Ambient drone project the Green Kingdom, the work of Detroit's Michael Cottone, creates deep, soothing soundscapes incorporating electronics, samples, and field recordings. Since the mid-2000s, he has released a slew of albums across numerous labels, with his highest-profile releases coming on Home Normal and Dronarivm. After a childhood spent casually playing guitar in bands with friends, Cottone began working on his own music in the year 2000. Inspired by classic ambient and Detroit techno, and by the calming power of nature, he combined a variety of instruments -- most prominently acoustic and electric guitar -- with electronic sounds, samples, and field recordings, to create a sound that would help him escape from the stresses of urban life, with the hope that it would do the same for the listener. The debut Green Kingdom album, Meadowview (named after the street where he lived in the Detroit suburbs), was released in 2006 by the short-lived Belgian CD-R label Heldernacht, which folded shortly thereafter; Cottone never even received a copy of his own album. His eponymous SEM sophomore effort in 2007 was followed by a prolific string of increasingly high-profile albums. Notable highlights include 2012's Egress on Home Normal sub-label Nomadic Kids Republic; two albums on Moscow label Dronarivm -- 2014's Expanses (reissued five years later with a bonus disc of remixes) and 2016's Harbor -- and 2017's The North Wind and the Sun on Lost Tribe Sound, a mostly acoustic work which was highly critically acclaimed. Cottone also occasionally recorded ambient/dub techno as Dustcraft, releasing the album Exoterra in 2016 on Spanish label Archives. ~ John D. Buchanan