ASIP Releases (Previews)

After his debut on ASIP with the ‘impossible instrument’ focused album, Multiverse, https://soundcloud.com/gadisassoon follows with the Chaos & Order EP. Inspired by the relationship between the organic, synthetic and bionic elements of his approach to music creation, the EP comes to life across a number of versions, remixes and formats, inviting the listener to immerse themselves through the EP's fundamental elements in various different ways. https://asip.me/asipv037

Consisting of three core pieces of music, with each one originally conceived as Quadraphonic, the release expands into two immersive listening experiences. Firstly, the digital album with accompanying Binaural* mixes designed for expansive headphone listening and Dolby Atmos** versions for compatible devices. Second, a limited edition 2LP lathe cut, where each quadraphonic track has been split into two stereo versions, across 4 sides of vinyl, resulting in various potential playback scenarios.

“The continuum with synthetic and organic at opposite ends and bionic in the middle, bleeding into one another… that’s the roadmap of my work. I like this simple diagram because it’s easy to navigate, and there is so much to explore within and between these realms. When I write, I splay and combine these elements on more than two speakers if I can. The stereo field is a coded language, as are standard immersive formats that force the listener in a fixed perspective. Fine methods of delivery, but the experience of sound can be so much more - a happening…” - Gadi Sassoon.

This music ‘hacking’ mentality is further extended into three remixes of the tracks by fellow purveyors of intricate sound design; Olga Wojciechowska, Max Würden and FRKTL. Olga takes ‘Organico’ into a dramatic orchestral beat-driven space, Max Würden adds structure and warmth to Sintetico, and Sarah Badr (aka FRKTL) tunes extreme deconstruction in Bionico.

The end result is an experience that can be listened to in many different ways, across many different formats, inviting the listener closer to the many elements Gadi honed and crafted across his studio in Milan, and the EMS Elektronmusikstudion in Stockholm.

Featuring artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding, and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri, Chaos & Order will be available as a digital album on Bandcamp featuring the original tracks, remixes and Binaural Versions and a 2LP Lathe Cut (30 copies) featuring the Quadraphonic Versions. There will also be a limited edition Metallic Print of the artwork available on Bandcamp

Gadi Sassoon / Chaos & Order EP (ASIPV037) [Previews]

James Clements is back on ASIP but this time with his widely admired ASC alias. 'Original Soundtrack' is his first foray into an extremely minimal palette focused on the 🎹, mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri: Digital + Digipak CD now available: http://asip.me/asip037

ASC / Original Soundtrack (ASIP037) [Previews]

More info & buy: http://asip.me/asipv035

Longtime friends and frequent collaborators Luke Entelis (Viul) and Thomas Meluch (Benoît Pioulard) combine their enchanting textures reflecting on a time spent in lockdown, for A Strangely Isolated Place.

"Konec" is Czech for "end," and a nod to the uncertainty of Luke and Thomas’ home city of New York amidst the pandemic. Birthed from Luke’s short synth sketches, the two friends further collaborated in isolation to create a series of strangely beautiful interludes - a sense of vitality breaking through the immediate surrounding dread.

Whilst many of the tracks expand far beyond what a short interlude may dictate, Konec builds on this concept through some of the most thought-provoking loops the pair have created over their many combined years producing.

With an immediate arresting aesthetic, grounded in saturation, decay and distortion, tracks such as ‘Returning Clear Voice’ or ‘Flaxen’ reflect some of the duo’s more textured work - a hazy mist of life unknown in a city’s uncharted times. Konec’s storyful and engrossing moments come with a confident posture, such as the unforgettable bellowing of ‘Catalune’ or ‘Construction Worker Smoke Cycle’ or the swirling, haunting ‘Canon’.

The variation in minutia, samples and instrumentation throughout the album cannot be understated amongst its hazy aesthetic and ominous poignancy. It’s one thing to notice the details, but another to unstick the melodies from the closing credits of a dystopian city’s downfall, from the forefront of your mind.

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri and featuring original artwork by Liz Harris, Konec is available on limited gatefold transparent 2LP + digital.

