Stephan Kunze‘s (ambient) album of the year

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – Gift Songs (Mexican Summer)

Even if I’ve loved it from the start, this record has grown so much on me since its release in May 2025. There’s an undeniable magic about this unassuming work that made me keep coming back to it. Whenever I needed a sonic equivalent to a soothing weighted blanket, I could rarely resist the call of that infectious 20-minute piece on the A-side, “The Milky Sea”.

Shortly before the album release, I interviewed Jefre Cantu-Ledesma for the Buddhist magazine Tricycle. He’s an experienced experimental musician who’s originally from Texas but has been living on the Westcoast for a long time and has now been based in Upstate New York for a while, working by day as a Zen Buddhist priest and hospice chaplain. This gentle acoustic ambient record is an offering and an expression of his compassionate worldview – an fascinating kaleidoscope of timbres, tones and textures, based on decades of mindful improvisation practice.

(Written by the man behind Zen Sounds)