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1. Various Artists “Ambient Sleeping Pill 5”
2. Yasmin Williams “Urban Driftwood”
3. andrea, “Hills of Calm”

Bandcamp is an online music platform used largely by independent artists and record labels to stream songs and sell merchandise. It’s also a vibrant virtual community teeming with interesting sounds just waiting to be discovered. Each week, I’ll highlight three releases available on the site that are well worth your time and attention. If you find something you dig, please consider supporting the artist with a purchase.

Various Artists, “Ambient Sleeping Pill 5”

The Cleveland-based label Stereoscenic Sounds touts its aesthetic as “lush scenes painted with sound,” and that’s certainly true of this compilation. Herein, you’ll find 11 tracks (and 60 minutes) of gentle ambient music that slowly pulses and drones, but never really stalls out into nothingness. Instead, don’t be surprised if you notice your own body’s rhythms start to align with these songs’ slow and steady changes, and your mind downshift into a serene state. Don’t worry, you’re not bored. That’s the whole point of this collection!

Yasmin Williams, “Urban Driftwood”

Yasmin Williams is a 24-year-old guitarist from Virginia, and her music is, quite simply, a sonic balm for troubled times. She started playing in eighth grade, after she beat the video game Guitar Hero 2. And then, rather than start an electrified rock ‘n’ roll band, she turned to the acoustic guitar and began to develop her technique: a combination of fingerstyle plucking and fretboard tapping. Williams released her sophomore album, “Urban Driftwood,” earlier this year, and it’s intricate and melodic and endlessly beautiful. Bonus: She’s booked to play Sisters Folk Festival in October!

andrea, “Hills of Calm”

I know nothing about andrea other than what I can learn from their Bandcamp profile: from France, likes to make music, plays every sound you hear on “Hills of Calm,” an aptly named collection of quiet, sparkling electronic music that will be perfect for the refreshment-minded listener for whom ambient is just a bit too chill. This is the beauty of Bandcamp: Its discovery tools are powerful and productive, and I found andrea by browsing through all the site’s music tagged with the word “relaxation.” I don’t know how I would’ve ever found “Hills of Calm” otherwise.