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Releases

Live sets

ASIP Releases (Previews)

https://9128live.bandcamp.com/album/session-one

The inaugural 9128.live label release comes from the UK’s https://soundcloud.com/werkhouse and https://soundcloud.com/hilaryrobinson, featuring subtle, harmonic drones and manipulated piano, originally aired as part of the duo’s set for the CALMA (Madrid) takeover on 9128.live, April 2021.

Jo Johnson was a guitarist with punk band Huggy Bear in the 90s, inspired by and aligned with the riot grrrl and queercore movements. She organised underground techno parties with Bleep43 in the early 2000s and founded the crew’s label. Since 2012 she has explored experimental, minimalist music and her debut LP Weaving was released on Further Records in 2014.

After a classical training with composers including Kaija Saariaho, London-based composer, pianist and sometime vocalist Hilary Robinson is active across genres from contemporary classical concert music to experimental. Her music has been performed at festivals such as the UK’s 'Music We’d Like to Hear' and broadcast on BBC Radio.

The 9128 label aims to document significant live performances by artists that previously performed on the 9128.live platform. With recordings initially created for a singular collective listening moment, and often as part of a festival or takeover weekend, label recordings will re-present this music for further listening across various formats that best suit each release.

Jo Johnson & Hilary Robinson - Session One (9128-1) [Preview]

 Less Popular Than Cats

[PREMIERE] Jo Johnson - Track 3 - Less Popular Than Cats

What is the sound of feeling?

In physics, we conceive of sound as waves. Vibrations, undulations, physical manifestations: heard but not seen. Borne by the body, but interpreted in the brain.

Within ourselves, we perceive emotion as waves, too. Rolling in, rolling out: tidal, even. In moments of violet intensity, the depth of our feeling crashes upon us like surf, rip currents on a corporeal beach.

Worlds apart, but waves in kind. For musician and composer Jo Johnson, the veil between is diaphanous indeed. What you hear is what you feel. Listen and uncover.

Written and Produced by Jo Johnson (@werkhouse)
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, NY
Artwork by Candace Price
Design by Gabriel Benzur
Words by Chris Zaldua

Worldwide Distribution: Space Cadets Limited

© Jo Johnson / Mysteries of the Deep
MOTDEP008, 2022
mysteriesofthedeep.net

The Wave Ahead

Orbit

Buy 'The Wave Ahead'

MOTDEP008 – Jo Johnson | Orbit

British musician Jo Johnson’s debut solo album for Further Records, Weaving, betokens an exciting presence in the world of minimalist composition. 

“Ancestral Footsteps” opens the LP with cascades of cyclical harp-like sounds, an homage to one of Johnson’s primary inspirations: Alice Coltrane. Channelling rigorous new age and mesmerizing Riley-esque/Reichian minimalism, the piece accrues heft and intensity, with occasional bursts of synthetic, tribal clapping until it fades out with cinematic flourish. The title track gradually alters simple guitar and keyboard phrases, along with a chiming motif that multiplies in a hall of mirrors. The disorientating arpeggios form moiré patterns against colossal bass notes. The mood lightens considerably with “Words Came After Music,” whose sweeping strings and drones could take you to whatever your idea of heaven is. Interestingly, the title of the piece is inspired by an anthropological theory Johnson stumbled across that musical ability predates language in humans. With its sombre, undulating synths and lustrous highs and lows, “In the Shadow of The Workhouse” plumbs profound emotional depths. Epic closer “Silver Threads” starts as an almost silent retreat in the vein of Laurie Spiegel's Appalachian Grove or Eno and Budd's The Pearl with the faint hum and buzz of telegraph wires, until four minutes in a stoic pulse and suspenseful chiming motif arise, buttressed by glowing synth sighs and the LP's only percussive thumps (think Incunabula era Autechre). 

While inspired by the "serious music" of Arvo Pärt, Wim Mertens and others, Johnson’s mandalas of tone mantras offer a playful, DIY sense of adventure, as you might expect from the former guitarist for incendiary punk group Huggy Bear and a long-term co-organizer of London’s Bleep43 techno club night and label. Weaving condenses Johnson's long love affair with free jazz, minimalism and electronic music and this unique ambient composition is invested with powerful emotional resonance.