ASIPV035 Viul & Benoît Pioulard - Konec [Previews]

Viul & Benoît Pioulard / Konec (ASIPV035) [PREVIEWS]

Colombian-born, Juan Carlos Torres Alonso aka https://soundcloud.com/okraa debuts on A Strangely Isolated Place with a set of four extended, beguiling tracks that harness the power of a slowly developing, cathartic process of experimentation, textures and noise. Now available: https://asip.me/asipv038

OKRAA / 1994 (ASIPV038) [Previews]

Links to buy/stream: http://asip.me/asip038

Australian producer Rick Bull aka https://soundcloud.com/deepchild has a rich catalog of varying techno-leaning productions, appearing on labels such as Affin and Trapez and local Australian outlets since the early 00’s. His most recent, Fathersong came on the ineffable Mille Plateaux; a shimmering post-dub vista, rich in granular textures, inspired by the modern contemporaries.

Mycological Patterns arrives as a post-script to Fathersong, with a more playful approach and an homage to Rick’s love of mushrooms. Utilizing midi clips to generate chordal movement and reharmonize material he has long been obsessed with (such as old vocal recordings, vinyl rips and Peter Gabriel acapellas), Mycological Patterns plays out like a mixtape on purpose; a sketchbook of styles documenting the shifting abstract microcosms the album is titled after.

It’s an album that reminds Rick about the importance of play, especially after grieving the recent loss of his father. Featuring two tracks utilizing Holly Herndon’s AI project ‘Holly+’, the idea of experimentation and letting go spawned perfect anomalies. It was the ‘dithering artifacts, glitches and moments where the AI code revealed its underlying humanity’ that completed the concept Rick originally set out to create.

Deepchild - Mycological Patterns (mixed version) (ASIP038)

Max Würden returns with his second album on A Strangely Isolated Place after 2019’s ‘Format’, experimenting with a new style of music creation on ‘Landmark’.  More info and to buy this release: http://asip.me/asipv036

Max Würden / Landmark (ASIPV036) [PREVIEWS]

Norwegian producer https://soundcloud.com/mikkel-rev debuts on A Strangely Isolated Place with his most accomplished album to date; traversing nostalgic chillout, slow-burning downtempo, and euphoric trance, in a similar approach to the diverse styles found within the early pioneering electronic ambient albums of the ‘90s. http://asip.me/asipv039

Mikkel Rev / The Art of Levitation [Previews](ASIPV039)

Icelandic musician https://soundcloud.com/gunnarjonssoncollider debuts on A Strangely Isolated Place with an expansive trip through six fictional environments, brought further to life through an accompanying full-length video by artist Arna Beth. 

S.W.I.M. will be available to preorder from May 9th with the full album and video release on May 29th, on Blue Smoke 12" + digital, featuring artwork by Arna Beth and Noah M / Keep Adding, and mastered by Franceso Fabris

Gunnar Jónsson Collider / S.W.I.M (ASIPV041) [PREVIEWS]

Dennis White, Charlie May, and Dave Gardner return to ASIP with their second Volume, featuring 4 long-form tracks spread across a 2LP. Finding moments of melody amongst the wide landscape of abstract sounds and samples is the only glimpse of reality you’ll find down here. http://asip.me/asipv040

Quiet Places / Volume 2 (ASIPV040) [Previews]

For today's exclusive track premiere, I am featuring a piece from the second volume of music by a UK trio called Quiet Places, consisting of Dennis White, Charlie May, and Dave Gardner. Their debut release, appropriately titled Volume 1, showed up on my radar back in 2020 [has it really been that long?] by way of Ryan Griffin's meticulously curated A Strangely Isolated Place imprint, the output of which I consistently and hungrily consume. As is foreshadowed with the title, we are now gifted with Volume 2 of this group's creations, featuring four long-players, each taking up an entire side on this gorgeous marbled 2x12" release [the piece you are hearing today is not on the album, and is a digital-only special bonus track]. As I described the first volume three years ago, the swirling atmospheres in a haze-inducing daydream,  the humming synth pads with the layers built upon each one, and the kaleidoscope of sampled snippets are back again in Volume 2 to snatch me back from this reality and drop me into times when Boards of Canada, Global Communication and The Future Sound of London soundtracked my days. On their latest for ASIP, the trio once again command the sonic artistry and deep knowledge of the stylistic snapshots that are stitching up my memories into a cohesive whole. This is a welcome escape from the bombardment of the "usual", a future flashback into the past of the present, a twist in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop.

