Paris-based indie-jazz collective Cold Beaches, led by DC native Sophia Nadia, unveil their most ambitious work yet with Ambient Joy, an 11-track dreamscape that blurs the lines between grief and gratitude, despair and delight. At once lush, melancholic, and quietly radiant, the album showcases Nadia’s evolution from bedroom songwriter to globe-trotting bandleader, bringing together psychedelic textures, romantic flourishes, and rock undercurrents in a sound both intimate and expansive.
Recorded at Rome’s Forward Studios with producer Lucas Christoff and engineer Francesco Putorti, the album was sculpted by a carefully assembled band: Paolo Garoute (drums), Simon Xie (bass), Tristan David (guitar), and Nadia on synths, piano, guitar, and vocals. Written over several years, the songs wrestle with grief, anxiety, heartbreak, and the illusions of love, yet always circle back to the idea of resilience through acceptance.
“Ambient Joy is about finding joy in the things that may not seem as exciting,” Nadia explains. “It’s about trying to find your way in a world full of endless possibilities, all tragic, beautiful, silly, and kind.”
The lead single “Up and Down” encapsulates this ethos with striking emotional weight. Anchored by a grand piano and Nadia’s raw, aching vocals, the track drifts through the liminal space between denial and loss, the confusion of still searching for someone who has passed away, suspended in grief’s disorienting limbo. It’s one of the album’s most affecting moments: painful, gorgeous, and unforgettable.
Across its runtime, Ambient Joy thrives on contradiction. The bilingual opener “Bound to You” flirts with whimsy, while the closer “Could Be” offers quiet reflection, leaving the listener in contemplation. Rich indie-jazz arrangements disguise lyrical heaviness, creating a sonic duality where melancholy coexists with moments of shimmering beauty.
Since its beginnings in Richmond, Virginia, in 2015, Cold Beaches has steadily grown into a magnetic presence, sharing stages with Crumb, Slow Pulp, and Boyscott. With Ambient Joy, Nadia and her band deliver their most refined statement yet, a record that embraces life’s grey areas and finds, within them, a soft and enduring light.
Cold Beaches will celebrate the release with a September 24th show at Supersonic in Paris, giving fans the first chance to experience Ambient Joy live.
