Russ B Time Is Coming To An End: A Delicate Convergence of Memory and Sound
Glacis & Polaroid Notes
Whitelabrecs (2025)
Scottish composer Euan Alexander Millar-McMeeken (Glacis) and German ambient artist Andreas (Polaroid Notes) have delivered a profoundly moving collaborative album in Time Is Coming To An End, a work that crystallizes over two years of patient creative dialogue into an exquisite meditation on impermanence, memory, and the spaces between sound. Released on October 18, 2025, through the esteemed UK ambient label Whitelabrecs, this eleven-track collection represents far more than a simple collaboration it’s a testament to the power of slow creation and mutual trust in the ambient music landscape.
The genesis of this album traces back to late 2022, when both artists began exchanging fragments and field recordings from their respective corners of Europe. Glacis, working from the quiet coastlines of Hastings in southern England, brought his characteristic introspective piano work and deep emotional vulnerability. Polaroid Notes contributed his delicate ambient architecture from the rural countryside between Munich and the Alps, where his practice has long been informed by the majestic grandeur of nature and the solitude it provides. What emerged from this transatlantic exchange was not a rushed collaboration but a measured conversation between two artists who understand the value of space, silence, and contemplation.
A Sonic Journey Through Transience
The album unfolds across eleven carefully sequenced compositions that drift effortlessly between light and shadow, intimacy and expanse. Opening with “Awakening With The Ghosts” at 4:15, the album immediately establishes its meditative tone. This is followed by “All Is White” (3:39) and “When The Wind Kissed You” (3:40), tracks that evoke both the gentle touch of memory and the fragile beauty of moments slipping away. The pacing is deliberate nothing is hurried, everything is intentional.
Mid-album highlights include “Chasing Shadows” (5:29), the album’s longest track aside from the finale, which allows the artists to stretch out into more expansive sonic territory. “Leaving On A Solid Path” (3:25) provides a moment of quiet resolve before the album moves through its final movements. The title track, “Time Is Coming To An End” (4:32), serves as a poignant closing statement a reflection on finality rendered not with anxiety but with acceptance and grace.
Throughout the album, both artists demonstrate restraint and sensitivity. While grounded in piano an instrument both composers favor the record breathes with ambient textures, processed sounds, and field recordings that create a sense of place and presence. There’s no overarching conceptual framework imposed upon the listener; instead, the music invites personal interpretation, making it a vessel for individual reflection and memory.
Artistic Lineage and Context
This collaboration arrives with considerable pedigree. Glacis has established himself as one of contemporary ambient music’s most thoughtful voices, with releases on prestigious labels including Fluid Audio, Tavern Eightieth, Lost Tribe Sound, and of course, Whitelabrecs. His music has been described as deeply personal, often born from immediacy compositions created in the moments between family life, reflecting the reality of an artist balancing creativity with the demands of parenthood. Earlier in 2025, Glacis completed his ambitious four-album Borders series, a melancholic meditation on the concept of borders geographical, political, and emotional inspired by global crises from Scottish independence to conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.
Polaroid Notes brings an equally rich history to the partnership. Andreas has released extensively through labels such as Whitelabrecs, Weber & Alcantu, Büro für Erdrotation, and his own Drone Works International. His music blends contemporary classical with ambient, cinematic, and minimal influences, often based on piano improvisations and spontaneous recordings made at night. As he describes his process, it’s “like taking a photo with an old instant camera: you press the button and a little later you will see what snapshot you’ve taken” an apt metaphor for the way this collaboration unfolded.
The two artists hinted at their creative chemistry earlier in 2025 with the Reflections EP, released on Piano Day in March. That five-track preview featuring compositions like “Reflections,” “He Smiles In The Mirror,” and “To Be Watched” offered a glimpse into their shared aesthetic before the full album arrived in October.
Visual and Sonic Aesthetics
The album’s visual presentation, featuring artwork by Meike Pfitzner, mirrors the music’s fragile beauty. The cover concept serves as an elegy rendered in stillness, perfectly complementing the sonic landscapes within. Whitelabrecs, known for its distinctive aesthetic approach specializing in highly limited vinyl-effect CDrs alongside digital releases provides the ideal home for this work. Founded in 2016 by Harry Towell (who records as Glåsbird), the label has built its reputation on contemporary ambient music spanning drone, modern classical, and electroacoustic territories.
The label’s commitment to quality and curation shines through here. As noted in reviews and listener responses, Time Is Coming To An End was recently featured in Bandcamp’s New & Notable section, a recognition of the album’s immediate impact within the ambient community.
The Power of Patient Creation
What distinguishes Time Is Coming To An End from many collaborations is its refusal to rush. Over the course of two years, Glacis and Polaroid Notes exchanged ideas, allowed compositions to develop organically, and trusted in the ebb and return of creative momentum. This approach results in music that feels lived-in rather than constructed, evolved rather than assembled.
The album captures something essential about the collaborative process itself: that meaningful artistic dialogue requires time, trust, and the willingness to let go of ego in service of the work. Both artists trace their roots to solitude Glacis began his solo work in 2010 following the dissolution of his band, while Polaroid Notes has long worked from the quiet countryside. Yet they’ve found in each other kindred spirits capable of creating something that transcends their individual practices.
A Meditation on Endings
The album’s title invites contemplation. “Time Is Coming To An End” could be read as melancholic or apocalyptic, yet the music itself offers something more nuanced. Rather than dwelling on loss with despair, these compositions embrace the transient nature of existence with quiet dignity. There’s an acceptance here a recognition that all things pass, all moments fade, and that this impermanence is not something to fear but something to honor.
In an era where ambient music often serves as mere background, Time Is Coming To An End demands and rewards attentive listening. Each track unfolds with purpose, revealing layers of detail in the interplay between piano, electronics, and environmental sounds. Yet the album also functions beautifully as a space for stillness and detachment, creating room for calm and reflection.
For listeners familiar with the ambient work of artists like Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds, or the earlier piano-led compositions of Max Richter, this album will feel like a natural extension of that lineage though more restrained, more spacious, and perhaps more emotionally direct. The influence of the Whitelabrecs aesthetic is evident throughout, placing this work in conversation with other recent releases from the label’s impressive roster.
Conclusion
Time Is Coming To An End stands as one of 2025’s most accomplished ambient releases, a work that demonstrates the continued vitality and emotional depth possible within the genre. Glacis and Polaroid Notes have created an album that resists easy categorization it’s neither purely ambient nor strictly modern classical, but something in between, occupying its own quiet space.
In our fractured, accelerated world, this album offers something increasingly rare: permission to slow down, to sit with difficult emotions, and to find beauty in endings. It’s an album about memory and loss, yes, but also about presence and acceptance. For those willing to give it the time and attention it deserves, Time Is Coming To An End reveals itself as a profound meditation on what it means to let go and in that letting go, to find something like grace.
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