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

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The Places Series

Track 4 of 5.

ASIP015 http://soundcloud.com/yeter - Dart

Finding a sense of serenity is a challenge most of us chase, every day. Whether it’s the coffee-breath grind of the underground, the grid-lock of the daily commute or the drudgery of the 9-5, looking beyond the concrete and grey monotony, to nature, is often the transcendent salvation we seek.

Dart is one such redemption. Inspired by the river from which this collection takes its name, these five continuous movements pay personal homage to the stretch of water that Jethro Cooke considers to be the connection between the sacred places of his youth and the present-day comfort of a retreat.

“I hope that listeners will find Dart peaceful but not without vitality and dynamism,” Jethro explains. “I set out to create a gentle, intimate piece of environmental music, essentially textural composition with an organic aesthetic. I worked with field recordings affected to a varying degree; the familiar sounds of running water and birdsong accompany melodic drones and gentle rhythmic lines crafted from riverside samples. There is no synthesis in Dart.”

A gentle, morphing soundtrack, Dart’s dream-like drones weave and swathe to an ecological beat. Tracked by environmental field recordings, it’s easy to imagine the lush canopies of grass, dragonflies languidly patrolling their territory and wildlife instinctively running their biological routine.

“From the moorland at the heart of Devon to the South coast, the Dart carves a valley of abundant natural beauty where I have spent a great deal of my time over the last ten years,” Jethro reminisces. “These days the river is above all a comfort. I visit it to rest, to calm myself and clear my head. It has the almost unique effect of calming through movement rather than stillness – the constant rolling of water is like a mantra.”

It’s what helps underpin the subtle beauty of this set and Dart paints a vivid picture of the velvet green idylls we can all dream about; both the movement and the melody.

More info and download via Bandcamp: http://asip.me/ASIP015

Download all Places Series releases: http://asip.me/PlacesSeries

ASIP015 Yeter - Dart (4)

Track 5 of 5.

ASIP015 http://soundcloud.com/yeter - Dart

Finding a sense of serenity is a challenge most of us chase, every day. Whether it’s the coffee-breath grind of the underground, the grid-lock of the daily commute or the drudgery of the 9-5, looking beyond the concrete and grey monotony, to nature, is often the transcendent salvation we seek.

Dart is one such redemption. Inspired by the river from which this collection takes its name, these five continuous movements pay personal homage to the stretch of water that Jethro Cooke considers to be the connection between the sacred places of his youth and the present-day comfort of a retreat.

“I hope that listeners will find Dart peaceful but not without vitality and dynamism,” Jethro explains. “I set out to create a gentle, intimate piece of environmental music, essentially textural composition with an organic aesthetic. I worked with field recordings affected to a varying degree; the familiar sounds of running water and birdsong accompany melodic drones and gentle rhythmic lines crafted from riverside samples. There is no synthesis in Dart.”

A gentle, morphing soundtrack, Dart’s dream-like drones weave and swathe to an ecological beat. Tracked by environmental field recordings, it’s easy to imagine the lush canopies of grass, dragonflies languidly patrolling their territory and wildlife instinctively running their biological routine.

“From the moorland at the heart of Devon to the South coast, the Dart carves a valley of abundant natural beauty where I have spent a great deal of my time over the last ten years,” Jethro reminisces. “These days the river is above all a comfort. I visit it to rest, to calm myself and clear my head. It has the almost unique effect of calming through movement rather than stillness – the constant rolling of water is like a mantra.”

It’s what helps underpin the subtle beauty of this set and Dart paints a vivid picture of the velvet green idylls we can all dream about; both the movement and the melody.

More info and download via Bandcamp: http://asip.me/ASIP015

Download all Places Series releases: http://asip.me/PlacesSeries

ASIP015 Yeter - Dart (5)

When the surroundings are right, inspiration usually comes easily. And if your surroundings take in the green vibrancy of the jungle, rolling energy of the Pacific and power of the sun, you’re in a good place. Inspired by the life and beauty of the Mexican beaches, Mig Defoe definitely sees it that way.

“Playa La Llorona is a place close to El Faro de Bucerias, in Michoacan Mexico,” he explains, “it is my favourite place in the world.” 

Stimulated by the variety of sounds, his “Playa La Llorona“ EP draws on both the physical and emotional;  the perpetuating movement of the sea but also the sense of contentment it instils; the symbol of a hammock on the beach and the simple pleasure it provides.

