Alaskan Tapes’ Brady Kendall Crafts Meditative Soundscapes in ‘Blank Slate / Open Space’
- Andy Roberts
- 15 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Toronto ambient composer Brady Kendall, performing under the moniker Alaskan Tapes, returns with a pair of hauntingly beautiful tracks, Blank Slate and Open Space, in collaboration with Portland saxophonist Blu Miles. These two deeply textured compositions mark a new chapter in Kendall’s career, combining intimacy, expansiveness, and emotional depth into a meditative AA-side release.
Over the past decade, Kendall has established himself as a quietly influential voice in modern ambient and neoclassical music, amassing hundreds of millions of streams and receiving accolades from BBC Radio 3, KEXP, and Apple Music. With this new release, he embraces total independence, creating music that balances restraint with emotional honesty.
The collaboration with Miles began remotely, with Kendall sending demos for improvisation. Upon receiving Miles’ recordings, Kendall scrapped his original parts and rebuilt the compositions from the ground up. The resulting tracks are lush yet minimal, alive with organic sounds, ambient creaks, subtle movement, and spatial nuances that give the music a living, breathing quality.
Blank Slate and Open Space form a reflective diptych, inviting listeners to sit with silence, texture, and the ebb and flow of emotion. Kendall describes the project as a proof of artistic freedom: “Now out of a recent record deal, I could do what I wanted—and this is what I came up with.” The music feels both personal and universal, intimate yet spacious, guided as much by intuition as by technique.
Accompanying the release is a short film directed by Kyle Rose, documenting the tender rituals of packing and moving. Its visual narrative mirrors the music’s themes of endings and beginnings, making the project a cohesive meditation on transition and impermanence.
With Blank Slate / Open Space, Alaskan Tapes reaffirms Kendall’s singular ability to transform imperfection, collaboration, and intuition into soundscapes that are as profoundly human as they are mesmerising. It’s an evocative, immersive release that proves his mastery of both mood and space.
