On Selected Ambient, Martina Lussi brings together a collection of sound material from her practice to date. The material oscillates between electroacoustic composition, sound art, and live performance. The pieces are named after precious gemstones, all of which are traditionally ascribed with special powers. In using these names, the artist seems to refer to the esoteric roots of the genre invoked by the LP's title. The compositions, however, resist the genre's characteristically naïve re-enchantment of the world and distrust holistic esotericism's promise of healing and restoration. Instead, they are defined much more by an interest in affective uncertainties. In these four compositions as in other works, Lussi creates a sound world in which circling correlations raise more questions than they answer-in contrast to esotericism, which insists on imbuing its material with meaning. Lussi therefore facilitates a listening experience that refers to ambient at its best and most radical: her music represents neither a dissolution of the self in complete uncertainty nor a contemplative internal landscape, but rather a tremulous hovering over the border between the two.