Meditation mix

The ASIP Places Series is a selection of releases inspired by the artist’s very own strangely isolated place. No one place is the same, no musical inspiration is identical. Everybody’s place of escapism is different. The Places Series aims to unearth the personal moments, the detailed sounds and the inspirational story behind the music, transporting the listener to that very moment of conception.

View all of the releases on our interactive Google Map http://asip.me/PlacesSeries

Download on Bandcamp

The Places Series

Compilation of ambient musics that are particularly suitable for work. That is set a peaceful background and do not interfere with the listener's thoughts.

A-Lin's favorite ambients (good while working) part I

For a moment, just be still.

Creative

ambient drone

Patrick O'Hearn - Approaching Summit

Patrick O'Hearn - Panning the Sands

Inspired by the sky above while walking back, my heart full of wonder and love, at home I sat and wrote this.

Image shows one of the Perseids meteors during August.
http://www.facebook.com/intrnlextrnl

Counterpart [Free Download] (30 Minute Production)

For more info and an in-depth interview with ASC, see http://asip.me/isolatedmix45



isolatedmix 45 - ASC

Elsewhere

http://asip.me/isolatedmix47

01. Murcof – Ooort + Cosmos 2
02. Boards of Canada – Telepath
03. Ulf Lohman – PCC
04. Moshimoss – Travis
05. Jacques Lu Cont – Palindrome
06. Ocoeur – Memento
07. Maps & Diagrams – Ukiyo -e
08. Another fine day – Moving in Stillness
09. Markus Guentner – Shadows Of The City
10. Solar Fields – Sky Trees + Patterns
11. Marsen Jules – The Philosophers Trap
12. Loscil – Charlie
13. The KLF – Six hours to Louisiana, black coffee going cold
14. Maceo Plex – Conjure Balearia
15. The KLF – Dream team in Lake Jackson
16. Bill Laswell – The Heathen Dub
17. Bvdub – Your Loyalty Lies Long Forgotten
18. Ocoeur – Fusion
19. Melorman – Over The Ocean
20. Bochum Welt – La Nuit

Isolatedmix 47 - Leandro Fresco

http://asip.me/isolatedmix50

So here we are. Half-a-century of isolatedmixes. Each, a window into the world behind ASIP; an insight into the inspirations and passion behind the site and label over the past six years, and beyond.

I always set out to keep the series exclusively for artists who’ve had a profound impact on ASIP and I’m glad I’t’s stayed that way. We’ve been lucky enough to host heroes of the genre, legends, new-comers, friends and innovators over the years, and each one is special in its own right.

Ulrich Schnauss provided the very first isolatedmix (fittingly so) but as soon as I realized the series, I started making lists of artists I dreamt would contribute, and bvdub was up top. Brock’s music is unique, and as close to perfection in my world, striking a balance of euphoria, emotion and musical progression in every production.

Many of you would have heard Brock’s music if you follow this site in any shape or form, but I’m pretty sure there’s lots of who you haven’t heard a mix from Brock – they’re as rare as they come.

Brock turned me down a few times before agreeing to do this mix. Mainly because a mix to him, isn’t about sitting down for hours, maybe days and carefully crafting an hour-long journey (like it is for most of us). For Brock, he needs to be in the right state of mind; the right period in his life. Mixes zap him of energy, and if the inspiration isn’t there he wont force it.

Let’s just say the stars aligned on this one. Some true inspiration that led to the mix; an emotional moment that unfurled; and a unique and original approach, led to Brock pouring his energy into a personal journey in the most unforgettable and special way possible.

Thanks to Brock for this rare opportunity and insight into his world and to everyone who has contributed, listened, commented and downloaded the series so far. Here’s to the next 50.

isolatedmix 50 - bvdub: Sleep Tight, Ono

<p>From 'Curious Perspectives' - full album available via Bandcamp:
<a href="http://joefrawley.bandcamp.com/album/curious-perspectives" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://joefrawley.bandcamp.com/album/curious-perspectives</a>

Joe Frawley, piano and sound collage


Departure / Dark geometry

“Herbicides Over Small Fields” just hits you. There’s no easing intro and no space to colour a welcome. From the frenzied birdsong to the ominous klaxon that mordantly sweeps over with the ruthless regularity of radar, this is a track wracked with incomprehension and an inescapable foreboding.

“When I was a small kid, I used to take long walks with a friend through the streets of my hometown Svetlovodsk,” Marc explains. We were strolling like the voyagers of middle Ages exploring the world and discovering something new. Back in those days I was extending the boundaries of my personal map of the world. I think that’s pretty common thing for human psychology.”

So born from a seemingly innocent trip out of his hometown, and seeing the equally innocuous spraying of herbicides, he created a gloomy future smothered by the chemical hiss of static and anxiety of the unknown.

