For as much as we see, feel, and recognize humanity in actions, we also hear it in music. Alaskan Tapes brings a human element to the forefront of his delicate alchemy of ambient soundscape architecture and live instrumentation. The Toronto-based artist, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist a.k.a. Brady Kendall allows natural noises and flourishes to accent carefully curated production, never smoothing down its edges. After generating streams in the hundreds of millions and carving out a niche without comparison, this dynamic vision crystallizes like never before on his 2024 full-length album, Something Ephemeral [Nettwerk Music Group].“I was conscious about my use of organic noise, which adds humanness to it,” he affirms. “It almost sounds like you’re listening to somebody playing piano just downstairs in your house. Nothing in my music is perfect—which is how I like it to be. That makes everything more human.”This sentiment has underscored the output of Alaskan Tapes since 2016. He has honed an uncanny balance of unfiltered dynamics and deliberate composition across a prolific string of releases, including We All Speak In Poems [2016], In Distance We’re Losing [2017], You Were Always an Island [2018], Millions [2020], Views From Sixteen Stories [2020], For Us Alone [2021], and Drone [2021]. Along the way, he garnered nominations at the Juno Awards and Prism Prize Awards. Gaining traction at DSPs, “Notes” impressively amassed north of 42 million Spotify streams followed by “Views From Tower Two” with 20 million-plus Spotify streams. During 2023, he unveiled the fan favorite Who Tends a Garden and on my new piano EP.On the heels of this season, he pieced together what would become Something Ephemeral in Toronto. This time around, he focused on “simplicity,” finding beauty in brevity. “The title literally means ‘something short-lived’,” he notes. “It works on a few levels. I wanted to focus on making shorter tracks, or at least shorter phrases in tracks that repeat throughout. The approach was straightforward.” He teased out the record with the single “Simple Math” and key collaborations such as “When The Earth Yelled Back At Me” [with Moshimoss] and “Wait” [with Andrew Tasselmyer]. This synergy expanded the sonic palette at the foundation of Something Ephemeral.“Collaborations hadn’t really happened like this in the past for me,” he goes on. “These worked out so well though. It’s a nice path to be on. The floodgates opened, and I had a lot of fun.”Among many highlights, the title track “Something Ephemeral” revolves around mesmerizing synth transmissions and delicate acoustic guitar. It encourages a moment of reprieve augmented by the use of organelle.“That’s my favorite tune on the record,” he smiles. “I used the organelle a lot to record piano. It allows you to essentially have different voices on the same sample. If you do it right, it can really create melodic, cloud-like content. I believe it did.”The closer “Delirium Hums” notably features Brady on cello. As waves crash, the instrumentation incites one last exhale of sound and emotion.“I specifically made ‘Delirium Hums’ for one of my live shows last year,” he recalls. “I started trying to learn cello about two years ago, and this was one of the first tracks where I was really happy with my playing. It ended up being the perfect finale, because it felt like an end credits sequence.”In the end, Alaskan Tapes makes connections through a natural touch.“Whenever I write songs, I like the mystery and surprise of what people will take away from them,” he leaves off. “At the same time, I just want listeners to enjoy it. I hope it’s calming and peaceful, which is what ambient music should be. I also want audiences to realize ambience can be very interesting. Alaskan Tapes is an extension of myself. I hold it so close to my heart.”