Toronto ambient composer Brady Kendall, known widely as Alaskan Tapes, returns with a breathtaking AA-side release that feels both like a homecoming and a quiet rebellion. Blank Slate and Open Space, created in collaboration with Portland-based saxophonist Blu Miles and paired with an introspective short film by Kyle Rose, mark a deeply personal new chapter for Kendall: one defined by independence, intuition, and an embrace of imperfection.
For more than a decade, Kendall has been one of ambient music’s most quietly influential forces. His sound, featherlight yet emotionally weighty, patient yet cinematic, has earned him devoted listeners across BBC Radio 3, KEXP, and Apple Music. But his work has never been about accolades or scale. It has always been about honesty rendered through restraint.
With “Blank Slate” / “Open Space,” that honesty is sharper than ever.
The project began simply: Kendall sent early demos to Blu Miles for improvisation. But when Miles sent back his saxophone lines, warm, breathy, and wandering, Kendall felt compelled to rebuild everything from scratch. “I scrapped my parts entirely and rewrote everything from the ground up,” he explains. The result is music that breathes, shifts, and shimmers with human presence. Even the sounds of life, footsteps, renovation noise, and ambient movement seep naturally into the recordings, turning unintended moments into emotional texture.
“Blank Slate” hums with suspended stillness, its minimalism animated by Miles’ intuitive phrasing. “Open Space” expands that palette outward, a gentle unfurling that feels like light flooding into a half-empty room. Together, they form a meditative diptych: a portrait of transition, longing, and the delicate courage required to begin again.
Kendall notes that “Blank Slate” was written as proof to himself that he no longer needed to fit into the expectations of ambient or neoclassical music. Newly free of a record deal, he let instinct lead. The result is some of his most tactile and vulnerable work to date — lush but minimal, noisy but gentle, experimental but deeply emotional.
“Blank Slate” / “Open Space” is a reclamation. A declaration that ambient music can be messy, alive, imperfect, and still transcendent. A reminder that sometimes, starting over is the most honest sound of all.
