When you think of ambient music, I can guess one of the first names you think of is Aphex Twin, followed by Boards Of Canada probably. Hora Lunga are even more strange and far out sounding than those two combined in this collection of ambient tunes. Think of white noise paired with strange, slowed down beats. Makes you feel a bit out of sorts listening to it.
The opening track, ‘DJ’ is distorted house track, with a stop start beat looping throughout. The lounge sounding keyboard chords that get played in the track echo something heard in an old PlayStation game (as someone who spent a lot of time in the menu of Gran Turismo 5, it feels like it matches that perfectly). ‘Karma’ is a bundle of heavy distorted synths and a noise that I can only compare to a really bad radio signal throughout the track (see Radiohead’s ‘The Gloaming’ and you’ll get a rough idea). ‘Hearing Through The Wall’ features the first vocal on the album from Junge Eko, who is quite peaceful with her voice. It has that stop start sound again with the far away sounding piano. Then some arcade sounding effects just start blasting in the middle of the song which disrupts the entire thing. Chaos. ‘Supersano’ has a house vibe to it, with the beat pounding. Android like vocals ring through the track, it certainly has that Aphex Twin sound going on.
‘CTRL Z’ is a strange one. It sounds like Violeta García is being murdered while singing (if it can be called that) while the heavy beat continues. It almost comes across as hyperpop, albeit slowed down. But it isn’t a pleasant experience. ‘78927908092907’ (that is a PAIN to type) is basically a different version of Radiohead’s ‘Fitter Happier’, only it’s just the number repeated throughout the song and a distorted violin chord playing. The weirdness continues. ‘The Natural Force That Attracts Things Toward The Earth’ is a spacey sounding number, with the melody sounding extra-terrestrial. So far the album has been a culmination of ambient sleep music and loud shoegaze. And all I can say is that it sounds strange, not good or bad but something weird. ‘Doom Metal’ is quite a cool track, the beat ascending throughout. It sounds like something JPEGMAFIA would sample for one of his tracks.
‘Dry Run’ features IOKOI on vocals, backed by this strange looped vocal sound effect before the beat kicks in and it just sounds loud. Not a great track. ‘Heartbeat’ is a mix of ambient and techno, the beat is heavy but the alarm noises through the track feel quite slow and out of place. Wonky is what I would call it. ‘Outro’ is another spoken word track overlayed with what sounds like an electrical box having a short circuit. It cuts the ears and has an almost evil feeling attached to it. I’ll be perfectly honest, the rest of the album pretty much repeats itself, there’s only so much you can do with ambient tracks.
Hora Lunga may have some interesting ideas brewing in this compilation, but unfortunately most of those ideas culminate to a lot of fuzzy sound, and I know that’s what ambient music can be known for, but it just feels out of sorts here. If you are into the weird and strange side of ambient music, then this compilation is for you. Unfortunately, I am not, so it falls on death ears a little.
Hora Lunga: New Age Music Vol. 2-3 – Out 17 April 2026 (New Age Music)
