N-Plants

Oi - 1

Italian producer and master synthesist Guido Zen has mesmerised my mind with his incredibly rich tapestry of sound since he appeared on the scene as Abul Mogard. He's got a particular sonic aesthetic that I tried [and failed] at replicating - something soft and slow-burning is rising and evolving into a velvety, faint and fuzzy vibration, perfectly sculpted to hold it all in one place. If there were just a bit too much reverb it all would be blurry, and if not enough, it would be just dry. And yet, in the hands of Guido, the frequency spectrum is dense and alive, "shaking kosmische synth fantasies into post-industrial ambience and blissful shoegaze memories." His most recent release with Rafael Anton Irisarri, for which I premiered "Place of Forever", was a fantastic example of all of the above, plus an amazing showcase of what a collaborative production may bring to the fans, combining Raf's distorted layers of bowed guitar with a myriad of perfectly saturated effects. On June 21st, Guido returns with yet another collaboration, this time with Berlin-based Dutch-Italian composer and sound designer Aimée Portioli, known as Grand River. Released via Caterina Barbieri's light-years imprint, this new work, which Guido admitted to me has taken him into new territories, is indeed yet another captivating dimension of a multi-faceted composition that truly unites both artists as one. Here, we are gifted with Aimée's strong sense of sensual organic soundscapes that develop into nearly overpowering tide crests, static washes, and serene expense, all carried by the widescreen cinematic tension and resolve in the hands of the fictitious synth factory worker. A truly enjoyable journey, which I hope you'll explore. I recommend turning up the volume a bit beyond your usual setting...

In uno spazio immenso

Sulle barcane

TRACK PREMIERE : Grand River And Abul Mogard - Sulle Barcane

from 'Aquatic System' [CD|2xLP|DIGITAL]
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/multicastdynamics]

Samuel van Dijk is an electronic music producer, sound designer and media artist from the Netherlands, having released electronic music under a variety of projects, namely, Mohlao and VC-118A. With his current project Multicast Dynamics he creates ever-evolving sound textures culminating in intriguing soundscapes while preserving a tranquil cinematic atmosphere. Drawing inspiration from nature, technology, film and fiction, his music productions, live sets and audiovisual work presents a carefully arranged, recorded and processed body of work, using a vast amount of layered sound textures, field recordings and live improvisation. To be released end of May 2015, Denovali Records announces the first two albums of a four part series by Multicast Dynamics, conceptually linked by our undeniable connection with nature and its wide range of landscapes, colors and movement.

The album series moves from an evolutionary to a cosmological scale: Starting from dry land filled with light and streams, to the constantly changing surfaces of the oceans, into a frozen and murky underwater world, finally up to the arrival in an interstellar space and the cosmos. With this concept Multicast Dynamics explores organic and aqueous worlds in a dreamlike and spiritual appearance.

Aquatic System" is the second installment of the series, written and composed in two remote geographical places – namely at waters in Finland and Fuerteventura. Inspired by the complexity of water, its movement, various forms, inhabitants and hidden energy, the album was assembled mainly using synthesizers and processed field recordings of the ponds, streams, lakes and oceans of the different locations. With a vibrant story and conceptualization the focus lies in taking the listener on a observing, thoughtful and reflective journey through the aquatic system of our waters. Aquatic System opens with an impression of a frozen surface imagining icy and calm underwater movements underneath. Soon a slow process of melting begins and while the water starts to move in tiny streams of sound, small lifeforms evolve, curiously sending out small pulses in their flowing and constantly moving habitat. The aquatic nature awakens. Zooming out to larger waters high frequencies arise and colliding forms become audible. Larger marine life forms can be faintly heard when entering a much wilder environment, sensing sound-swirls of wind, foaming water tops and impressive large waves crashing on dark rocks. Finally ending at the shore, where the great ocean appears on the horizon, the environment is surrounded with moisture. From the calm reflective landscape derives an inward moment, recalling the organic and atmospheric quality of the sound journey.

"Aquatic System" has been developed into an audiovisual performance together with visual artist Emilia Kwiatkowska and was performed several times in Spain and Finland, before the music has been finalized for the album. 

Aquatic System

Multicast Dynamics - Vascular

Tracklist

01.  David Cordero & Rhucle - Horizontal Line
02.  Thme - Ombre
03.  Seaworthy & Matt Rösner - Whispered Surfaces
04.  Slow Reels (Ian Hawgood and James Murray) - Heartshaped
05.  The Humble Bee & Offthesky - Presence
06.  Celer & Forest Management - Montrose
07.  Jason Calhoun + Foresteppe - iii
08.  Tomoyoshi Date - 熱 Netsu (33 rpm)
09.  Chihei Hatakeyama + Stijn Hüwels - NA GOMI

408. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

Respair

Believe it or not, I am not that great at self-promotion. So when it comes to using this very platform, I hesitate and stall. When it comes to shouting into the world about my music, I often feel a bit self-conscious. I'm sure that musicians understand what it takes to finally "release" their work into the world. It's both - a ball of tangled tension and a sigh of great relief. And so today, I finally get over that hurdle by announcing my new album on the esteemed Dronarivm imprint. The roots of Tarnished Tapes and Saturated Signals are deeply intertwined with those of Sacred Tonalities (Past Inside The Present, 2023). In fact, a couple of pieces are complex reworks and further explorations of themes. All of it is still a little hazy, deconstructed, and concealed. Not because I'm hiding something, but because you need to scratch at the layered surface to understand and know the truth. Most of you will have no trouble, as I hope my sounds will resonate with something that you also pushed inside. In the end, my curated journey through deconstructed electronica, cinematic ambience, and modern classical sound fuses into expansive nostalgia, reductionist pianism, and deep emotional atmosphere, hopefully evoking a sense of loss, disintegration, and the fragility of our temporal selves. And now I can move on...

