March 11: It’s free electronic music month at Synthtopia. All month long, we’re going to help you kick the RIAA habit by highlighting great electronic music that’s available for free on the Internet.

Archaic Horizon Records is a cool label focused on the experimental and eclectic. It releases music under the Creative Commons license, which means you can download the music legally, copy it and even share it as you like.

There most recent release is a free EP called Distancing, by a New Zealand band called Sora Shima.

“It’s full of lush reverb drones and textures made purely with broken guitars, a $50 MP3 player with built-in microphone and software,” explains Sora Shima guitarist Jae Lurman.

The four song EP’s title, Distancing, alludes to a beautiful naturalistic setting free from any disrupting inhabitants. Yet all of the songs are given an edgy quality with the occasional hollow or sharp tones increasing tension. These agitated sounds are eventually subdued by their softly moving counterparts composed of minimal textural drones.

You can sample Distancing with the track Monsoon, below, or download the full EP at their page at the Archaic Horizons site.

You can learn more about Shora Shima at their MySpace page.