Ambient Composer Six Missing Announces New Six-Song EP ‘Gentle Breath’; Shares the Ominous New Single “Storm”

Austin-based ambient composer TJ Dumser aka Six Missing is known for calming, meditative releases like 2023’s Here For Now and the recent counter:point EP collaboration with neo-classical artist Clariloops. Today, Dumser is proud to announce his next project, Gentle Breath, due out December 6th via Nettwerk. Despite the title, the six-song EP is tense and complicated as Six Missing worked through a mental health crisis to produce one of the most impactful releases of his career. “Storm” is the first single that rolls in with dark and ominous tones. It represents the rock-bottom feeling that often precedes lifting yourself back up towards the light.

TJ Dumser explains more about the song’s tone: “Silence and emptiness populate this place, echoes of things you ‘should’ve done’ or places you ‘could’ve gone’ line the endless caverns. You’re not frightened, because you realize it’s just you, and you aren’t really who you think you are. Your ego is the prison guard not wanting you to clock the keys on the wall next to you. But your awareness doesn’t allow you to overlook it, and you soon unlock your own door and walk free. ‘Storm’ is this place we all hit before we make a change. It’s hollow and deep – a place most of us have been before and hope to not return to. But even inside this dark place are remnants of light – outlined by the vibraphone. Heads up, everything is okay.”

Six Missing has quickly integrated himself as an innovator in the ambient music space. His artist name takes inspiration from a supernatural experience he had in a cabin in rural Pennsylvania that once was the site of the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Brandywine, where six participants’ remains were never found. Since launching in 2017, Six Missing has curated thoughtful soundscapes meant for inner-journeying logging collaborations with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, St. Lucia, Ann Annie, Jamie Lidell, Clariloops, and more. He’s amassed millions of listens and received critical praise from Headphone Commute, CLASH, Inverted Audio, and others.

Listen & Share Six Missing “Storm” Here:
https://sixmissing.ffm.to/storm

TJ Dumser’s new EP as Six Missing is a lushly iridescent and unexpected turn in what’s already become an impressive discography in the realm of ambient music. Inky and gorgeously spread, Gentle Breath finds Dumser immersing himself head-first in complicated emotions and feelings of uncertainty, resulting in the most striking music of his career thus far. As a project, Six Missing has already come to represent a wide range of aural ambient tapestries; the devil is always in the details with Dumser’s work, and Gentle Breath is his most richly complex work yet.

The project arrives following a period of highly visible industriousness when it comes to Dumser’s musical career. In addition to Six Missing’s exquisite and lovely Here For Now LP released last year, 2024 has already seen the release of counter:point, an intriguing electro-acoustic collaboration with Ruby Lulham of Clariloops. As it turns out, however, this spate of incredible productivity came at a price, and in the summer of 2023, Dumser found himself staring down a mental health crisis as a result of being overworked.

“I was in a really low spot,” he recalls. “I was feeling out of gas and completely burned out, and it did a number on me.” While Dumser says he’s still processing the “ramifications” of this mental crash period, he also stresses the creation of Gentle Breath helped him in processing how to take care of oneself and move forward. “By having these little sessions with myself, I started looking back on my experiences with a new sense of perspective. I could really hear how anxious and depressed I was feeling.”

Refers to himself as “a classic workaholic,” Dumser cites his decade of sobriety as a driving factor for the level of activity that he eventually found too much to bear. “There’s these external accolades that come along with being a workaholic, but it’s still an addictive part of my behavior,” he says. “I’d been running this marathon that felt like my life for a few years post-pandemic, just because I had the good fortune of becoming very busy.” Eventually, he hit a wall that seeped into his own perspective regarding the creative process.

Possessing a dark, uncertain sound that breaks from previous Six Missing material, Gentle Breath came together over the course of half a year and represents Dumser finding a new place of confidence when it comes to his musical voice. “It all came out so unconsciously and without thought,” he muses. “Instead of apologizing for that, I started to stand a little bit taller and trusted that the listeners wouldn’t need their hand to be held. It gives them a place to process what I was processing, too.”

Of course, processing and acceptance by no means go hand-in-hand, and so Dumser initially felt self-conscious about the new direction that Gentle Breath represents. “I was like, ‘Oh no, that is not my sound,’” he recalls. “Then I was like, ‘Well, fuck it, it is my sound. It’s me and my honest, unfiltered journey working through these feelings, which are just constantly evolving—and a real task, because being a human being is just fucking hard.”

Indeed, these six new pieces of music explore fascinating new territory in Six Missing’s landscape; at times, this music recalls the chilly loveliness of Kompakt co-founder Wolfgang Voigt’s work as GAS, as well as the nocturnal reveries of Tangerine Dream’s black-hole cosmic journeys.

“That’s what art is about,” Dumser reflects while discussing the EP’s difficult origins, as well as where it gestures towards the future of Six Missing’s sound. “There are painful moments, and through it we can get to these brighter days. As much as I need to be able to recognize when I need a break, it’s also OK to push yourself here and there to capture these extreme emotions. There’s nothing more honest than putting out a side of yourself that you’re just kind of a little nervous to share with the world.”