Atmospheric Music Alliance

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A member-run network for ambient artists

and listeners

Est. in 2024, Atmospheric Music Alliance (AMA) is a cooperative made of dedicated artists and listeners supporting independent ambient, drone, and atmospheric music. We host gatherings, fund projects, and share tools to help each other keep going.

HOW IT WORKS:

- Join AMA via WithFriends. Choose a tier based on how involved you want to be. All memberships support programming, artist grants, and events.

- Shape the direction. Propose new projects, vote on grants, and join Town Halls. Members decide where AMA goes next.

- Drop in. We host live shows, virtual events, and low-stakes meetups across NYC, Chicago, Hudson Valley + beyond.

become a member

Membership Tiers

MEMBERSHIP TIERS

Friend — $5/month or $60/year

Buy us a coffee each month and help cover the basics: planning, admin, newsletters, and all the little things that keep AMA going.

• Vote on artist grants
• AMA newsletters & exclusive downloads
• 15% off StretchMetal shows & merch

Guide — $15/month or $160/year

Play a bigger role in how decisions are made.

• All Participant benefits
• Vote on which proposals get funded
• Help shape the AMA budget + structure
• Discounts on events and items from 4MS, National Audio Co., Reflections, Heavy Trip
• Option to be listed on AMA site
• Eligible for fiscal sponsorship (pilot)

Participant — $12/month or $144/year

Help shape where AMA goes next.

• All Friend benefits
• Attend Town Halls
• Submit proposals (shows, workshops, etc.)
• Apply for artist grants

Gem — $300/year

Your support helps us offer sliding scale access for QTBIPOC members.

• All Guide benefits
• Directly funds accessibility + equity

Sliding Scale Guide ($60–$115/year)

Available via application for QTBIPOC members

Full Guide benefits

The application window is now open. Application

WHAT YOUR MEMBERSHIP SUPPORTS:

Live events and gatherings
Workshops + skill-sharing
Artist grants + equipment support
Web hosting + admin
Member proposals + promotion

Artist Grant

AMA ARTIST GRANT

The AMA Artist Grant supports AMA members in creating new works in ambient music, offering flexible funding for projects, equipment, and artist development. In Fall 2025, AMA will award a total of $2,400: $1,200 to 1 member and $600 to 2 runner-ups. To apply, you must be an active AMA member in the Guide, Gem, or Participant tier. Winners will be decided by AMA members' votes.

More info/eligibility

The current grant cycle is now closed. The next grant cycle will open late spring of 2026.

Artist Grant Guest Reviewer: Christopher Willits

Christopher Willits is a pioneering composer, guitarist, and visual artist whose work expands how we experience sound and space. As a core artist on the Ghostly International roster since the early 2000s, he has shaped contemporary ambient music with fluid guitar harmonies, textural depth, and immersive audio innovation. His catalog spans critically acclaimed solo works, alongside collaborations with Tycho, Taylor Deupree, Zach Hill, and Japanese legend Ryuichi Sakamoto.

At the center of Willits’ practice is harmonic spatial sound; music that creates expansive space for reflection and connection. Through this love, he co-founded and directs Envelop, a nonprofit building community through immersive listening spaces, inspiring events, and free open-source spatial audio tools (E4L). Envelop’s mission, to connect and inspire through listening, runs through Christopher's performances, installations, and studio work.

Listen to his new album New Moon on Ghostly.

We’re honored to have Christopher Willits join us as guest reviewer for this fall’s AMA Artist Grant to listen and select five finalists from this season’s pool of submissions, which will then go to AMA members for the final vote.

FALL 2025 RECIPIENTS

Viii Dorsey (Main Award)

Pittsburgh, PA

About:

Viii Dorsey is a sound-collage artist, vocalist, and poet whose work blends eclectic instrumentation, layered production, and elements of mantra, meditation, and prayer. Her music bridges groove, storytelling, and sound healing as she approaches each project as both experiment and enrichment for herself and the listener.

Artist links:

Gabi Vanek (Runner-up)

Iowa City, Iowa

About:

Described as being “unafraid to be anything at all” and making “shadowy music that prickles on your skin”, Gabi Vanek is a bassoonist who exists in a world of drone, doom and noise. With her sonic interests often the aesthetic and tonal crossover of the latter with contemporary classical music, she has had the privilege of performing as both a soloist and ensemble member at small and large festivals, conferences, and series such as the Darmstädter Internationale Ferienkurse, International Double Reed Society, Oh My Ears, Feed Me Weird Things, and exhibited at the Osaka University of the Arts Electro-Acoustic Music Festival.

Her further scholarly activity has included lectures and workshops regarding unconventional bassoon practice at Columbus State University, University of Iowa, and University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She had additionally spoken about classical idiom and compositional structure in death metal at the 2016 Extreme Music: Hearing and Nothingness conference at University of Denmark - Odense, with a follow up article later published in the Metal Music Studies journal.

Artist links:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Joel St. Julien (Runner-up)

San Francisco, California

About:

Joel St. Julien (he/him) is a Haitian-American composer, sound and video artist based in San Francisco. Joel has written music for documentaries, short / feature films, podcasts, and dance. He is a firm believer in experimentation/fusion with acoustic and electronic elements in sound oscillating through escapism and the mysticism of the present tense: music both being art and spiritual practice.

Joel has shared music at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Stanford University’s CCRMA, Gray Area, CounterPulse Festival, Land and Sea Gallery, Re:Sound, Cone Shape Top Center for Arts and Music, The Lab, and Kadist Gallery.

His music has also been featured and reviewed in Resident Advisor, The Wire, Disquiet, KQED, Foxy Digitalis, a closer listen, Dublab, and many more.

Joel has released music independently and on Land and Sea, Dragon's Eye Recordings, Beached Records, and CST Imprint.

Artist links:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Voting Rights by Tier