“It’s all related to the sea,” Mig continues, “’Playa La Llorana begins with jungle sounds because the intention of the song is that the jungle is part of the orchestral sounds of the sea. The waves are the music, and because the place is absolutely desolate, the only music made is by the sea, the birds, and the insects. Palapa, is a place where you can rest in an Amaca, a kind of bed where the people rest and sleep on the beach, usually at a kind of bar, or restaurant. It’s very common in Mexico. Mares, means seas, and it’s a tribute to all the seas in the world. There’s energy but also sadness; Mares is a song for the oceans.”

Alive with tribal rhythms and ambient washes, ‘Playa La Llorona’ inhabits a place where the dense jungle breaks onto the panorama of the ocean, the moment of stumbling out of the foliage and across the sand. Yet it doesn’t sound like a triumphant escape from the clutches of the jungle, and nor should it, as Mig explains.

“La llorona is a name for a phantom in Mexico,” he begins. “It’s a typical Mexican tale and it means the woman who cries. At Playa La LLorona, the sand is full of silica (quartz) so that every step you do, it makes a sound like a cry. That’s why it’s called Playa la Llorona.”

The sound of satisfied lazing, ‘Palapa’s clean drumbeat claps with every break of the waves, the gentle keys and strings easing the sun to sleep whereas the downbeat beauty and pensive piano lines of ‘Volver’ tell a tale of a slight return.

“It’s been four years since I’ve been back to Mexico,” Mig reminisces, “but when I go back, these are the feelings I have returning to these beautiful places.”

More info and high quality download: http://asip.me/PlacesSeries

http://asip.me/PlacesSeries

ASIP016 Mig Dfoe - Playa La Llorona

When the surroundings are right, inspiration usually comes easily. And if your surroundings take in the green vibrancy of the jungle, rolling energy of the Pacific and power of the sun, you’re in a good place. Inspired by the life and beauty of the Mexican beaches, Mig Defoe definitely sees it that way.

“Playa La Llorona is a place close to El Faro de Bucerias, in Michoacan Mexico,” he explains, “it is my favourite place in the world.” 

Stimulated by the variety of sounds, his “Playa La Llorona“ EP draws on both the physical and emotional;  the perpetuating movement of the sea but also the sense of contentment it instils; the symbol of a hammock on the beach and the simple pleasure it provides.

“It’s all related to the sea,” Mig continues, “’Playa La Llorana begins with jungle sounds because the intention of the song is that the jungle is part of the orchestral sounds of the sea. The waves are the music, and because the place is absolutely desolate, the only music made is by the sea, the birds, and the insects. Palapa, is a place where you can rest in an Amaca, a kind of bed where the people rest and sleep on the beach, usually at a kind of bar, or restaurant. It’s very common in Mexico. Mares, means seas, and it’s a tribute to all the seas in the world. There’s energy but also sadness; Mares is a song for the oceans.”

Alive with tribal rhythms and ambient washes, ‘Playa La Llorona’ inhabits a place where the dense jungle breaks onto the panorama of the ocean, the moment of stumbling out of the foliage and across the sand. Yet it doesn’t sound like a triumphant escape from the clutches of the jungle, and nor should it, as Mig explains.

“La llorona is a name for a phantom in Mexico,” he begins. “It’s a typical Mexican tale and it means the woman who cries. At Playa La LLorona, the sand is full of silica (quartz) so that every step you do, it makes a sound like a cry. That’s why it’s called Playa la Llorona.”

The sound of satisfied lazing, ‘Palapa’s clean drumbeat claps with every break of the waves, the gentle keys and strings easing the sun to sleep whereas the downbeat beauty and pensive piano lines of ‘Volver’ tell a tale of a slight return.

“It’s been four years since I’ve been back to Mexico,” Mig reminisces, “but when I go back, these are the feelings I have returning to these beautiful places.”

More info and high quality download: http://asip.me/PlacesSeries

http://asip.me/PlacesSeries


ASIP016 Mig Dfoe - Mares

ASIP016 Mig Dfoe - Palapa

ASIP016 Mig Dfoe - Volver

Finding beauty doesn’t always come easy. It’s a search, and concept, guided by bias and perception; subjectivity and selectivity. For the optimists, it can be seen in anything. For the pessimists, it’s a long-term battle to find inspiration in anything but the superlative. That search seems to be an extensive one for Sonae when it comes to her current place in Cologne.

“Cologne has no beauty,” Sonae states. “It’s grey and full of cement and the asphalt ugliness doesn’t even stop at Cologne's biggest park. It’s a barely green area named Grüngürtel that sometimes feels like it’s been oppressed.”

