Ann Annie’s The Wind is quietly transformative music that achieves a rarified intersection of subtlety and pure transcendence. The fifth record and Nettwerk debut from Portland-based musician Eli Goldberg conjures pastoral ambience through delicate yet weighty arrangements and warm, enveloping melodies—all possessing the entrancing effect of watching snow fall slowly on the horizon, or leaves spiraling in a miniature ground gust. These eleven songs are a showcase for Goldberg’s deeply felt songwriting and accomplished musicianship, charting new territory for the Ann Annie project while also refining past influences in search of blissful unvisited horizons.The Wind is the latest sonic evolution for Goldberg, who started playing music at the age of 5 after a babysitter brought over a Casio piano to his house. After graduating early from high school to focus on music full-time, he dove headfirst into self-recording with his sad. rad project, which started as an exploration of indie rock’s trappings before Goldberg discovered the wonders of modular synthesizers. “I’ve always loved synths since I saw a picture of Daft Punk’s modular synth setup,” he recalls. All the while, Goldberg continued to gravitate towards the world of ambient music, taking particular cues of inspiration from the Album Leaf’s seminal 2004 classic In a Safe Place: “I didn’t even know it was ambient at that point, I just knew it was music I’d never heard before.”Taking its nomenclatural inspiration from the Annapurna mountain range in Nepal, Ann Annie was borne out of Goldberg’s desire to “start fresh” for fear that his audience “had become too familiar with the music I was previously making.” And after four records under the name, Goldberg continues to sonically shapeshift—as The Wind marks a natural evolution towards folk-indebted ambient music, a true and seemingly effortless meshing of analog and digital sound. “It’s one of the most ambitious projects I’ve ever made,” Goldberg says of the record, and he ain’t kidding—those woodwinds you hear all over these tracks is a result of his learning four new instruments while putting the record together, including cello, clarinet, and pedal steel guitar.