Drifting In Silence released Artificial in 2016 through Labile Records. It is a 13-track album with a total running time of about 73 minutes.
Inside the release
The notes frame Artificial as a return to the roots of the project. Derrick Stembridge is quoted calling it pure ambient, and he names William Basinski as a heavy influence, alongside the nod to Brian Eno that runs through the genre. The layered percussion of the previous releases is gone. The opening track, Empty, is described as an overture that sets up the move back toward ambience for the rest of the album.
Later in the notes, the album is described as a series of variations on ideas introduced at the start, with individual instruments stepping forward in turn. Vocals appear too, but only through subtle vocoder treatments, so the voices are recognizable without any words getting in the way. The notes frame the record as a return to ambient form after a run of more percussive releases.
From the release notes
The notes on the album's Bandcamp page set the scene: "Artificial, the latest offering from Drifting in Silence, is a return to form, DiS owing its beginnings to the wave of musical innovation that was just becoming known at the time as ambient music."
Tracklist
- Empty (5:00)
- Takeaway (8:23)
- Descent (4:35)
- Surface (5:08)
- Oceans (5:19)
- Artificial (7:00)
- Falling (4:59)
- Origin (5:18)
- Across (5:51)
- Emotion (7:12)
- Stay (5:22)
- Intheend (3:28)
- Soulless (5:34)
Running times are from Apple Music. Apple Music files it under ambient; the Bandcamp tags list ambient, atmospheric, experimental, new age and soundscape.
Release details
- Release year: 2016
- Label: Labile Records
- Copyright line on Apple Music: ℗ 2016 Labile Records Inc
- Format on Bandcamp: digital album
- Number of tracks: 13
- Total running time: 73:09
About Drifting In Silence
Bandcamp lists Drifting In Silence in Raleigh, North Carolina. The artist bio there reads: "Drifting in Silence is the name of a longstanding ambient project undertaken by multi-instrumentalist and composer Derrick Stembridge." Other Labile Records releases from Drifting In Silence include Everything Beyond This Moment (August 2026), Where Waves Begin To Collide (April 2026), Fight or Flight (October 2025), Pathways II (October 2025), In the Still (September 2025), Beautiful Chaos of Truth (August 2025), Until Then (June 2025), Where Silence Takes Flight (March 2025), North Sea (November 2024), Echos Beyond (September 2024), Winters Past (February 2024), Timeless (May 2023), As You Drift Away (May 2023) and Clocks (April 2023).
About Labile Records
Labile Records is an independent label based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Its Bandcamp roster lists artists from across the United States and from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland. Recent label releases covered here include Neutrino Effect's They Shall Bring Death Upon Us and Subtlemanor's Never Alone.
Listen
- Bandcamp. Artificial on Bandcamp, sold as a digital album, with more from the artist at Drifting In Silence on Bandcamp.
- Apple Music. Stream Artificial on Apple Music.
Disclosure: Labile Records is owned by the publisher of Unknowndivide.