 It’s a damning assessment but underpins the melancholic atmosphere of ‘Traurigtag’ and ‘Urban Cruising’. Twin tracks that carry a grey burden, the white noise hints at a discord and frustration, characterising Sonae’s struggle with the monotony of her surroundings. Frail piano lines and fallible melody struggle in their battle in the pool of acerbic static, the harmony painstakingly trying to emerge, only to slip back into the abyss.   It’s forced Sonae to look deeper into the city and her surroundings, cherish the intermittent oases, and appreciate how the bleakest outlooks can also inspire the smallest victories. 

“Cologne definitely has its colourful spots on its grey mapping,” she explains “In the Südstadt, early century buildings frame the streets, there’s the old trees of Friedenspark and Volksgarten's rose-garden, and last but not least, the Rheinufer allows you to leave everything behind while cruising along the riverside to the small beach of Rodenkirchen.”

 Perhaps the beauty is in the struggle.

More info and high-quality download: http://asip.me/ASIP017

ASIP017 Sonae - Traurigtag

ASIP017 Sonae - Urban Cruising

A sunny day at the beach can be a wonderful thing but a wind and rain swept endeavour across the shifting sands rewards just as richly. Surrounded by the elements, for ‘Black Day, Silver Sea’ Igor basked in the wild, monochrome splendour of the Black Sea. 

“In the spring of 2012, I travelled to the Caucasus…the Black Sea. It was a sunny day and I was looking for a place to shoot a video with my doll.” Igor explains.  “I always shoot the video in high places and when I came to the beach there was a storm. The sea sparkled like molten silver and the sky was black as coal and I thought that the stratosphere was suddenly getting low.”

There’s a constriction to ‘Black Day, Silver Sea’ as it slow burns to impending turmoil. Black in name, and equally dark in spirit, the threat lies in the contrasting beauty of the melting tar sky bleeding into the silver of the sea. It’s a toneless outlook underpinned by clean melodies left to seep and linger; the gentle resonance of the piano line; the wash of the strings; the clean clarity of the foot-step percussion perfectly combine to malevolent effect, the perpetual rhythm of the waves ebbing into a horizon of the vast and unknown..

An understated apocalypse that creeps on, if the sky and the stars do fall, let their accelerated descent be as magnificent as this.

http://asip.me/ASIP018

http://asip.me/PlacesSeries

ASIP018 Parks - Black Day, Silver Sea

You won’t find any background on Norge just yet, and you’ve probably only heard his one-and-only release on the latest ASIP ‘White Light’ mix, which kicked-off the Atomic-bomb-themed proceedings.

Norge is new to producing and will be the first to admit that he’s a long way from being an established artist, but like all demo’s I get sent and artists I approach; history, stature, and reputation mean nothing. To coin an over used phrase, it’s all about the music. However, when your father is the legendary Parks, it made sense to see if the talent ran in the family, and I think you’ll agree, it certainly does.

--

Beauty has always had a poetic power. Whether it’s slowing time to a stand still or offering a striking contrast to the aesthetics of the ordinary, it’s a quality Norge is mesmerised and seduced by.

“It was about 10:30 pm and I was walking down the street with a young lady, near my house at Stachek Prospect,” he explains. “I was walking, looking into eyes of this girl, dissolved in the atmosphere of the beautiful streets. I think the architecture of this district is just unbelievable as the houses there were built in time of USSR.”  The surrounding beauty isn’t immediately apparent in ‘165 Minutes With You’, even if the track’s title casts a lovelorn shadow. Darkness lurks in the dense slow build of the eight minutes, the drone of traffic and insect-song washing over a passionate sense of anticipation.

“I was inspired by the atmosphere of that evening and the sounds that you can hear in my track are vibrations which were occurring in my head that night,” Norge adds.   Saturating ambient static makes this an immersive listen, with the subtle details buried deep within. And while you’d presume he didn’t count down the minutes, the force of feeling makes it feel like a lifetime.

More info: http://asip.me/ASIP019

ASIP019 Norge - 165 Minutes With You

A regular on one of our favourite label collectives, http://soundcloud.com/origamisound, Asger Bruun Hansen’s Places Series contribution comes somewhat out of the blue. If you’ve followed all of The Places Series releases so far, you’ll know by now that the inspiration for these tracks can come from anywhere and knows no boundaries – be they physical or musical. And http://soundcloud.com/oddshapes sound is leading the charge amongst his peers in defining a very unique approach to electronic music. Desert Plant is dark, mysterious and packed full of energy – a new, unexpected sound from the most unlikely of places.

Sometimes inspiration peeks out of the ordinary, finding you at a point where you least expect it. It doesn’t always have to be the flash of the Eureka! moment, just the growing creep of realisation and a willingness to look beyond the standard wash of the everyday.