Volume Two

TRACK PREMIERE : Quiet Places - The Empty View

German musician https://soundcloud.com/mary-yalex debuts on A Strangely Isolated Place depicting a storied transition from our recognizable surroundings, into a vision of the future. https://asip.me/asipv042

With releases and music styles across a variety of labels over the years, it has been Yalex’s more experimental ambient work that has stood out amongst her catalog, and in Fantasy Zone, we find Mary fine-tuning this sound to reflect the work of a true architect of storytelling, mood and atmosphere. 

Drawing influences from her day-to-day surroundings, Fantasy Zone begins with more vivid pieces; softer melodies and clearer instrumentation, represented as much in song titles such as Air, After Rain Comes Sun, and Half Light of Dawn. The second half of the album transitions into a future state, as Yalex draws on darker manifestations - perhaps intrinsically influenced by the state of the world, and in particular her love of nature, we play witness to more storied, haunting atmospheres, distant voices and slowly shifting gravitational chord movements. Dystopian-bound or pure fantasy, Yalex depicts a future that mirrors some of the more poignant, thought-provoking work of great synthesizer soundtracks of the past. 

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri, and featuring artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding, Fantasy Zone will be available on Purple Smoke 12” and digital.

Mary Yalex / Fantasy Zone [Previews] (ASIPV042)

More info and to buy: http://asip.me/asipv043

Alex Albrecht https://soundcloud.com/melquiadesmusic has refined his unique triangulation of ambient, house, and instrumental influences over the years, either as one-half of Albrecht La’Brooy (Apollo) or under his Melquíades alias (Analogue Attic). Combining rich field recordings and hypnotic instrumentation, Alex’s productions are often recognizable thanks to this instantly warm and welcoming combination. Percussive elements and powerful drum patterns sit amongst perfectly executed melodies and dusky atmospheres; Alex’s music is just as suited for the orange hues of dawn as the purple tints of sundown.

A notably shorter album than we may hope, but sequenced as one complete listen, Alex is purposeful and precise in his approach, with every element completely additive to the last. Violet Visionary echoes a moment of organic evolution that disappears as quickly as it came into existence; peaking to a glowing embrace that will undoubtedly leave an impression.

Featuring original artwork by Evie Cahir and mastered by Corey Kikos (Sleep D), Violet Visionary is available on Transparent Orange Smoke (300 copies) 12” and digital.

Alex Albrecht / Violet Visionary (ASIPV043) [PREVIEWS]

Following their 2021 debut album, ‘Brama’, One Million Eyes return with their highly anticipated second album, ‘Iris’, set to captivate us once more through a kaleidoscope of analog and instrumental fragments...  http://asip.me/asipv044

One Million Eyes / Iris (ASIPV044) [PREVIEWS]

A showcase of individual tracks from our 2023 label releases and a special continuous mix of select tracks from https://soundcloud.com/djtodos
It’s become somewhat of a tradition since our first annual compilation release in 2019, and each year I find it tough to separate tracks from their album releases in this way. We pride ourselves on delivering an album format, and more often than not, specifically a conceptual album format that works best as a whole. So I appreciate the artists who allow us to separate their musical children for this worthy annual exercise. It’s so easy to skip over releases nowadays - at no fault of anyone but the pace of life and technology today - and so this compilation not only helps us reflect on the year gone by, but also ensures anyone new to the label, or dipping in and out over time, can get a taste of what we have proudly spent our time and passion presenting this year. Please take the time to visit each respective artist's release to realize its full form. 

