Confluence by Tone Ranger

After years of crafting what fans lovingly dubbed “desert house,” multi-instrumentalist and sound explorer Tone Ranger (Alex Simon) steps into uncharted terrain with the release of Confluence—his most expansive and genre-defying album to date. Written between Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico and recorded from a van, a yurt, and Animalia Studios in Santa Fe, Confluence is a mystical mosaic of field recordings, orchestral textures, and electronic pulse. It’s a listening experience that invites the audience into communion with the seen and unseen worlds.

The music journeys through enchanted forests and epic mesas, through mycelial networks and starry skies. From the crashing synths of the opening track to the hushed intimacy of Tone Ranger humming beside a campfire, Confluence holds space for both the cosmic and the elemental. The album refuses categorization, weaving together indie electronic, ambient, orchestral, and experimental tones into something deeply intuitive and uniquely alive.

“Confluence is about stepping into the unknown - the darkest part of the forest, the depths of the ocean - and finding home. It’s a balance of vastness and intimacy, the familiar and unfamiliar, masculine and feminine, animal, plant and human.”

Collaborators on the album include vocalists Melas Leukos, Elena Shelton, Gracey Crane, Evelyn Drach, and Tone Ranger himself, with flute by Mimoha and violin by Braydon Schmick. Mastered by Maxim Trotter, the album is steeped in the wild and sacred landscapes of the Southwest, echoing memories of oceans past and reverence for what remains.

Tone Ranger makes dance and ambient music that embodies the magnetic and supernatural beauty of the American Southwest.

tone-ranger.com