“Sometimes I take a particular street, leading away from the city, when I walk. It has these old wooden sheds all the way down along one side and I was immediately drawn to this mysterious feeling, as if somebody was trying to hide something on this empty street with all these poorly constructed sheds,” Asger explains.

It’s a feeling that underpins the eerie dissension and mystery of ‘Desert Plant’. Humming with a dark tension, Asger’s field recordings of a busy city contrast against the desolate, rail track-guided path on its outskirts.

“The street is close to the rail track and at some point it becomes a path, which lets you cross under a bridge,” he continues, “under that bridge, I recorded these great low-frequency sounds – a mix of the cars going over and the wind blowing beneath the bridge, with the sirens and city noises contributing to the soundscape.

“As I went along the road, literally, the ideas started building up inside my head. I remember feeling like slowly returning to reality when walking back that day.”

Those field recordings create an angry dissension, the agitated whip of the wind interrupting the mournful call of the vocals, gnashing over the dead space between stabbing, percussive beats.

A track wired by dark and low frequencies, it feels like you’ve stumbled across a place where horrible things happen and are hid, the ghosts of those actions lingering only until they’re discovered.

“It’s called Desert Plant because of the place feeling like it was completely deserted, yet it offered me so much in the form of atmosphere and inspiration. There’s life but you have to find it, and acknowledge it.”

(Place introduction by Reef Younis)

More info and Bandcamp download: http://asip.me/ASIP020

ASIP020 Odd Shapes - Desert Plant

ASIP021 - http://soundcloud.com/sage-taylor

We’ve all stared into the abyss at some point in our lives - whether it’s figuratively in pondering life’s bigger questions, or literally, teetering on the precipice, peering over into gravity’s dead space - it typically provides a fresh perspective and a vast reminder of our place in the world. They’re some of the thoughts Sage Taylor considers as he stares out across Columbia River Gorge, absorbing the stars and size before him.

“When you're from a city like I am, you're immediately struck by the vastness of the place but at the same time, the view is so picturesque it seems almost unreal,” he muses.

‘Vantage Points’ captures that quiet contemplation and doesn’t just emanate tranquillity; it breathes it, exhaling with every whip of the night breeze and distant gurgle of the water below. There’s also a sense of relief and release, the stresses of a city life melting into the expanse, eased by the serenity but energised by the scale of the thoughts and things bigger than our own comprehension.

 “This song is an amalgamation of how I feel when I'm standing on the balcony of a viewpoint along the Columbia River Highway, absorbing the huge, sparse-yet-beautiful spectacle first-hand. The feeling is twice as intense at night and when the sky is clear, it's sort of a reminder just how small I am every time I do it.”

More info and HQ download: http://asip.me/ASIP021

ASIP021 Textural Being - Vantage Points

ASIP022 - http://soundcloud.com/audioglider - Heathaze Days

In a hyper-connected world of social media, information excess and a constant desire to show and share our experiences, we often overlook the simple pleasure of savouring it for ourselves.

In a tumbling desperation to update, pin, poke and comment, it’s all too easy to forget that the truly wonderful moments are those that leave us awestruck and momentarily detached from the world around us. For Roberto Sodano aka Audioglider, one such experience has vividly endured for two decades.

“I was doing a bit of travelling and working in Egypt and I went to Siwa, a large oasis in the middle of the Libyan Desert” he explains. “It was fantastic and otherworldly to arrive at this lush, palm-strewn, isolated island with a lake at its heart and I spent a fantastically slow week there, taking in the simple pleasures of the everyday sights and smells, and gazing in wonder out in the desert, at the starry night skies.“

Set in stark contrast to the cacophony and claustrophobia of Egypt’s capital, Siwa emerged as a green jewel in a barren desert crown, and ‘Heathaze Days’ charts the contrasts, encompassing the sand-blasted, sweat-soaked 10 hour drive to the blissful discovery of the oasis itself.

It’s a journey in every sense, the simple, sparse beats capturing the monotony of transit and the layered bursts of melody blossoming as Roberto delves deeper into the green vitality of Siwa. It builds a warmth and quiet euphoria that comes with selfishly holding onto a moment because it’s yours, so that as Roberto's desert odyssey longingly comes to an end, and the harmony wistfully fades out, the moments of discovery and reflection are as vivid as ever.

“It was a relief to the senses to be cut off and isolated, to recharge and get a different perspective because there really was a sense of stillness,” he says. It was an opportunity to reflect, take stock and enjoy the moment for the moment, in the moment."

More info and HQ download: http://asip.me/ASIP022

Mastered by Nick Brennan / http://soundcloud.com/tripswitch

http://asip.me/PlacesSeries

ASIP022 Audioglider - Heathaze Days

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

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

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.

The Places Series

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