As the summer of 2014 came to a close, Atsuhito Omori found himself in a good position. The Nara-based artist who records ambient music as Ex Confusion had released an album titled "Flow" through buzzed-about New York label Orchid Tapes. Artistically, however, things weren't clicking.

"I was having hard times," he says. I was making music as always, but it wasn't going the right direction."

Putting together his fifth full-length, "Last," took a long time, but Omori had some friendly help from Stephen Wilkinson, better known by his moniker Bibio. Omori had been in contact with the English artist signed to Warp since 2013, and the two spoke frequently.