Not only is separating tracks from an album format a formidable task, but finding a way to combine them in one seamless mix is even more so. Once again, we’ve asked our esteemed todos to provide the continuous mixed version. Creating a flow using a limited predetermined set of music across a variety of styles, moods, and tones is an almighty feat. But no-one does it better than todos. Here, he is left to his own devices as we have grown to admire time and time again, using snippets and samples from many of the releases, but focusing on delivering a long-form mix that stands on its own, using nothing but the ASIP 2023 library of music. 

It was a year that introduced new faces to the label with Iceland’s Gunnar Jónsson Collider providing a spectacular audio-visual experience in S.W.I.M, and welcoming Germany’s Mary Yalex who explored imaginary worlds of fascinating texture and melody. We fulfilled a long-awaited foray into more classic trance styles through the exciting Mikkel Rev, and finally presented the magical drums of Alex Albrecht’s heart-warming soundscapes. Max Würden continued his foray into expansive sonics with Landmark, and Quiet Places returned with their second Volume of psychedelic long-form trips into the unknown. One Million Eyes returned with more compelling genre-defiant magic, and OKRAA brought his live edits of his debut album 1994 to life once more. 2023 will also be remembered as the year Brock Van Wey’s Earth House Hold project came both full circle, and full stop. The last track title on this compilation coincidentally represents the perfect swan song for a project that has found a home on ASIP for the past five years. 

Thanks for all your support, comments and encouragement this year. We have an exciting 2024 lined up.

Available as Name Your Price on Bandcamp https://astrangelyisolatedplace.bandcamp.com/album/2023-label-compilation-mixed-by-todos

ASIP Label Compilation 2023 (mixed by todos)

https://soundcloud.com/salvatoremercatante arrives on ASIP with a stunning selection of maximalist electronic music. Walls of noise, soaring soundtracks, dense techno, glittering IDM, and minimal glitch, sit side-by-side to present an all-encompassing palette of sonic possibility.

Now available on gatefold transparent white smoke 2LP + digital. http://asip.me/asipv045

Salvatore Mercatante / Ø (ASIPV045) [PREVIEWS]

Mercatante is a New York-based electronic musician with self-releases dating back to 2007, appearing on a handful of boutique and independent labels. For his debut appearance on ASIP, Mercatante takes the concept of Ø [a symbol used in mathematics for an empty set or null] and explores the possibilities of starting out from nothing, "specifically, trying to understand how the idea of ‘nothing’ fits into the realm of sound, and at the same time, exist in a world of influence at every turn." This is an album that could easily appear on the celebrated raster label or get a head nod from the Alva Noto crowd. Across the ten surgically precise pieces, Mercante explores the concepts of meticulously placed sonic elements, investigating void and all that negative space. It is at once minimal in its execution and maximal in the presented sound, occupying frequencies evoked by glitchy IDM [is that still a used term?], post-techno and reductionist soundtracks.

"Beginning with open spaces and allowing sonic textures to live and evolve past where you may expect, Ø allows the space between notes to become equally as important as the notes themselves."

Love Of Lies

TRACK PREMIERE : Salvatore Mercatante - Love Of Lies

More info + links to buy: http://asip.me/asipv047

“Music gives us a place to be lost. Washing away thought, place, time, and identity. It’s in the falling into the river, the dream, that we find just who we could be”. 

Classically trained cellist, composer, and storyteller https://soundcloud.com/lihqun (Lih Qun Wong) presents her debut album, ‘Socha’ for A Strangely Isolated Place. Combining a vast instrumental skillset of piano, cello, electronics, and spoken word, she crafts intensely immersive aural-hallucinatory worlds of intricately shifting landscapes. 

A deeply personal work, Socha explores the ‘diaspora of time and space, and why we all feel so displaced.' Piano chapters capture the meeting place between memory and longing, while explorational vocal and cello textures invoke and echo the ancient, the feminine, and the otherworldly. 

Lihla’s voice guides us, weaving through electronics and field recordings of the ‘real world' to set the path for a poetic and deeply haunting journey through the internal psyche that is truly transportive and escapist. 

‘Socha’ is available on transparent smoke 12” and digital. Mixed by Sebastian Lee Philipp and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri, featuring artwork by Lihla and Visions of Akira.

