Avant Music News Best of 2022: Part II – Albums of the Year

To the extent that these lists mean much of anything, here are my favorite recordings of 2022. Many of these albums have been reviewed here at AMN, and such reviews have been linked in the list below.

As usual, the list is so lengthy that we broke it into two separate postings. The “best of” is today, and the honorable mentions were yesterday. Let me add the usual disclaimer that this list is incomplete, I have not heard all 2022 releases, and it is a mathematical certainty that I have missed a few really good ones. Enjoy.

Like this list? Feel free to peruse previous years’ lists.

Albums of the Year

Dunn, Trevor / Trio Convulsant – Seances
Van Cauwenberghe, Kobe – Ghost Trance Septet plays Anthony Braxton

Best of 2022

Adams, John Luther – Sila: The Breath of the World
Alphaxone – The Infinite Void
Apocryphos – Phantoms Received
Apparitions – Eyes Like Predatory Wealth
Argyre Plantia – The Great Dark Spot
Ascending Divers – Watery Domain
Asker – Tacet
Atrium Carceri & Kammarheit – Colossus
Attic, The (Amado / Almeida / Govaert) – Love Ghosts
Becuzzi, Gianluca – Axis Mundi
Bégin, Richard – Fragile Section
Blake, Jason – The Compromise Rationale
Bohannon, J.R. – Compulsions
Breath Of Air – Breath Of Air
Brian! – The Cataclysmic Engine

Cameron, Lisa / Damon Smith / Alex Cunningham – Time Without Hours
Chacon, Raven / Tatsuya Nakatani / C.Santistevan – Inhale/Exhale
Cocks, Laura – field anatomies
Collier-Ford, Randal – Thaumaturgy
Collier-Ford, Randal – The Red Faith
Congregation of Drones – Twenty Twenty
Cryo Chamber Collaboration – Tsathoggua
Cunningham, Alex / Thom Nguyen / Patrick Shiroishi – Basket of Knives
Dronny Darko / G M Slater – Dissolving into Solitary Landscapes
Ensemble T.ON – Plays La Berge | Greenstone | Pluta | Wooley
Ericson, Sture / Pat Thomas / Raymond Strid – Bagman Live at Cafe Oto

Flying Luttenbachers, The – Terror Iridescence
Fractalyst – Watchtower
Fujiwara, Tomas / Triple Double – March
Gauci, Stephen / M.Shipp / Parker / Mela – Live at Scholes Street Studio
Gdanian – Induction
Glover, Caldon – Labyrintia
GOATFACE! – Akhenaten Bazucas
graz, antxnio – LOADING//:fluids
Grdina, Gordon – Oddly Enough – The Music of Tim Berne
Great Old Ones, The – Yog-Sothoth
Grey Frequency – Empyrean / Ritual (Single)

Gustafsson, Mats & NU Ensemble – Hidros 8 – Heal
Halvorson, Mary – Amaryllis
Hard Rubber Orchestra – Iguana
Hausswolff, Anna von – Live at Montreux Jazz Festival
Heldon – Antelast
Irarrázabal, Amanda & Gabby Fluke-Mogul – RAYAS
Jagath – Svapna
Karris, Reid – The Happy Life of the Tired
Karris, Reid and the Man from Atlantis – Onomatopoeia

Kidambi, Amirtha / Luke Stewart – Zenith/Nadir
Lawler, Fergal – All Hope Is Never Lost
Leonard, Cheryl – Antarctica: Music from the Ice
Llyn Y Cwn – Du Y Moroedd
Malaby, Tony – The Cave of Winds
Mayas, Magda / Tony Buck / John Butcher – glints
McClennan, Daniel – Unfurling Redemption
Merzbow & Arcane Device – Merzbow & Arcane Device
Michelle, Chantal – Pulse, Puls-ar, Procession
Mirlitorrinco – Odas Mixtas Para Criaturas Mínimas
Mondkopf – Spring Stories
Moses, Rakalam Bob / Damon Smith – Purecircle

Motl, Kyle / Patrick Shiroishi – Apparitions
Mount Shrine – All Roads Lead Home
Nihiti – Sustained
Nox – Abyssal Codex
Nyctalllz – BJB
Oort Smog – Every Motherfucker Is Your Brother
Pavone, Jessica – When No One Around You is There but Nowhere to be Found
Pavone, Jessica / Luke Koenig / Matt Mottel – Spam Likely
Phaneronaut – Anabasis
Pilgrimage to Pleroma & Ashtoreth/Neuman/Stratosph – UR (split)
Pinhas, Richard / Merzbow – CODA
Pulverize the Sound (Evans, Dahl, Pride) – Black

Purton, Alice / Alex Roth – inpouring
Quail, Jo – The Cartographer
Ruehlen, Ryan Wade – Tropic of Paranoia
Ruf, Christina – STRØM
RÝR – Transient
Santos Silva, Nebbia, Alonso, Bergman Quartet – Ritual Para Acercarse
Sarattma – Escape Velocity
Scatter The Atoms That Remain – Emancipation Suite
Seabrook, Brandon / Trio – In the Swarm
Secret People – Secret People
Shead, Adam / Quintet – Full Cycle, Thread New

Shipp, Matthew / Trio – World Construct
Shiroishi, Patrick – Evergreen
Shiroishi, Patrick / Marta Tiesenga – Empty Vessels
Shrine – Nausicaä
Skrika – Soludenia
Sonologyst – Interdimensional
SSWAN (Ackerley, Shiroishi, Williams, Stewart, Nazary) – Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster
Stukot – Transitions
TenHornedBeast – The Lamp of No Light
Thisquietarmy x Away – Machine Consciousness, Phase III

Thumbscrew (Halvorson / Formanek / Fujiwara) – Multicolored Midnight
Tineidae – Mothership
Titan to Tachyons – Vonals
Ullén, Lisa / Elsa Bergman / Anna Lund – Space
Ulvtharm – Wreko
Undirheimar – Vardlokkur
Various Artists – Vision of Darkness Vol. II
Various Artists – Anthology of Post industrial and Experimental Music from Italy
Various Artists – Anthology of Contemporary Music from South Africa
Various Artists – Hauntology in the UK
Various Artists – The Body of Horror – Music Inspired by the Cinema of David Cronenberg
Various Artists – Tomb of Primordials (Cryo Chamber)
Various Artists (CL / DFB / JDO / S) – Bassbients
Verhoeven, Martina / Quintet – Driven – Live at Roadburn 2022

Voutchkova, Biliana / Tomeka Reid – Bricolage III
Voutchkova, Biliana and Leila Bordreuil – The Seventh Water
Wild Up / Julius Eastman – Joy Boy
Wooley, Nate / Columbia Icefield – Ancient Songs of Burlap Heroes
YiYuan, Liang – Those That Die in a Dream. A twenty years retrospective
Yuleman, Mombi – Hours Lost
Zorn, John – Spinoza
Zucker, Gabriel – Leftover Beats (Live)
Zucker, Gabriel / Gyarfas Attila – Cities and Deserts