Akari is the third album from Tokyo duo Illuha. Following 2011’s debut Shizuku (12k1067) and 2013’s Interstices (12k2028), Akari takes the next artistic step for the band. While Shizuku was recorded in the US and completed separately by the artists, Interstices captured the duo creating their exceptionally detailed music together live during a Japaneses tour. Akari, in turn, is the first studio album where Illuha recorded and mixed together, throughout the entire process. The beautiful st-robo studio in Tokyo put a collection of amazing equipment at their fingertips, from vintage mics and outboard gear to a vast collection of instruments, both acoustic and electronic. Their writing sessions were numerous and long with details meticulously obsessed over for nearly a year. The result is the most bewildering music Illuha have created to date. An album swimming with the most delicately tactile sounds and instrumentation that draws the listener in with hushed, motionless attention.

While Illuha’s Corey Fuller and Tomoyoshi Date are often drawn to the most sparse notes of Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos, acoustic grand piano and guitar, the breadth of instrumentation is partially what makes Akari so abosrbing. They have succeeded in creating their own universe of sound, so beautifully recorded, where each element not only has its own space but connects and interacts so fluidly with the other sounds. It is as if they are placed perfectly by nature, the compositions are fluid and organic, a far cry from anything calculated or structured. It is this open space that the music exists in which in turn defines the music itself. There is ample room to breathe within this forest of gentle tines, bubbling analogue synthesizers, clicking percussion and quiet field recordings. This is subtlety at its most refined; hushed without being saccharine, distant without being morose.

Akari is the Japanese word for light. Conceputally the duo used this word as a guide, as if they were searching through the dark, trying to keep the light alive, as if one is cradling a candle doing everything in their power to keep it alight in a storm. It is this almost visceral sense of sheltering, of protection, that gives Akari a very human and personal sound whose intensely deep focus is as impressive as it is arresting.

Akari

Structures Based on the Plasticity of Sphere Surface Tension

SUPPORT THIS ARTIST

Structures Based On The Plasticity Of Sphere Surface Tension

Ghosted III

Don't Trust Mirrors

Lunar wave

Gray Acres has always been a space for subtlety and restraint, distinct from the denser, more cinematic atmospheres of Hotel Neon. Where that project often explores process, technique, and narrative arcs, Gray Acres tends to be produced "in the moment" and stays still. It lets you think for yourself. Soft Erasure especially embraces that characteristic stillness.

This is the first full-length Gray Acres album since 2021’s “Dreams and Phantoms.” It’s a project that came together slowly with an intentionally light touch…more about dissolving sounds than constructing them. Subtraction vs. addition.

The title Soft Erasure came about as we noticed a recurring quality across the recordings: a sense of tangible things like guitars, pianos, and strings fading, softening, and slipping just out of reach as we shaped and processed them. The music feels like it’s constantly on the verge of vanishing, or being gently wiped away into an indistinct atmosphere. That idea of erasure not as violence, but as gentleness, decay, or transformation, felt like the right metaphor to latch on to. It speaks to memory, distance, and time, and how all of those forces shape and reshape our perception of sound and self.

Musically, this album is built mainly from resampled acoustic instruments: delicate piano lines, sustained strings, frozen and looped guitar textures. Much of the source material was recorded clean, then stretched, blurred, and layered until it became something abstract…like an impression of a song, or a half-remembered phrase. In some ways, we were trying to find the most washed-out and ephemeral version of each sound. The result is a record that is designed less for narrative and more for immersion.

If you’ve followed this project before, I think you’ll hear a natural continuation of its aesthetic. But if you’re new to Gray Acres, this is a great entry point. It’s music that tries not to demand attention, but rewards those who tune in closely for a while.

