Future Islands, courtesy Devin Yalkin. Future Islands frontman Samuel Herring was in a Stockholm cab one morning earlier this summer, being driven to the airport. He had been visiting his partner, Julia Ragnarsson, after spending most of the pandemic apart due to travel restrictions, but the country’s visa regulations…

Under that moniker DJ Shadow, Joshua Paul Davis in 1996 gave sample-based music one of its first hit albums with Endtroducing. He transcended the established norms of ‘90s hip-hop by incorporating elements of ambient music, electronica and “sampledelia.” Davis found more common ground with U.K. trip-hop than West Coast G-funk—which might…