Thanks so much to everyone who voted, a total of 31 different voters, covering 99 different releases, which feels like A LOT. So much to explore and discover. This is up from 62 different releases back in 2024.
To start though, the top ten, and this years winner, drumroll please 
Benoît Pioulard - Stanza IV
Stanza IV takes the gold, congratulations to Benoît Pioulard, in what was a much tighter race than in previous years. Anything could happen up until the last vote, and literally did. Three first place votes out of four clinched the prize for Pioulard, and a two point victory ahead of Claire M Singer🥈in second place, followed very closely by three in third, Hadley Roe🥉, Rafael Toral🥉 and Abul Mogard🥉, all one point off second place. A pretty excellent top three (five). Interestingly the most votes were for Loscil with five votes, including one first place vote, landing Lake Fire in seventh place overall.
Here’s the top ten followed by all the releases voted for…
Top Ten A/MC/D Albums of 2025:
1: Benoît Pioulard - Stanza IV
2: Claire M Singer - Gleann Ciùin
3: Hadley Roe - The Inner Garden
Rafael Toral - Traveling Light
Abul Mogard - Quiet Places
6: Kara-Lis Coverdale - A Series of Actions in a Sphere of Forever
7: Loscil - Lake Fire
8: Zake & 36 - Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel III
9: Grand River - Tuning the Wind
Karman Line Collective - To Be
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Points
18 points:
Benoît Pioulard - Stanza IV
16 points:
Claire M Singer - Gleann Ciùin
15 points:
Hadley Roe - The Inner Garden
Rafael Toral - Traveling Light
Abul Mogard - Quiet Places
13 points:
Kara-Lis Coverdale - A Series of Actions in a Sphere of Forever
12 points:
Loscil - Lake Fire
11 points:
Zake & 36 - Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel III
10 points:
Grand River - Tuning the Wind
Karman Line Collective - To Be
9 points:
Lucy Gooch - Desert Window
Le Motel - Odd Numbers / Số Lẻ
8 points:
claire rousay - a little death
Hadley Roe - Subliminal Growth Patterns
7 points:
Biosphere - The Way of Time
Hammock - Nevertheless
Jonny Nash - Once Was Ours Forever
Pavel Milyakov & Lucas Dupuy - HEAL
6 points:
Hollie Kenniff, Goldmund & Harbours - When we are free
5 points:
Pye Corner Audio - Lake Deep Memory
The Black Dog - My Brutal Life: Ambient Mixes
Loula Yorke - Hydrology
Romance - Love Is Colder Than Death
Giulio Aldinucci & Matteo Uggeri - The Promise of a Threat
Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer - Different Rooms
Concepcion Huerta - El Sol De Los Muerton
Cate Francesca Brooks - Lofoten
Byronium - Byromancie
The Album Leaf - Rotations
Snakeskin - We Live in Sand
Laurence English - Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds
ASC - Tales of Introspection
Alison Greenwood - Seasonal Guilt
Almost an Island - Almost an Island
4 points:
Clarice Jensen - In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness
Okkyung Lee - just like any other day (어느날): background music for your mundane activities
deepspace - Water Planets
Whatever the Weather - Whatever the Weather
Steve Hauschildt - Aeropsia
Kara-Lis Coverdale - From Where You Came
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Gift Songs
Hans Nox - Future Flowers
Ed Herbers - Tartarus
Ekin Fil - Bora Boreas
Berlinde Deman - Plank 9
Dorothy Carlos - Ear World
Rafael Anton Irisarri - A Fragile Geography: Reworks
Forest Swords - Bolted (Deconstructed)
Purl - Seafarer
Taylor Deupree & Zimoun - Wind Dynamic Organ, Deviations
more eaze and claire rousay - No Floor
Emily A. Sprague - Cloud Time
Richard Skelton - The Second Chamber
Joy Moughanni - A Separation from Habit
Ann Annie - El Prado
Olga Anna Markowska - Iskra
3 points:
Klein - sleep with a cane
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan - Public Works & Utilities
Field Lines Cartographer - Apeiron Anxiety
Ocean Moon - Made In Dreams
NYX - NYX
Holden and Zimpel - The Universe Will Take Care of You
Tides - Where Her Flowers Still Bloom
Adi Goldstein & Anita Tatlow - elementum
Arvin Dola - O Ghost
John Also Bennett - Ston Elaiona
Slow Blink - Letters Home
Matthias Puech - Cabanes
Wil Bolton - Rusted In The Salt Air
Anton Anishchanka - Krope
2 points:
Patricia Wolf - Hrafnamynd
Forest Dweller - Forever Elusive
Aleksandra Słyż - Tonarium Live
Blue Lake - The Animal
Paul Jebanassam - Mātr
Faten Kanaan - Diary of a Candle
Jasmine Guffond - Muzak for the Encouragement of Unproductivity
Perlia - The air outside is crazy right now
Habn - Frostbound
zakè [ft. Slow Blink] - Caelum
Melanie Dalibert - Vermillion Hours
Walt McClements - On a Painted Ocean
Laura Cannell - The Visible Light of Other Worlds
Joe Harvey-Whyte & Bobby Lee - Last Ride
1 point:
Cate Brooks - Lofoten
nesoika - lila
Martina Bertoni - Electroacoustic Works for Halldorophone
Black Swan - Bilateral Symphony
Sébastien Forrester - Coruscate For Metal Percussion
Isostatic - Real Landscapes
Kali Malone & Drew McDowall - Magnetism
Loris S Sarid - Ambient $
anthene & Simon McCorry - wellspring
Hania Rani - Non Fiction
Patricia Wolf - Hrafnamynd
Amos Roddy - Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Bill Brennan & Andy McNeill - Dreaming In Gamelan
C. Lavender - Convex Umbra
Gryphon Rue - Keep My Diamond Necklace In A Pond Of Sparkling Water
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Do let me know if you’ve spotted any double ups, have looked at this so many times now, I’m bound to have missed one!
Whilst compiling this, that Le Motel album has been a wonderful discovery. Thanks to the fine folks that voted for that, and I had slightly under appreciated the excellent Claire M Singer release, despite already liking it a great deal. Was listening to that as the sun came up, hid behind a cloud, then burst through, on a dog walk on Worthing beach on Christmas Day morning. Spectacular.
Thanks to everyone that voted, and all those that make this thread what it is. Happy New Year all! Sam x