Over five years since Direwires‘ debut LP, There’s Life After Winter, was released on Moodgadget, the Ontario-based ambient producer has returned to the label with a new LP, Hearts in Stasis, on which you’ll find “Bayfield.” There seems to have been a recent surge in visibility of ambient music, particularly of the tape-based collage sort, but Direwires is not of this ilk, trading in the lo-fi fuzz and hiss of the ambient-tape music for a clarity and nuanced detail to his sounds that brings to mind the likes of William Basinski and Fennesz. On this particular track, Direwires slowly manipulates a steadily pulsing melodic loop and continues filtering, pitch-shifting, and processing it throughout the piece while gently adding layers of majestic chords and twinkling background sounds beneath his sonic tinkerings. As we approach the end of the piece, the loop slowly begins to disintegrate, washing away in gobs of delay and reverb before finally coming to an end. “Bayfield,” along with 11 other serene tracks, can be found on Hearts of Stasis when it’s released January 18.

Bayfield