💿 Current rotation 💿

2000s sophisti-pop, Swedish ambient, and more

Jun 05, 2026

We’re making this month’s current rotation ~free~ in honor of everyone who came out to the American Spirits launch in NY this week—we loved seeing you turn up! Don’t forget to subscribe before my monthly album and perfume pairings dip behind the paywall. Listen along here, and as always, let me know what you’re listening to in the comments!

Ivy: Long Distance (2000)

I’m forever trying not to embarrass my Gen X gf with my cringe millennial taste, and I’m almost always failing. Except very occasionally, like when I listen to Ivy. New York sophisti-pop with a French lead singer is Vanessa 101. She nearly choked from excitement when I told her I was listening to Long Distance, Ivy’s third album. It was made during a rough stretch for the band, after they were dropped by Atlantic, lead singer Dominique Durand was pregnant, and their NYC studio had just burned down. They turned toward new wave and trip-hop, more melancholic than their previous records for obvious reasons. I’m pairing Long Distance with Frédéric Malle’s Iris Poudre, released the same year (2000), and also moody, French, and sophisticated beyond belief.

Boards of Canada: Inferno (2026)

While this album is contemporary, my girlfriend does not protest when I play it because Boards of Canada is a quintessential 90s dark downtempo band, her shit. Also, they aren’t American, which is crucial for Vanessa. But enough about her! Inferno is the Scottish duo’s first album in 13 years and brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin are still doing what they do best: ominous loops, analogue synths, crackled voices. Inferno is spooky like much of their early work, full of apocalyptic religious imagery and cryptic voiceovers. I’m pairing it with Jorum Studio’s Firewater, a smoky Scottish fragrance inspired by the Isle of Jura. Built around peat, seaweed, black tea, and charred woods, it matches Inferno‘s scorched apocalyptic atmosphere.

The Durutti Column: LC (1981)

I’ve always loved Vini Reilly’s circular, spectral guitar playing for reading and writing, which I do for most of my waking hours. And lucky for me, the Manchester band just announced Renascent, their first studio album in 16 years. Until then, I’ve been playing their second album LC—from the Italian anarchist slogan Lotta Continua, meaning “the struggle continues.” Apparently Reilly recorded the whole thing in five hours and cut it in two. I’m pairing it with its contemporary, Alfred Dunhill’s Blend 30 (1978), a restrained British fougère, featuring lavender, hay, leather, and incense to match the album’s precise and shadowed Englishness.

The Field: Now You Exist (2026)

Swedish ambient producer Axel Willner has been making hazy, looping micro-house as the Field since the mid-2000s. I love writing to all of his records and Now You Exist—his first in 8 years—is no exception. It’s slightly warmer and more buoyant than his previous albums. I’m pairing it with Swedish brand Stora Skuggan’s Monkeyflower, which smells of sunscreen, buttercup, and chamomile, sun-baked yellow florals that evoke the album’s Scandi summer vibe.

Sibylle Baier: Colour Green (2006)

German actress and singer Sibylle Baier recorded Colour Green at her home between 1970 and 1973, then put the tapes in a drawer for 30 years. Her son later compiled them onto a CD as a family gift and passed a copy to J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., who then passed it to Athens, Georgia indie label Orange Twin. They released it in February 2006. I’m pairing the quiet, melancholy folk that recalls Vashti Bunyan with Diorella (1972), sun-on-sliced-fruit brightness over damp moss and dry hay. Not only is it contemporaneous with the recordings, but it also matches the album’s intimate and slightly overripe feeling.

Yu Su: Foundry (2026)

Chinese-born, London-based producer Yu Su has spent the last decade drifting between Vancouver, Ibiza, and eventually London. Her similarly placeless but compelling second album Foundry recently dropped on Short Span, the buzzy young Sheffield label focused on dub techno and ambient. I’m pairing it with Abduction by The Eyes Are Always There—visual artist Joe Merrell and perfumer Christopher Gordon’s attempt to bottle what meeting an alien smells like! Metallic and ozonic top notes melt into spice, wood, and earth, like Foundry’s beating heart beneath the electronic sheen.