Near Stoic

Amor Fati

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.

Listen and order on bandcamp

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.

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.

Tracklist:

Side A
sine sole
josephine plays with sines
digitalove
a cute little nest to land
the hardest goodbyes

Side B

joyful melodies for mom
tearstained
too short
i think of you sometimes

Credits:

All music written and produced by Skander Ben Yahia

Mixed by Skander Ben Yahia

Mastered by Wouter Brandenburg

Artwork by Alina Tikhonova

Typographic design by Alina Tikhonova

UE002

© 2026 Uncloud Editions

Artist Biography:

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

Since launching in 2021, Near Stoic has garnered attention for his distinctive approach to ambient electronica, treating each composition as an architectural space rather than a traditional song structure. His debut, the limited-edition cassette Notebook (Thoughts & Short Stories) on Third Kind Records (UK), was praised by Bob Fischer as “12 musical billets-doux…eclectic and soothing” (Electronic Sound, issue 84) establishing him as a compelling new voice in electronic music.

His 2023 EP Metamorphosis (Gated Recordings) marked a creative evolution, expanding his vision into more complex dreamlike soundscapes, rhythms, and harsher tones.

Beyond solo releases, Near Stoic has contributed to a meaningful environmental initiative, with Blossom—an experimental fusion of electronica and boom bap rhythms created as an ode to bees—featured in the “Place: Tunisia” compilation. Curated by Azu Tiwaline and Zied Meddeb Hamrouni as part of Air Texture’s regional nonprofit series, the project spotlights local environmental causes while celebrating Tunisia’s emerging electronic music scene.

Near Stoic’s productions merge textural field recordings, personal audio artifacts, and analogic and digital synthesizers to create immersive atmospheres that resonate equally in intimate headphone listening and expansive multi-speaker soundsystems.

Near Stoic’s forthcoming 2026 album Amor Fati on Uncloud Editions promises to further explore themes of self-reflection and emotional acceptance through his signature cinematic lens.