Described by Aurgasm as “gentle wanderings between nostalgia and daydream,” the songs of Priscilla Ahn (and even the voice on occasion) remind me of Aimee Mann, one of my all-time favorite female singer/songwriters. Absolutely lovely stuff. You can listen to both of the songs quoted below here, visit Priscilla Ahn’s MySpace page, and view the video of A Dream at YouTube.

From A Dream:

Long walks in the dark
Through woods grown behind the park,
I asked God who I’m supposed to be.
The stars smiled down on me,
God answered in silent reverie.
I said a prayer and fell asleep.

From Lullaby:

This old library has thirty books and one dictionary.
But thats ok, no one reads anyway, we all watch tv.

Soundcastles is a wonderful solo album by Pretz (aka Neil Cowley), the keyboardist from Zero 7. Jazzy, atmospheric chillout music. Top down, breeze-through-your-hair stuff. Give a listen to the track entitled Chapel Stile (my current favorite) courtesy of Last.FM:

Another Soma FM find…a tune entitled Spumante by the Scandinavian band Mindtrap. You can hear more (and longer) excerpts, as well as purchase their music, at CD Baby. Wonderful downtempo chill music with a touch of melancholy North. Here’s a quick listen from Last.FM:

Soma FM played an angelic little number tonight called Seven Minutes of Sun by a band named Lumo. I can find precious little on these guys except that they’re Finnish and the only place the song seems to be available is on an ambient compilation CD called Interior Horizons. Here’s an all-too-brief taste from Last.FM:

I’ve really been getting into the downtempo chill genre lately. First it was Zero 7 and their song This World and now (again, thanks to Soma FM), it is a group called Afterlife. I’m especially fond of the song Take Me Inside. Check out this excerpt of Speck of Gold, courtesy of Last.FM (click the arrow button to listen):

While listening to Soma FM yesterday, I heard a song that really caught my attention—This World, from the album Simple Things by Zero 7. I’m going to have to hear more from these guys…check out this excerpt, courtesy of Last.FM (click the arrow button to listen):

There’s this piece of music used in the film The Man Who Fell To Earth and also in the John Cassavetes film Tempest (during a scene where a very youthful Molly Ringwald is swimming underwater). I’ve always loved this music…a dreamy, languorous violin piece called Wind Words from the long out-of-print album Freedom Is Frightening by Stomu Yamashta. It took years for me to discover who the composer was and to actually obtain a copy. You can get it at Craig Moerer’s excellent online store Records By Mail. As one Amazon reviewer put it, the piece is “paralyzingly gorgeous.” I agree completely!