“My parents often went for work to nearby towns and always took me with them,” he continues. “You can imagine how significant for me those trips were. Svetlovodsk itself is a quiet industrial town, at least it was at the time, but the surrounding territory is mainly an agricultural area on hilly relief and going there was like expeditions to something inexperienced and completely unknown.

“One day I saw airplanes manoeuvering up in the air. I asked my grandfather about what were they doing. He said that they were treating fields with something, most probably spraying herbicides. I didn’t know that word at the time and never heard it before, so I remember how some sort of fear or anxiety absorbed me and mysterious feelings wrapped me tightly. Something strange was happening in a place I barely knew and which I’ve just started to explore.”

Spine-chilling and suffocating, the malevolent use of industrial power against the purity of wildlife is brilliantly unsettling. Threatening in its wave-like consistency, “Herbicides Over Small Fields” ramps up the fear and paranoia but just as it threatens to overwhelm, the birdsong breaks through to melt the tension and remind you what home feels like. Chilling stuff.

“We were returning home and I was thinking about things I saw. Passing by the town ‘welcome’ board and the plant of pure metals we were already in the town. I realized that and felt easier. I think on that day the drawing of boundaries of my home was over.”

More info and high-quality download: http://asip.me/MarcAtmost

ASIP006 Marc Atmost - Herbicides Over Small Fields

big knobs, little knobs, all sorts of fun knobs...  random analog noodling.. not mastered or anything... just as it is

solo for wavetek and monotron

Some nights are made for sitting back and just letting the world spin on its axis; nights to watch the snow fall and gaze over misty neon hazes in the distance. Dark skies and white snow always seem to cast a sleepy contrast but it’s also one shared by an almost motionless state.

It’s times like these Benjamin Dauer treasures; the still hours where life is yet to accelerate towards its grinding daily regimen; the wait before the first creaks of cold bones and commuter trains amplify the city. 

“By day, I am a problem-solver,” Benjamin starts, “and each project comes with a slew of new requirements and problems. Things can move pretty quickly and before you know it, months have passed and the next one is coming down the pipeline.

“It means I cherish the early morning hours before I go in. It's during these times that I feel a deep sense of peace and quiet and so my mind can wander, free of project goalposts and timelines.”

Free of these pressures, his “Twenty Three and Twenty Six EP” is testament to operating in a haze of AM detachment. Four drifting scores of ambient invention, tape echo and swimming delay, they’re musical explorations that are beautifully, subtly metrical. Awash with hypnotic rhythms and an unpolished human touch, each track feels like it plays out to its untraced, natural end. 
  
“I love these happy accidents as I feel they are a natural part of the improvisation process” he explains. “I enjoy these opportunities to practice improvisation and I’ve discovered that these free-spirited explorations often end up feeling finely choreographed in the end. Perhaps this is some sort of primal response or urge to seek rhythm in my life?” he ponders.

Whatever the thought process, the still hours just got more beautiful.

More info and HQ EP download: http://asip.me/ASIP023

http://asip.me/PlacesSeries


ASIP023 Benjamin Dauer - Eight and Forty

ASIP023 Benjamin Dauer - Four and Fifty Eight

ASIP023 Benjamin Dauer - Four and Sixteen

ASIP023 Benjamin Dauer - Six and Twelve

Sometimes, an album comes along which blows everything else out of the water. Then, you learn it’s the artist’s very first release in this particular style. And then, that little tingly feeling you get from discovering a new favourite artist creeps up your back at you sit clasping your headphones with eyes wide open, in anticipation for the next track, for more, and more.

This sounds pretty dramatic, but this is exactly how I felt when I first heard Roger Martinez’s self-titled production as Horizontal Excursions. The electronic DJ/Producer from the Netherlands had well and truly grabbed my attention under his new moniker and his album, was easily one of the best releases of 2011.

Two years later, Roger has revisited his Horizontal Excursions ambient guise, taken a trip into nature’s beating heart and pulled off another absolutely beautiful piece of work that ambient enthusiasts like me, simply fall for again and again.

-

The wilderness stirs something primal and unfathomable in us all. We become overwhelmed, awestruck, even emboldened, by these untamed frontiers, content to revel in the unspoiled beauty or compelled to explore what lies within. For some, it’s a cold, harsh reality; an unforgiving tundra of survival and subsistence. But, when afforded the indulgence, this isolation is the purest of them all.

“There aren’t many places left in Western Europe where you can still immerse yourself in pure wilderness” Roger begins, “in fact, the only environment where I have truly experienced this is in certain parts of Switzerland. My latest trip to Zermatt, located in the canton of Valais, has greatly shaped the music in this symphony and I was reminded that all of nature is something that should be respected and revered.”

