Maidstone is the debut album on Stroom by Swedish artist Velv.93, released as a double LP featuring 12 tracks of deeply immersive ambient music. Drawing from '90s ambient influences with understated drones, warbling tones, and scattered field recordings, it unfolds patiently like a slowly advancing glacier, offering a comforting yet chilly companion for winter introspection.
Behind the scenes, the record bears the imprint of a strong visual and spatial imagination. Mixed by Eraclio Pagliuca and Francesco Sodano at The Vessel Recordings and mastered by Mathieu Savenay, Notes from the Air has the depth and grain of a film soundtrack: sounds feel placed at differing distances, sometimes close enough to touch, sometimes just at the edge of perception. Artwork by Kenshiro Caravaggio Carena, photography by Salvatore Pastore and graphic design by Giovanni Difronzo extend the seagull’s ambiguous symbolism into images: grace and clumsiness, height and wreckage, the horizon as both promise and limit.