Ancestral Footsteps

Weaving

More info: https://asip.me/asip042

A Strangely Isolated Place proudly presents Mirror EP, the first label release from Hungarian electronic artist https://soundcloud.com/swanasa (A. Abigél Bánházi). Following her 2023 debut, When You Need to Rest, Let the Sounds Hold You, released on Budapest’s EXILES, Abigél’s Mirror EP serves as a captivating follow-up and a purposeful first introduction to the world of ASIP, showcasing her ability to bridge experimental sound design with hypnotic, meditative drones.

~

“We begin at the edge, the Sad Sea, where the waves mirror our emotions, a boundary between the conscious and the deep unknown. As we dive, the waters grow wild, swirling in the chaos of our unconscious. But through the storm, we start to see the patterns—guided by the wolf, the soul’s escort through the shadows.

Deeper still, silence falls. In this quiet, the voices of whales, and dolphins become our companions, leading us toward truth. The water washes away the darkness, and in that stillness, the swan rises—a symbol of transformation, of wisdom found.”

~

Mirror EP encompasses a diverse range of textures, from deeply immersive soundscapes to intricate rhythmic elements, reflecting swanasa's dedication to pushing the boundaries of ambient music, informed by the interplay of folk culture, Jungian psychology, and digital experimentation. Each composition is a seamless blend of synthetic and organic sounds, influenced by her connection to nature, creating an evocative experience that resonates with themes of ecological awareness and modern technology’s role in artistic expression.

Featuring rhythmic chanting and layered vocal samples that invoke a sense of ritual and deep introspection, washes of abstract sounds manipulated from the recordings of wolves, and mystical sounds straight from nature’s own. The EPs tracks highlight swanasa's exploration of sound as a symbolic language, inviting listeners into a world where the lines between reality and imagination blur.

swanasa's music is brought to life through her live performances, where Mirror EP and her previous material form the foundation for dynamic, meditative sets. Having performed alongside artists such as Abul Mogard, swanasa’s live shows emphasize deep listening and immersive sound environments, drawing audiences into her unique sonic world.

Mirror EP will be released on November 22nd, 2024, available as a digital download, mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri @ Black Knoll Studio, New York. The artwork, an original texture created by Zsuzsi Palman, continues the theme from Abigél’s first EP.

ASIP042 swanasa - Mirror

swanasa / Immersion

swanasa / Sad Sea

A Strangely Isolated Place presents a long-lost collaboration between Polish artists Olga Wojciechowska and Tomasz Walkiewicz as Monoparts—a partnership formed many years ago that resulted in an album once destined to remain unreleased.

Olga Wojciechowska, known for her modern-classical masterpieces such as Infinite Distances (2019) and Unseen Traces (2020), as well as her 2022 collaboration with Scanner, breaks all known expectations with Soothsayers. In a dramatic departure, Olga unveils a new and unexpected side, debuting her haunting vocals—a delicate, spellbinding performance that recalls the golden era of trip-hop, and comparisons to the sounds pioneered by Tricky, Massive Attack, and Martina Topley-Bird.

With Tomasz adding layers of depth through intricate beats and electronics, Olga’s voice becomes the emotional core of the record, conjuring an intimate and nostalgic atmosphere.

"This album is like becoming one with the earth itself—feeling the rawness of the wood, tasting the earth in your mouth, and sensing the presence of ancient spirits. The music carries a deep, primal energy, like being part of the forest, with creatures watching you from the shadows." - Olga Wojciechowska

To complete the journey, ASC lends his signature touch with a stunning drum’n’bass reinterpretation, amplifying the album’s nostalgic essence. Soothsayers emerges as a spellbinding ode to times gone by, in more ways than one.

Featuring artwork by Moon Patrol, with mastering and lacquer by Andreas LUPO Lubich, Soothsayers will be available on 12” maroon smoke-colored vinyl and Bandcamp on February 28th.

Monoparts / Soothsayers (ASIPV052) [Previews]

Following https://soundcloud.com/mikkel-rev's debut album on the label in 2023, ‘The Art Of Levitation’, the Norwegian artist returns with Journey Beyond, a selection of tracks demonstrating his innate ability to conjure the most atmospheric trance music, irrespective of BPM.

