Nashville Ambient Ensemble

The Nashville Ambient Ensemble is led by Michael Hix, an electronic composer and keyboardist whose artistic vision focuses on the spirit of collaboration and the art of improvisation. The group plays a unique form of music that has become loosely defined as ambient country or ambient Americana. Light and Space is the group’s second release, the follow up to 2021’s Cerulean, an album that received a number of accolades from critics, fans, and fellow musicians.

In early 2022 the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, Tennessee asked the Nashville Ambient Ensemble to record a series of compositions to be featured in the exhibition, Light, Space, Surface: Works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Inspired by eight artworks from the exhibit, Hix composed eight new compositions and headed into the studio to record. Intended as an alternative to a traditional guided tour, museum patrons were able to pair their journey through the exhibit with the ensemble’s sounds, a feature for which the Nashville Ambient Ensemble and the Frist received overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Light and Space sees the return of Deli Paloma-Sisk (vocals), Jack Silverman (guitar), Kim Rueger (piano), and Luke Schneider (pedal steel), all of whom were part of the Cerulean sessions. This new album also introduces Alicia Enstrom to the fold. Enstrom, a classically trained and well-rehearsed violinist, adds an additional layer to the ensemble’s already rich sound.