Lihla / Socha (ASIPV047) [Previews]

More info and buy links: http://asip.me/asipv046 

As a professional sound engineer by day, Colin Dunkerley aka Lapsed Pacifist, spends much of his time traveling and rarely gets to focus on producing his own music. Despite high praise from those who have become familiar with his work over the years, Colin’s previous productions have mainly consisted of shares with friends and DJs in smaller circles through his Negative Neutron alias. 

Colin envisaged a more pronounced and darker ambient style to emerge one day but struggled to dedicate the time. Hypatia came to life over an extended and fragmented period, with field recordings and loops of audio created on the go, later processed through his modular setup. In the autumn of 2022, Colin spent time collating and listening to these many fragments and field recordings, making notes in a book as he wandered around cold, unfamiliar places with headphones on, trying to shape disparate starting points into something thematically connected.  

The title of Lapsed Pacifist’s debut album, Hypatia is a reference to one of the many fantastical descriptions of imaginary places by Marco Polo in the book, Invisible Cities. Written as a dialogue between Mongol emperor Kublai Khan and Marco Polo, the book became the inspiration and a clear parallel for how Hypatia came to be and what it means to Colin today. 

Attaching music to a place and time can become a very powerful and long-lasting memory. Across its eight tracks, Hypatia depicts fragmented glimpses of color and textures –a scrapbook of senses– traversing the optimistic first steps; the first smell of cold air; cityscapes burnt into your head; and the many emotions from exploring new places that stick with you longer than any photograph ever could. 

“The experience of moving between places so frequently can be fascinating but also dislocating and often quite lonely. I have so many small stories about places I’ve been, but I often think they aren’t necessarily real reflections of anywhere, no more real than anything Invisible Cities author Calvino dreamt up”. - Lapsed Pacifist.  

Hypatia is available on transparent Copper smoke 12” + digital, mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri and featuring artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding.

Lapsed Pacifist / Hypatia (ASIPV046) [Previews]

Sun & Smoke is originally a 2-hour self-produced mix uploaded to Youtube and Soundcloud (https://asip.me/3wvukf4) in 2018 by Greek artist, https://soundcloud.com/dj_theef. Consisting of unreleased productions, the set was uploaded as a safe space, with zero expectations of it ever gaining attention or release.

After many late-night listening sessions, ASIP contacted Theef to discuss how a release might come to life. Originally consisting of 21 tracks in total –with two subsequently released on Morevi Records in 2022– ASIP had the honor of curating and sequencing an album from the remaining 19 unreleased productions, finally landing on those that best represented the intention of the original mix and the feelings it evoked upon those first moments of discovery. 

The appeal of Sun & Smoke can be found in its purity. Built with no intention or audience in mind, the album traverses core elements of deep techno, trance and downtempo. Progressive atmosphere building, addictive underlying grooves, and expansive moments of euphoria; as a mixtape, Sun & Smoke is a zero-visibility haze of eyes-closed, body-moving, forward momentum. As an album, each track is now allowed the space to deliver on its own defining atmosphere. 

From the ambient leaning beginnings of Sky Textures and the title track, Sun & Smoke, to the electro tinges of Primal Age, and the metallic swirls and glistening synths in Approaching Stars, the parts now have the chance to become greater than the sum of its original whole. 

Mastered by Giuseppe Tillieci (Neel / Voices From The Lake) with artwork photography by Juan Fernandez (edited by ASIP), Sun & Smoke will be available on Transparent Red/Orange Smoke gatefold 2LP + digital.

Theef / Sun & Smoke (ASIPV048) [Previews]

sun & smoke
conscious perception
strange nights
approaching stars
machines in love
born in august
ash & dreams
welter
everlast
noxious planet
mass groove
odd entity
endless matter
freed from desire
primal age
long shot
some chords
greatest escape
sky textures
thin ice
last day on earth

composed & mixed by theef
192kbps
recorded somewhere in heraklion, 2018

Sun & Smoke mixtape

Music from A Strangely Isolated Place + 9128.live.

Ambient & electronica music blog, mix series, record label and radio station. Est. 2008.