Journey Beyond was created from an extensive set of tracks sent to the label that were initially sequenced as two shorter EPs. With the first offering a slower 80bpm trance style, and the second EP, a classic ~130bpm trance style. However, over time, with tracks swapping in and out, ASIP had the idea to create a mixed version, progressing through the tracks and increasing bpm's, showcasing Mikkel’s ability in bridging euphoric worlds - and a style that is often reserved for Mikkel’s live performances amongst the forest raves held as part of the Ute Collective in Norway.

Classic trance and the art of a DJ mix have been influential to ASIP since the label’s inception, making this release and the process of creating it a true reflection of how Mikkel and the label come together to define the end output.

Featuring artwork by Ventral Is Golden and mastered by James Bernard.

Mikkel Rev / Journey Beyond (Mixed by ASIP) [ASIP043]

KILN https://soundcloud.com/kiln return with an opulent new display of hue and swing on Lemon Borealis, a sumptuous gallery of dazzling motifs that display a finely hewn concoction of visual tones and vital pulse.

Across its 12 cuts, this collection utilizes a fresh process of condensing immersive sprawl into compact, punchy and colorful sound. Using aspects of live performance, beatmaking and waveform sculpting, the troika of Kevin Hayes, Kirk Marrison and Clark Rehberg III create evocative and invigorating dioramas, continuing to surprise and enchant listeners after over thirty years into their collaboration.

Deep in waves of Hi-meets-Lo Fi, KILN delivers a panchromatic daymark arranged to biochemically align and stimulate your personal syntax, forging a tapestry of sonic reveries ranging from the aquarium-on-fire radiance of DrnkGrlfrnd, a garden groove of field-recorded percussion in Maplefunk Diptych, to the sizzling guit-noise whiteout of Deacon Rayhand.

Their eighth album, and first for A Strangely Isolated Place, on Lemon Borealis, KILN expands upon the long-explored themes of mosaic texture, subtle melancholy, eroded consonance, and vivid cadence to reveal yet another aperture to their unique magnetic universe.

Lemon Borealis will be available on 12” Transparent Yellow/Ochre Smoke vinyl and digital on July 18th. Lacquer cut by Andreas Lupo Lubich, and featuring artwork by KILN.

KILN / Lemon Borealis (ASIPV053) [PREVIEWS]

New, unreleased material played live at 3:30 am in the yurt at Freerotation, July 2015. This set was played on Juno's podcast later that month.

Live At Freerotation 2015

With a long history of involvement within the electro-focused Bleep43 collective behind her, Jo Johnson surprised many with the release of her excellent debut album Weaving on Further Records. A calming exercise in minimalist composition and new age melodies, Weaving quite rightly featured among our favourite albums of last year and remains a record that gets repeat office airings midway through 2015. With this in mind, the notion of seeking out Johnson for a mix started to form a few months back, though the artist herself told us she was fully focussed on preparing for her live show at this year’s edition of the Freerotation festival that took place a few weekends ago.

Unperturbed, we floated the idea of potentially hosting Johnson’s Freerotation set as part of our podcast series in the event of her recording the performance. Luckily for us and you, Johnson was, and we are thrilled to offer a platform for Johnson’s near hour-long live set. Performed deep into the night at the festival’s yurt stage, Johnson’s set consists entirely of new and unreleased material from her. If you are a fan of Weaving this performance from Johnson will definitely resonate with you.

Johnson was kind enough to answer some questions that should offer some context for this recorded performance, as well as her relationship with Further Records and what we can expect from Bleep43 over the coming months. You can read that here: http://bit.ly/1efUvIs

Juno Plus Podcast 117: Jo Johnson

My second Freerotation yurt set. It was at a weird, uneasy time, just after the EU referendum result. The recording was played on Rinse FM by Ben UFO on the Hessle Audio show on 9/11/17 (thank you).

Jo Johnson - Live at Freerotation 2016

Rinse FM Podcasts

Download

Hessle Audio with Ben UFO & Jo Johnson - 9th November 2017

First improvised live set. Segment. Picture courtesy of the one and only Catherine Hillis.