A regular traveller through the country, Roger’s willingness to lose himself (in every sense of the word) in the abundance of natural beauty heralded Symphonica Helvetica – an untainted journey through the mysticism of the Alps, velveteen swoop of Swiss valleys, and the siren-song of nature.

“Away from the large cities of Zürich and Basel, you enter into a totally different kind of environment,” he states. “For me mountainous areas epitomize something indescribable, something sacred. I lose sense of identity and, sometimes literally, become lost in the landscape around me.

Inspired by the power of his surroundings, Symphonica Helvetica crystallizes those moments, and Roger captures, and softens, the endeavour of trekking through the terrain. A symphonic soundtrack that casts a heavy ambient blanket, there’s a sense of uphill resistance as the summit nears; the enormity of casting an infinite gaze for miles; the deep, contented inhale as you survey the forest canopy thousands of feet below and feel, for that moment, like it’s all you.

“In these places you really see nature at work: sculpting, flowing and grinding through the mountains,” Roger explains. “The fruits of my past trips through the mountains of Switzerland have amalgamated into the symphony that I present to you here. This is the musical translation of the visions and experiences I had standing on the edge of mountain cliffs, overlooking valleys, walking through snow-clad forests, enchanted by mountain tops in full view. These are the shamanic songs of Mother Nature still at reign in her grand domain: a living myth put into sound pressure waves.”

http://asip.me/ASIP024

ASIP024 Horizontal Excursions - Symphonica Helvetica

1. "Bodhichitta is a Sanskrit word that means “noble or awakened heart.” It is said to be present in all beings. Just as butter is inherent in milk and oil is inherent in a sesame seed, this soft spot is inherent in you and me. It is said that in difficult times, it is only bodhichitta that heals. When inspiration has become hidden, when we feel ready to give up, this is the time when healing can be found in the tenderness of pain itself. This is the time to touch the genuine heart of bodhichitta. In the midst of loneliness, in the midst of fear, in the middle of feeling misunderstood and rejected is the heartbeat of all things, the genuine heart of sadness. Just as a jewel that has been buried in the earth for a million years is not discolored or harmed, in the same way this noble heart is not affected by all of our kicking and screaming. The jewel can be brought out into the light at any time, and it will glow as brilliantly as if nothing had ever happened. No matter how committed we are to unkindness, selfishness, or greed, the genuine heart of bodhichitta cannot be lost. It is here in all that lives, never marred and completely whole."
Pema Chödrön

the noble heart

Guest mix for SpacesFM: http://spacesfm.com/2013/03/a-strangely-isolated-place-spacesfm-guest-mix/

01. Floex - Zorya Polunochnaya (ASIP looping edit) [Minority Records, 2011] 
02. Biosphere - As The Sun Kissed The Horizon [Touch, 1997] 
03. Alva Noto - Is Otto Roessler Right [Unseen Records, 2011] 
04. Alva Noto - Xerox Monophaser II [Raster Norton, 2009] 
05. Loess - Retinue [Toytronic, 2003] 
06. Heathered Pearls - Ringing Temple (Decreased Version) [Ghostly, 2012] 
07. Jon Hopkins - Abandon Window [Unseen Records, 2011] 
08. Nils Frahm - More [Erased Tapes, 2011] 
09. Autechre - Autriche [Warp Records, 1993] 
10. AFX - Analogue Bubblebath [Mighty Force, 1991] 
11. Segue - Parchment [Silent Season, 2013]
12. bvdub - I Would Have Waited [Distant Noise, 2011] 
13. Leandro Fresco - El Cruce Imposible [Kompakt 2013]
14. 36 - Heather Spa [astrangelyisolatedplace, forthcoming 2013]
15. Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm - a1 [Erased Tapes, 2012]

ASIP - SpacesFM Guest Mix

More info including an interview with Rafael > http://asip.me/isolatedmix37

http://www.substratafestival.com/
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-make-another-memorable-substrata-happen

Tracklist:

0:00. Lawrence English – Patterns Review
1:28. Rafael Anton Irisarri – Substrata Hydrophonic Listening
2:15. Yagya/The Sight Below – Sleepygirl
6:52. Markus Guentner – Get Anything Done In This World
16:17. Loscil – Hastings Sunrise
23:09. Mirrorring – Drowning The Call
29:45. Svarte Greiner – Final Sleep
32:57. Tim Hecker – Dungeoneering
37:28. Scanner – 47° 36′ 35″ N, 122° 19′ 59″ W
40:47. Biosphere – Warmed By The Drift
47:11. Jacaszek – Lament
54:01. Nils Frahm – Ambre
57:39. Marcus Fischer – Shape To Shore
63:05. Oren Ambarchi – Stars Aligned, Webs Spun
66:10. Eluvium – Under The Water It Glowed


isolatedmix 37 - Rafael Anton Irisarri: Substrata Edition

We’re so busy navigating concrete jungles and determinedly juggling schedules with mindless routine, it’s a welcome rarity for many of us to experience true postcard perfection. But walking in the shadows of New Zealand’s Southern Alps, Micah Templeton-Wolfe found that the snow-capped surroundings stirred something as he travelled through the south of the country.

