Cold Beaches Find Beauty in Contradiction with New Album 'Ambient Joy'

Paris-based indie-jazz outfit Cold Beaches, the creative vessel of DC-born singer-songwriter Sophia Nadia, return with their most introspective and immersive work to date, the 11-track album Ambient Joy. Led by the poignant single “Up and Down”, the record captures the delicate dance between melancholy and gratitude, offering a dreamlike reflection on love, loss, and the quiet grace of simply existing.

Recorded in Rome at Forward Studios with producer Lucas Christoff and engineer Francesco Putorti, Ambient Joy is a lush, cinematic experience. The album features a handpicked ensemble, Paolo Garoute (drums), Simon Xie (bass), and Tristan David (guitar), alongside Nadia herself on synths, piano, guitars, and vocals. Together, they conjure an atmospheric blend of indie-pop, jazz, and psychedelia, creating a sound that is as rich emotionally as it is sonically.

For Nadia, the album’s title encapsulates its central paradox.

“Ambient Joy is about finding joy in the things that may not seem as exciting,” she explains. “As mundane as life can be, you learn to be grateful for the monotony — for the grey areas — instead of waiting for life-altering events or trauma. It’s about finding beauty in the small, the silly, and the kind.”

That sentiment comes alive in “Up and Down”, a haunting meditation on grief written in the wake of losing a close friend. The song captures the surreal confusion of loss — the emotional limbo before the finality of death sinks in. With its raw vocal delivery and delicate piano arrangement, “Up and Down” is both devastating and comforting, a sonic elegy suspended between sorrow and serenity.

Across Ambient Joy, Cold Beaches masterfully balance opposites: joy and despair, love and loneliness, fantasy and truth. From the bilingual charm of opener “Bound to You” to the wistful reflection of closer “Could Be”, each song unfolds like a diary entry written in watercolour, soft yet deeply felt.

In a world that often demands extremes, Ambient Joy is a reminder of life’s middle ground, the quiet, glowing space where sadness and serenity coexist.