Live at the Pickle Factory

Jo Johnson - Live at Pickle Factory (Jane Fitz residency) Nov 2017

Tears of joy

One track from each of our label releases in 2020, mixed into one continuous journey by ASIP. This mix is available in high quality along with a limited CD version and individual tracks, as part of the 2020 compilation: https://astrangelyisolatedplace.bandcamp.com/album/2020-label-compilation . Thank you to everyone who listened and supported our label's music this year. 

Tracklist
01. Olga Wojciechowska - Labyrinth Made Of Labyrinths (ASIP031)
02. Wanderwelle - Presumed Lost (ASIPV021)
03. Blinkar från Norr - Metaphors For Things (ASIPV022)
04. Leandro Fresco & Rafael Anton Irisarri - Cuando La Rutina Nos Toma Desprevenidos (ASIPV018)
05. Markus Guentner - Gradient Spirits (Excerpt) (ASIP032)
06. Quiet Places - Track 8 (ASIPV023)
07. Merrin Karras - Dominions (ASIPV019)
08. Damm - Rhein Valley (ASIPV025)
09. Christian Kleine - Helios Flood (ASIP034)
10. Gastón Arévalo - Sur les traces des explorateurs (ASIPV024)
11. Merrin Karras - Silent Planet (Excerpt) (ASIP033)
12. Gadi Sassoon - Life On A Tidally Locked Planet (ASIPV026)

ASIP - A Strangely Isolated Place 2020 - Mixed by ASIP

A Strangely Isolated Place 2020 - Mixed by ASIP

Monument presents Alpengluhen#55 
F-on & Jamie mcCue (@silent-season) 
January 10th, 2021.

Streaming event (and video) at https://youtu.be/Ob12-N7nJb8
thanks @monument-podcast for making it possible

Alpenglühen#55 w/ F-on & Jamie McCue

Chris SSG at RC3

Chris SSG (Tokyo, Japan)
Connection and creativity; together we will find our way through this difficult period.
Projects like this matter, as do the relationships they build and sustain.
Stay true, stay the course, we'll meet on the other side. 
And while waiting for that to happen, perhaps you can space out to this mix.

https://soundcloud.com/mnml-ssgs
https://www.facebook.com/chris.ssgs
https://www.instagram.com/mnmlssgs

RC3
The Chaos Computer Club is Germany's primary source for futuristic and alternative thinking since the 80s. Each year between Christmas and New Year's Eve, this association gathers hackers from all over the galaxy for a huge congress. Under the given conditions, the convention had to move to an online exile for the 2020 edition: The "Remote Chaos Experience" (RC3). Music and all kinds of arts are an integral part of these conventions - this set is one of the contributions to the four-day streaming marathon that soundtracked the RC3 (27 - 30th of December, 2020).

https://events.ccc.de
https://links.rc3.world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Computer_Club
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Communication_Congress

Oslated.
http://www.oslated.com
https://soundcloud.com/oslated
https://oslated.bandcamp.com

Chris SSG at RC3

~ Deep Breakfast 098 by https://soundcloud.com/atmosphare ~

Tracklist:
01. 2814 - The Birth Of A New Day
02. Atmøsphäre - Decoupling (Intro)
03. FSOL - Room 208
04. Logic Moon - Drone 0002 (Lauge Recycle)
05. FSOL - Cerebral
06. Brian Eno - Signals (Remastered 2005)
07. FSOL - Among Myselves
08. Atmøsphäre & VictorYibril - Gift Of The Caves
09. Hilyard - Limbs (Atmøsphäre Recycle)
10. bvdub - There Was Nothing But Beauty In My Heart
11. Atmøsphäre - Some Dreams Come True
12. Atmøsphäre - Childhood Memory
13. Alio Die - The Atom Of Existence
14. 2814 - Distant Lovers
15. FSOL - Omnipresence
16. bvdub - Everything Between You And Me
17. Atmøsphäre - Traveler
18. Brock Van Wey - Can't Go Home Without You
19. The Orb - Back Side Of The Moon
20. Atmøsphäre -  Entering The Atmosphere
21. The Orb - Supernova At The End Of The Universe

Have a good listening.

Photography: Maria Pablo Romero

Deep Breakfast 098 - Atmøsphäre

Music from A Strangely Isolated Place + 9128.live.

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