Like many of the preceding 11 volumes,
Pop Ambient 2012 features a mix of familiar producers, new producers, and familiar producers under new aliases. Aksel Schaufler, whose
Superpitcher guise dates back to the Kompakt sublabel Kreisel 99, contributes his first
Pop Ambient track with "Jackson," a spooky, gradually intensifying piece that could pass for a Kompakt 100-style remix of
Justus Köhncke's 2001 B-side "Shelter." Longtime partners
Wolfgang Voigt and
Jörg Burger follow up their Total 12 debut as
Mohn with a score for a heavy-industry hallucination. Burger also makes his tenth series appearance as Triola, layering majestic flourishes over turbulent undercurrents on "Richmodis." The wobbly cello and rainfall FX of "Pan" come from Morek, "a familiar face from past times who is making an anonymous return" (Ulf Lohmann?
Dettinger? Klimek?). Two of the more notable tracks appear at the end of the program. Former
Slowdive drummer Simon Scott, who has released largely ambient albums on the Miasmah label and collaborated with Ghostly's like-minded
Sight Below, appears with a gently smudged elegy, while
Axel Willner (aka
the Field) unveils
Loops of Your Heart via "Riding the Bikes," flecked with a simple guitar melody and spritely blips. This doesn't have quite as many subtle, near-silent thrills as the best volumes in the series, but it should not be missed. ~ Andy Kellman