik-inspired stormer “Eves Eve,” the bubbly “Soon There Will Be a Summit,” the Velvets-like “Freedom or Boredom” (the only song with vocals, recalling the debut), or the slow-building, sample-heavy dirge “Hit the Space Bar.”

I’ve yet to hear the self-titled 2012 LP – their first in six years – from this New Haven, CT trio, led by married couple Aaron and Adrienne Snow (though I loved its first single, “Heart Finds the Beat”). But the suddenly prolific combo has already followed it up with this album-length five-songer. Throughout, the slightly submerged production and warm, pulsating beats sound just right. And when coupled with Adrienne’s seductive cooing, as on the playful “Patterns” or the spellbinding, 19-minute title track, this style rarely feels so gorgeously hypnotic.

Though just “released” on Bandcamp last year, this Colorado ambient trio’s debut is from 2001. Here’s what I wrote, back in issue 48: “Sounds dart in and out from everywhere – with crackling synths, throbbing bass, shimmering guitar signatures, fuzzy static tones, propulsive lasers, even high-pitched dolphin squeals – all serving to accompany and counterbalance the soaring atmospherics.” It still sounds sublime over a decade later. Now a duo, they’ve released four LPs since, including a new song in 2012 – so they’re still going strong!

Orem, UT electronic artist Karl Jørgensen has strayed from the blippy, lo-fi bedroom pop of 2007’s Spirits, into more ambient territory. Following his pretty 2011 Aerosol EP (containing “bootleg edits” of tunes by ELO, Kraftwerk, Raymond Scott, Deuter, Mark McGuire, and Jack Nitzsche), this cassette release is a “collection of ambient songs built around repeating sequences created by his prototypical music generation system.” The description sounds sterile, but fear not: Jørgensen skillfully massages his buoyant synths to create soothing, meditative headphone music.

Pola is centered on Catania, Italy-based musician and theatre soundtrack writer Tazio Iacobacci (formerly in Keen Toy, Tellaro, and Feldmann), whose attractive electro-folk characterized 2007’s eponymous debut and 2010’s The Future is Bright EP. But I’m not sure what inspired the radical departure on this terse four-songer. It’s much harsher than Pola’s past work; as the title reveals, each tune is encrusted in thick layers of mucky distortion. Topped off with Iacobacci’s near-whispered, passive vocals, it nevertheless makes for an intriguing listen.

Though Kent, OH new media artist Steven K. Smith has been involved in many bands (Spiricom, Dolmen, Mabou, and Daye of Skye), I first heard him on his unearthly, atmospheric 2005 solo LP Totality::6.10.94, which chronicled a solar eclipse. He’s also working alone as ASitS, but Transmissions rocks much harder. The earthshaking, tribal drums that surfaced briefly on Totality are here in full force, while dense, raging guitars, supernatural sounds/voices, and boundless synths will give your tweeters (and your downstairs neighbor’s ceiling) an intense workout.

Perpetually touring (or so it seems) Montreal duo Marc St. Louis and Matilda Perks haven’t released much since 2009’s beguiling debut Sometimes Water Kills People. But a new LP is set to arrive in April; until then, this three-song 2011 tour EP will tide us over. If it’s any indication, the “ambient folk” tag no longer quite fits, as these tunes employ grittier guitars and a murkier percussive stomp. But there are still plenty moments of beauty, especially when the breathy Perks takes the mic, as on the old West-tinged “Debt Bondage.”