Derrick Stembridge is one of my favorite keyboard artists. He is always composing and releases an album, it seems at least once a year. Sometimes twice. This year he is releasing his latest work of art, Beautiful Chaos of Truth, today, August 11, 2025. Derrick’s ambient projects are always worth listening to, and he has been creating these masterpieces for nearly two decades.
Derrick states, “Beautiful Chaos of Truth,” isn’t about reflection as retreat, it’s about arrival. The reintroduction to what has always been waiting beneath the noise. A clear breath after long static. A reintroduction to what has always been waiting beneath the noise.” Derrick describes the title, “Beautiful Chaos of Truth,” speaks to the delicate tension at the heart of this work. Truth doesn’t always come gently. It surfaces in fragments, through disruption, through release. What may seem like chaos is often a necessary shift. And there’s beauty in that shift in the way clarity begins to assemble itself, piece by piece, when you’re no longer holding on to what was never solid.”
However, this isn’t the first time Stembridge has explored truth through sound. His 2007 release, Truth, was the confusion of clarity, a sparse, searching record shaped by questions that hadn’t yet formed into answers. Nearly two decades later, Beautiful Chaos of Truth doesn’t try to resolve the past. It lets go of the need to explain and simply allows what’s real.
And it all begins with “Through Collapsing Light.” This 3:30 song opens quietly and spreads keyboards and synthesizers across the soundscape like a slow-moving ocean wave. The sound pulses like the ocean drawing forward and drawing back, but always right there in front of you. A powerful echoing sound, to take you away from your earthly concerns, and relax your mind and body. Tranquil and surrounding warm keyboards that absolutely set the stage well for the rest of the album. Although, you might wish this song just kept going.
“For All Days,” opens with spiked keyboards and synths like a hard rain falling, dotting the soundscape. Hard to describe, but you can definitely feel this music, if you use headphones. At just under 3 minutes, it is another memorable song from the mind of Derrick Stembridge. The melody sounds like something from Larry Fast or Vangelis.
“As Silence Shapes the Distance,” opens slow and quietly. The keyboards then become louder as almost a mist and rain sound fills the soundscape. Sound waves, moving like the ocean, rising and falling all around you.
“Watermark,” brings deep and slow piano keys and notes, while the entire soundscape echoes around you. The piano is at the center, and you are surrounded with synthesizers and orchestration. The piano melody is soft, slow, and comforting.
“All is Forgotten,” opens with deep synthesizers and orchestration. More calming sounds echo across the soundscape.
So, what lies, “Beneath All that Echoes?” Cool and wonderful waves of progressive orchestration and synthphonic magic.
“Fragments of the Vanishing Point,” provides more deep canyon rides on the waves of Tron – like synthesizers.
“What Remains Was Always True,” opens similarly to all the other tracks. Soft, slow synthesizers that please and satisfy the ears.
“Seasons of Cycled Patterns,” opens with bonging keyboards and synthesizers, before a unique electric opening seems to fill the scene. Like a light shown before an opening. Absolutely amazing! Then, what sounds like a train whistle coming forward directly towards you. Very cool.
“XV IV MMXXV,” or April 15th, 2025. This is the longest song, and the date must have some significance, but Derrick will have to explain. It might be something as simple as the day he started or completed this song. It opens with somewhat eerier sounds and chime-like keys. As if, you are sitting in front of an Asian temple.
“What the Shadow Could Not Carry,” is full of marching percussion and seasoned synthesizers advancing forward towards you. Very cinematic and almost like an invasion of robots or machines.
“The Disappearance of Meaning,” is the second longest track on the album. It opens with soft, light, cathedral-like keyboards, with echoes of light. At times you may even feel like this is music could be played with a Gregorian choir. Very deep and rhythmic.
“On the Edge of Clarity,” opens with wind like keyboards moving through canyon walls. It sounds so cool on headphones. Then, the tick, tock of what sounds like a clock, but later becomes more soothing keyboard rhythms.
“Until Then,” rises like a sunrise on a distant planet. It slowly meanders like a river of sound, with percussion, for six minutes, with quiet interludes of light-giving piano.
“Beautiful Chaos of Truth,” is the title and closing song on the album. It opens like an awakening from a dream. Slow light organ and keyboards spread throughout the soundscape. Then, punctuated rhythms and chime like keys. Blinking and scattering light sounds on keyboards. A slow rhythmic melody punctuated with deep dips in harmonic sounds.
Drifting in Silence’s “Beautiful Chaos of Truth,” marks another grand production for Derrick Stembridge. This is a monumental display of sonic and keyboard organization and configuration, created to make you think and be still, while the soundscape washes over you. That album cover reminds me of Storm Thorgerson’s artwork. Go ahead and immerse yourself in any of Derrick’s music or albums, and you are sure to come away feeling enlightened and relaxed about the dangerous world that surrounds us all. His music gives you that time away, to contemplate what the future could really be like if we could let go of the past. We all should be able to know and recognized the “Beautiful Chaos of Truth.” The answers will be provided at the end of “the show.” Like everything else in this thing, we call life. We must wait for that time to come. And while you are waiting, why not have some beautiful and mind focusing synthesizer and keyboard music to appreciate? It’s all here on Drifting in Silence’s “Beautiful Chaos of Truth.”
Album Track List:
- Through Collapsing Light – 3:30
- For All Days – 2:54
- As Silence Shapes the Distance – 3:04
- Watermark – 3:56
- All is Forgotten – 2:17
- Beneath All that Echoes – 5:24
- Fragments of the Vanishing Point – 4:29
- What Remains Was Always True – 4:04
- Seasons of Cycled Patterns – 3:24
- XV IV MMXXV – 8:00
- What the Shadow Could Not Carry – 3:12
- The Disappearance of Meaning – 7:01
- On the Edge of Clarity – 4:01
- Until Then – 6:00
- Beautiful Chaos of Truth – 4:04
All songs were written and recorded by Derrick Stembridge. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio. Drifting in Silence is the name of a longstanding ambient project undertaken by multi-instrumentalist and composer Derrick Stembridge. Stembridge chose the name as “a description of the feeling evoked by the music,” intended to create the sensation of movement through regions of light and shadow.
Website and Social Media:
https://driftinginsilence.bandcamp.com
https://driftinginsilence.bandcamp.com/album/timeless
https://www.facebook.com/driftinginsilence
Website: https://www.labilerecords.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/derrickstembridge/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derrickstembridge
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derrickstembridge/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/drstembridge
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@labile_records/
Other: https://labilerecords.bandcamp.com/artists
You Tube and Music Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkOzCd9sk3YrpMSnZLoDaFg