Gray Acres - Soft Erasure
Music by Andrew & Michael Tasselmyer
Mastered by Alex at Quiet Details

Gray Acres - Vestige

~ LAAPS 048 ~ [SEQ.06 - LP48]

artist : Ensemble 0
album : L'Incroyable Femme Des Neiges
duration : 26.40 mn
date : November 12th, 2025

edition :
-  vinyl : limited to 200 copies / white LP / selective UV varnish (front+back) / hand numbered 
- cd : limited to 150 copies / pantone / hand numbered + handcrafted, sealed

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pre-order : October 23rd, 2025 / official release : November 12th, 2025
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Composition and arrangements: Joël Mérah, Stéphane Garin, Sylvain Chauveau

Performed by:
Jérôme Capdepont - trombone
Sylvain Chauveau - acoustic guitar
Vianney Desplantes - euphonium, tuba, flugabone
Tanguy Gallavardin - clarinets
Júlia Gállego Ronda - flutes
Stéphane Garin - percussion, piano, organ
Joël Mérah - acoustic guitar, piano, ukulele, organ, harmonium

Recording and mixing: Johannes Buff, Shorebreaker studio (Tarnos, France). 
Assistant: Xan Bidegain
Artistic director: Joël Mérah
Administration: Nicolas Michamblé

Thanks to Alexandre Maillet, Vanessa Pigot, Laurie Garcia Garin et Sébastien Betbeder.

Mastered by Simon Lancelot
Artwork by Jonathan Smith
Design by Sprflxgrfzm
 
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Links :
https://laaps.bandcamp.com/music
www.instagram.com/iikki_laaps/
https://www.ensemble0.com/
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℗ & © 2 0 2 5 - L A A P S - L A A P S 0 4 8

Ensemble 0 - Les Grands Espaces

Here’s an exclusive sneak peek at what’s been happening over at Headphone Community during October. If you missed it, we’ve been spending the entire month with Dennis Huddleston (aka 36) talking about his music, production techniques, and even art design. And of course, he shared plenty of music. There were Bandcamp codes for his past releases (some are still available for you to grab, if you join!), previously unreleased tracks, alternative mixes, and, yes, even some premieres, like this beautiful piece from the upcoming album titled A Warm Static Sphere, released via Quiet Details on November 12th. Huddleston has been releasing music for over 15 years on influential labels such as A Strangely Isolated Place, Past Inside the Present, and his own 3six Recordings. He is without a doubt “a master of wide-eyed cinematic soundscapes and beautifully crafted worlds that are as harmonically rich as they are polychromatically abstract.” It’s a pleasure to see (and hear) him being selected as the next monumental entry in Quiet Details’ impressive catalog.

"A Warm Static Sphere is about finding peace through isolation. It’s a record doused in gentle hum/static, which, when played quietly through headphones, acts like a warm, enveloping sphere around the head. It’s like a private isolation zone between the listener and the outside world, which feels warm and safe inside. The music opens up slowly, revealing its Quiet Details purposefully, often hidden deep within the loops."

Headphone Community: https://www.patreon.com/c/HeadphoneCommunity
Quiet Details Bandcamp: https://quietdetails.bandcamp.com/

A Warm Static Sphere

HEADPHONE COMMUNITY EXCLUSIVE: 36 - A Warm Static Sphere (Part 6)

Tracklist

01.  Akira Film Script - T 
02. Tides - Softly So
03. The Inventors of Aircraft - Night Cycles
04. Ben McElroy - The Boat
05. Landtitles - Stone Gentle
06. Louis Gardner - New Things
07.  Blochemy -  Adel
08. Luis Miehlich - 時雨 (Shigure)
09. Adrian Lane - Two Seagulls Gliding 
10. David Cordero - Life at Times
11.  Glacis - We Are The Bees Of The Invisible (Adrian Lane)
12. First Snow of The Year - Nokori
13. Simon McCorry & Wodwo - By Snail on its Slick of Light
14. Slow Clinic - Could Have Been 


443. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

buy tape + digital nicemusiclabel.bandcamp.com - also available on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Google Play, Juno Download and more.

taken from Fia Fiell 'All In The Same Room' NM020

Fia Fiell 'At The First Clear Word'

From the album Transit by Automatisme
Release date: 24 Aug 2018
Constellation • CST135

cstrecords/com/cst135
https://automatisme.bandcamp.com/album/transit

Transit

Automatisme • "Bureau 1"

Vom Himmel Hoch

We are an independent record label based in Montréal, releasing experimental music we care about in the most careful ways we can.

Automatisme • "Bureau 1"

Constellation Records