Alaskan Tapes open a new chapter with Blank Slate / Open Space, an expansive AA-side that pairs Toronto composer Brady Kendall with Portland saxophonist Blu Miles, alongside a short film by Kyle Rose.
Long recognised as a quietly influential voice in ambient and neoclassical music, Kendall sharpens his approach here, rebuilding the pieces around Miles’ improvisations and allowing incidental noise to ground the recordings in movement and imperfection. Kendall explains:
I had originally sent Blu completely different tracks and had him play multiple lines. When I received his recordings, I scrapped my parts entirely and rewrote everything from the ground up. Thankfully, we were doing house renovations at the time, so natural movement and noise bled into the recordings. It made everything feel alive.
The result balances intimacy and scale — minimal yet textured, with saxophone lines moving conversationally through layered atmospheres where silence carries equal weight.
Kyle Rose’s accompanying film mirrors that vibe, capturing quiet moments of departure and renewal as a couple pack up their shared space.
For Kendall, Blank Slate / Open Space marks autonomy regained — a reset driven by instinct rather than expectation:
It was written as proof to myself that I didn’t need to conform to current structures in this type of music. Now out of a recent record deal, I could do what I wanted — and this is what I came up with. With Blu’s help, we created something lush, noisy, and minimal. It sounds like how I felt about the situation.
With Miles’ intuitive, untrained approach reinforcing that freedom, the release lands as a quiet declaration of independence built on feel, imperfection, and emotional truth.