TRACK PREMIERE : Mike Lazarev - The Final Resonance of Light

I don't think I will ever forget the first time I heard m.=addiction. I can also confirm that every time I played out that record, folks waltzed over to me to find out the name. Something mystical and enigmatic brought them over to music, making me feel like I was a snake charmer enchanting a cobra with the sounds of a pungi. The music of Dictaphone often evoked hazy spaces, full of jazzy smoke, lo-fi textures, and noir voices, occupying those distant corners of your memory where you felt glamorous comfort, charming enchantment, and warming delight. Since the 2002 debut, the Berlin-based duo of Oliver Doerell and Roger Döring released five more albums, all of which I think I have covered on Headphone Commute. And, in my humble opinion, their latest upcoming release is the closest to that special aura I felt nearly two decades ago. Unstable is Dictaphone's 6th full-length, where Doerel and Döring are also joined by Alexander Stoze (on violin) to mesmerise us with that special scent of future-retro nostalgia that seems to drift in the air like thick incense in a temple of soporific ghosts.

TRACK PREMIERE : Dictaphone - Desplendor

After decades of chasing, accumulating, and then sharing new music with you, I think I've hit some saturation point. I think I'm done spinning in the vortex of the "new", being pulled in all directions, catching up on all the "fresh" and "innovative" tracks. I'm not saying that I will stop covering new music. No. But I think I'll focus the virtual lens of my listening on a very narrow point, investing my time and attention over more extended periods. I think I will turn inwards... towards music and the artists that genuinely make me feel. This is the case with Rafael Anton Irisarri's A Fragile Geography, an album from 2015, which captured my attention then as it does now, triggering memories, triggering thoughts, and emotion. A decade ago, during a move between coasts, Rafael lost his possessions - stolen with the moving truck - along with all his audio archives, forcing him to rebuild his studio and sound from the ground up. The pain of this loss is reflected in almost every single track on the album. This music is slightly dark and melancholic. It's visceral, and it gets under your skin. And there it stays with you for ages. Becoming part of you, becoming part of your existence.

On September 19th, the album will be reissued, beautifully remastered by Stephan Mathieu at his Schwebung studio, along with a limited edition cassette of remixes by the most renowned artists, handpicked by Rafael. "This record has always been about letting go of one life and rebuilding another", says Irisarri, "It feels fitting to return to it now - ten years later, in a different country, a different world." These reworks are worthy of your precious awareness as well. I know that there are more than a few in the pipeline (at least six), which will be revealed one at a time. As of this writing, there is already a gorgeous rework by the one and only William Basinski, with his version of "Secretly Wishing For Rain" with Gary Thomas Wright, which incorporates field recordings of Reseda rain and birds captured by Basinski himself. You can check out a digital stream of that track here. *BUT!* Today, I am premiering for you a second rework by Abul Mogard! This piece bears not only the original elements of "Persistence" but, of course, Guido's extremely personal touch that breathes new life into this sound.

Head over to headphonecommute.com to read more about this release, including a quote from Abul Mogard on the rework.

TRACK PREMIERE : Rafael Anton Irisarri - Persistence (Abul Mogard rework)

Tracklist

01. Henrik Meierkord - Springflowers
02. Gollden - destiny #8
03. Jogging House -  Arrival
04. The Green Kingdom - Perdure
05. SPIRIT RADIO - Dew Point
06. Tomosla -Saemaer
07. Darren McClure - Allotropic
08. Olli Aarni - Sadan puun sisällä

431. Sleepy Suday Podcast (Elm Records)

~ LAAPS 047 ~ [SEQ.06 - LP47]

artist : Seabuckthorn
album : A Path Within A Path
duration : 42.03 mn
date : October 03rd, 2025

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

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pre-order : September 11th, 2025 / official release : October 03rd, 2025
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All music composed by Andy Cartwright, except the guest parts on tracks 2, 5, 6 ( Dean McPhee, Claire Deak, Loscil)
Recorded in Saint-Pierre-d'Argençon, France between July 2024 and January 2025.

Mastered by James Plotkin
Cover photo by Andy Cartwright
Design by Sprflxgrfzm
 
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Links :
https://laaps-records.com/
https://www.instagram.com/iikki_laaps/
https://seabuckthorn.bandcamp.com/music
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℗ & © 2 0 2 5 - L A A P S - L A A P S 0 4 7

Seabuckthorn - Black Boar

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