“’Frozen Skies’ captures the feeling of the first time I travelled throughout the South Island of New Zealand in 2005,” he explains, “I was truly amazed by the raw beauty of the landscapes, from the stillness of the vast lakes to the majestic heights of the Southern Alps. Every time I’ve visited this place, there is an overwhelming feeling of solitude, of being totally immersed in the vast and striking textures of this beautiful place."

A track that hums into life from atmospheric beginnings, it feels like Karin Dreijer Andersson’s warped yelp is lurking, ready to wickedly cut through the drone. Instead, ‘Frozen Skies’ evolves into a track of yearning discovery, its moody, glacial pace mirroring the cold beauty of the landscape that inspired it.

Awash with fleeting builds and yearning strings, it feels like a mournful journey of a dying day; the sun sinking into the glacial lakes in the distance, a soundtrack to just staring ahead and seeing life, not death, in a ruggedly endless horizon.

http://asip.me/ASIP025

ASIP025 Stray Theories - Frozen Skies

INTERVIEW: http://www.thefader.com/2013/05/07/fader-mix-bibio

FADER Mix: Bibio

01. Accelra - Three Suns [Futuresequence] 
02. Nils Frahm - For [Erased Tapes] 
03. Jacaszek - Zal [Miasmah] 
04. Ulver - Eos [The End] 
05. Deaf Center - Hunted Twice [Type] 
06. Ferrein - Hover [Farver] 
07. Allez Allez - Defeatist (Somfay 'Doubled Up Foldable Iona Rarity' Remix) [free] 
08. Mark Morgan - Metallic Monks [Fallout OST] 
09. Volor Flex - Mistake [dub] 
10. Martin Stig Andersen - Gravity Jump [Limbo OST] 
11. Talvihorros - Alpha [Hibernate] 
12. Keosz - Desire [dub]

http://asip.me/isolatedmix38

isolatedmix 38 - Bulb - Stereogamia

Standing tall on Kompakt’s Pop Ambient compilation back in 2003, Leandro’s lush ambient sound set the precedent and style for what is now a remarkable ongoing series for the German label. It was tracks like Leandro Fresco’s, ‘Buenos Amigos‘ that really took my love for ambient music up a notch, and also opened my eyes to this new style of deep, heavily textured electronic ambient music. It’s an understatement to say how proud I am to have such a remarkable producer contribute to the Places Series.

Fast-forward ten years, and last week Leandro gave us a gentle reminder of his beautiful, warm ambient style, with this mix for Sgustok Magazine. And as if timing couldnt be any better, we’re now treated to Leandro’s latest masterpiece for The Places Series.

Patagonia’s always held a personal fascination. With a small, Welsh-speaking population over 7,000 miles away from Wales, it’s an odd displacement, but for the 5,000 that speak Patagonian Welsh, it’s undoubtedly home.

It’s a theme that poignantly plays out for Leandro Fresco – the lure of his parents’ house providing the happy, creative escape from the frenzy of Buenos Aires. “I wrote this song in a beautiful small city in Argentinian Patagonia where my parents live,” he explains. “This has been my favourite place to write for a long time, a place where I can escape from Buenos Aires.”

And it was this transition from the hustle of the Argentine capital to the serenity of Patagonia’s San Martin De Los Andes that helped provide the snowy inspiration for ‘Almas Sin Prisa’ (‘Souls without Haste’).

“I remember sitting in my room facing the window, watching the snowflakes fall and improvising on the keyboard,” Leandro reminisces. “Looking through the glass, I saw two people walking away in the storm, holding hands. These were the first minutes of the night when the sun was just beginning to hide and I kept on thinking about who these strangers were.”

This sense of the unanswered lends ‘Almas Sin Prisa’ a baleful, blissful feel. Beautifully layered, you can almost feel the weight of the snowfall cloud your line of vision, those first delicate snowflakes amassing to become tumbling white walls; the delicate movement and feather-light melodies conveying a distance as they gracefully drift away; the subtle drone lending a dreamy finale as the snowy silhouettes fade out to white.

“I’ll never know,” he smiles, “but while the music played, and I drank my cup of tea, I was happy to be in the warmth of my home and glad that I saw this simple show. Just two people in the storm. Just two souls without haste.”

For HQ download please visit http://asip.me/ASIP026

ASIP026 Leandro Fresco - Almas Sin Prisa

Music from A Strangely Isolated Place + 9128.live.

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