Female Producers in Dark Ambient
I realized that I wasn’t paying enough attention to actively seeking out and promoting female producers in this genre. This post is an attempt to remedy that – please listen to these artists and support them. Art always needs every voice, every viewpoint, and every experience to remain relevant to our lives.
My first recommendation is Songs from the Omega Point by Gail Priest. It might not be as dark as others, but it still carries the melancholy, the posthuman feeling, and the occasional glitchy, screaming noises that counterpoint the otherwise serene atmosphere of the tracks.
I have mentioned Gydja before, but now I recommend her 2023 album, Þjóðáar Fnæstu Eitri. The music is slow but full of little surprises, demanding active listening from the audience. Take your time, it’s worth it.
With Virgo Infernus by Chthonia, we wander into the more ritual territory of the dark underground. To quote the Bandcamp page: “'Virgo Infernus' is a dark ambient/dark folk journey through a necromantic rite of sinistral Profanus Gamos, venerating both the supernal marriage between the Witch and the Devil, and a love affair with the grave.”
ProtoU is another producer I recommended before; here’s another album from her, The Voice of Serenity. Slow, dreamy soundscapes and immersive field recordings await the listener.
Puce Mary’s music is closer to the industrial end of our spectrum, but her 2018 album The Drought is a shift toward cinematic, psychological dread. It blends intricate field recordings with dense sound that are as intimate as they are disturbing.