Columbus, Ohio musician Keith Hanlon released the ambient album “Music for Airport Workers” on 25 September 2026 through the Argentine label Cyclical Dreams. The eight-track record is available digitally through Bandcamp at a discounted price through 30 September, with a CD edition manufactured on demand through Kunaki.

Hanlon wrote, performed and recorded all the material himself. He traced the album’s origin to a delayed connection at Orlando International Airport: “This album began as a way to pass the time during an extended layover at Orlando International Airport. The title started as a joke and a placeholder, but the location quickly proved inspiring.”

‘Music for Airport Workers’ tracklist

The album runs eight tracks, listed on Bandcamp as:

1. Music for Airport Workers
2. On the Air
3. NY4
4. Slow Drift
5. Slightly Unsettled
6. TSA Dreamer
7. March and April
8. TBD

Artwork is credited to Cyclical Dreams, with photography by Amp Puttipong.

Hanlon has said the record turns the routines of air travel into subject matter. “As I watched the choreography of air travel unfold, I found myself thinking about the people who make it all work,” he stated, citing a TSA officer, a janitor, a flight attendant, an air traffic controller and baggage handlers as reference points. He linked the theme to his own travel memories: “being stranded overnight in Detroit,” lifting off from O’Hare on the Fourth of July, “navigating Heathrow for the first time,” and “the eternal summer dusk of Iceland.” He summarized the album as “a meditation on travel, but more so, how we live our lives.”

About Keith Hanlon

Keith Hanlon is a musician, producer and recording engineer based in Columbus, Ohio, working across electronic, ambient and post-rock styles. He spent a decade at Musicol Recording in Columbus before co-founding Secret Studio in the city’s Franklinton Arts District in 2020, where he continues to work as an engineer and producer. His production credits include Ed Askew’s “For the World” (2013), work with Golomb, Lydia Loveless and Doc Robinson, and time on the road with The Black Swans and Parker Paul. He studied audio production at Ohio University and interned at Ardent Studios in Memphis.

Hanlon was previously the drummer and a multi-instrumentalist in The Black Swans. He began releasing his own ambient and drone material in 2015, first under the name Zapruder Red and later under his own name, through his personal imprint Scioto Records. By 2022 he had released four ambient and drone records since 2015. That year’s “An Eternity of This” added downtempo electronic elements alongside the ambient base, issued on Scioto Records. Discogs also lists a 2022 edition of “An Eternity of This” through Transition Color.

“Music for Airport Workers” is Hanlon’s first release on Cyclical Dreams. The label, founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2020 by Pablo Bilbao, Lucas Tripaldi and Esteban Menash, focuses on Berlin School, ambient, drone and soundscape music and has issued material from more than 80 artists. Side-Line has previously covered two other Cyclical Dreams releases: D*Time’s “Nightwoven”, an ambient and Berlin School album, and Christian Wittman’s “Andromeda”, a deep-space ambient record.

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Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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