Listening Session: NEAR STOIC (TN, ambient_cinematic) @ Balades Sonores

Near Stoic is the alias of Tunisian, Paris-based composer and producer Skander Ben Yahia,
whose work explores emotion and cinematic storytelling through ambient electronica.

His debut Notebook (Thoughts & Short Stories) (Third Kind Records, UK, 2021) was praised
as « eclectic and soothing » by Bob Fischer on Electronic Sound, while 2023’s Metamorphosis
EP (Gated Recordings, UK) expanded into more complex dreamlike soundscapes and
rhythmic elements. His track « Blossom » was featured in the environmental compilation
« Place: Tunisia, » curated by Azu Tiwaline.

Merging field recordings, personal audio artifacts, and analog/digital synthesizers, Near Stoic
creates immersive atmospheres for both intimate listening and multi-speaker systems. His
forthcoming 2026 album Amor Fati (Uncloud Editions) explores self-reflection through his
signature cinematic approach.

Amor Fati – Album Description

Amor Fati embodies both artistic maturation and emotional vulnerability in equal measure.
The nine-track album, arriving January 30th, 2026 via Uncloud Editions, is Near Stoic’s
exploration of a profound shift in his relationship with the feeling of feeling itself. The
discovery that expressing love and emotion freely is not only acceptable, but beautiful and
deeply human.

Amor Fati (« love of fate”) embraces the philosophical concept while grounding it in lived
experience. Composed over more than three years, the album captures the wide emotional
range born from this extended creative period. This is an album about love in all its forms:
the intoxicating uncertainty of romance, the unwavering devotion of family (captured in
« Joyful Melodies for Mom, » composed during a flight to visit the artist’s mother during a
period of isolation), the transformative power of new friendships, alongside the complex
beauty found in accepting life’s inevitable losses. It’s a meditation on presence, grief, and the
courage required to feel deeply in an often overwhelming world.

Musically, synthesizers merge with deeply personal recordings of everyday life. Voice
messages from a former partner on « DIGITALOVE » capture the gentle rhythms of daily
intimacy, while the tender audio from « Too Short, » reveals extracts from a family video where
the artist’s grandfather unknowingly discusses their recent visit and hair-cutting ritual with
quiet pride. Other tracks incorporate found samples that serve as emotional anchors: a joyful
baby on « Joséphine Plays with Sines » shares a name with the song’s inspiration, while « A
Cute Little Nest to Land » features a field recording of a moment from a couple eating
breakfast that perfectly embodies the track’s intended mood. These fleeting elements merge
to create intimate sonic environments. The result feels simultaneously mature and naive, a
paradox that mirrors the album’s central theme of embracing emotional honesty.

The album’s visual identity, developed by Alina Tikhonova, uses various material from Near
Stoic’s life. For the album cover, she merges an old photograph from the artist’s
grandparents’ vacation house with textures from their Tunis home wall, which she digitally
recreated from pictures. These were spaces where family gathered and where many of the
album’s emotional foundations took root. Accompanying the release is a physical art object:
a sculptural flower designed collaboratively with Skander Jaïbi, inspired by a traditional
Tunisian silver jasmine machmoum that held special significance in Near Stoic grandparents’
home. The sculpture is an inert object that mysteriously retains organic properties, much like
memory itself.
This visual collaboration extends into live performance, where Alina Tikhonova will join Near
Stoic for immersive audiovisual presentations that transform Amor Fati’s intimate revelations
into shared experiences.

« To all my beloved ones — past, present, and future — who help me grow, to those who
pushed me to finish and release this piece of music, and this piece of myself, and to those
who reminded me that feeling deeply is a strength, » reads the album’s dedication—a
statement that serves as both artistic manifesto and life philosophy.

Amor Fati arrives as both culmination and beginning: the full flowering of Near Stoic’s
cinematic ambient vision and an artist’s honest reckoning with the beautiful complexity of
being human.

Release Information:
● Format: Vinyl & Digital
● Release Date: January 30th, 2026
● Label: Uncloud Editions
● Tracks: 9
● Visual Art: Alina Tikhonova
● Physical Art Object: Alina Tikhonova & Skander Jaïbi