Support Erik on Headphone Community: https://www.patreon.com/c/HeadphoneCommunity

Taken from 'Endling' by Qasim Naqvi
Order and stream it: https://idol-io.ffm.to/Endling

℗© 2025 Erased Tapes Records Ltd.

Endling

Qasim Naqvi - Plastic Glacier

Sometimes I wake up in a different bed, in a different city, at a different time. Everything around me is new and there is excitement about all the possibilities. But there’s also a bit of anxiety and maybe even dread. My anchor is gone, and I am drifting with the current, afloat among the unfamiliar waters. This is when I turn back towards music. Music that makes me feel like I am safe, serene and cosy. Music that I often call my home. This is precisely what I hear in the soft piano keys of the Norwegian pianist and composer Øystein Skar, who has announced his upcoming debut album, titled Hem. I may not know him as a person, and yet his playing makes me calm. I may not truly know his story, and yet his story’s somehow mine. And while I navigate the stormy weather, this ray of sunshine points the way. In these turbulent and truly anxious times, I turn back towards home. I turn back towards music.

Composed during winter’s embrace in his woodland home outside Oslo (I imagine a hushed sanctuary of a snow-draped retreat), the piece embodies the album’s central theme of homecoming – not merely to a physical place, but to essential truths long carried within. In its patient build and emotional resolution, “Levva” invites listeners into the intimate geography of Skar’s personal mindspace. The piece stands as testimony to what becomes possible when an artist, after years of outward exploration, turns the compass needle toward the territories of the heart.

"Levva, meaning “to live well,” is a longer, more experimental track blending classical, improvisational, and electronic music. Anchored by a synth arpeggiation and a piano melody, the piece has two parts with the second evolving into an expansive, percussive, and dreamy landscape created with an array of synths. For me, it’s about embracing strength through authenticity." — Øystein Skar

TRACK PREMIERE : Øystein Skar - Levva

I have been writing about music for nearly two decades now, and it’s time to turn inwards again. Away from being a promotion vehicle and towards a curation platform, supporting music and musicians that resonate within. And when it comes to highlighting one of my favourite electronic musicians, that is certainly the case. Somewhere, in the darkened, quiet and euphonic spaces between synthetic, buzzing pulses and organic, breathing textures, Ben Chatwin has been crafting his sonic language. This voice speaks through modulated frequencies, soaring string arrangements, and the ghostly hum of man-made machinery brought to life. This month, he’s been the featured artist on Headphone Community, where I showcase his music through exclusive track premieres, unreleased alternative mixes, in-depth interviews, and yes, even an 80% OFF discount to his last album, Verdigris. You can join for only $1 a month to get access to all of the above, and invest your precious attention among the many like-minded folks who still believe in the transformative power of deliberate, thoughtful, and visceral music. Today’s track is taken from the forthcoming EP, Klasis, scheduled to be released on May 9th, 2025. This is the second release from a new project Ben calls Tether – a series of EPs and singles rolling out over the year, eventually leading to an album. The first release, The Beginning, is available on his Bandcamp, and you can name your price for that release.

See more on https://www.patreon.com/HeadphoneCommunity

TRACK PREMIERE : Ben Chatwin - Caldera

release on 2nd May 2025 : www.wabi-sabi-tapes.bandcamp.com
@manja-ristic

Manja Ristić is a Serbian violinist, sound artist, published poet, curator, and researcher. In her work, she sets ecosystems in resonance and translates the human activity that criss-crosses them.

Manja Ristić - Olovo (extract)

Tracklist

01.  Ian Hawgood - I Was Never Really Here
02. Michael Grigoni and Pan•American - Baritone Boderlands
03. Dag Rosenqvist - Somna, sov
04. Taylor Deupree & The Humble Bee -  Case Study 7
05. The Birds Companion - A Place Outside of Time
06. Tides - Fragile 
07.  HERE - Sun-Warmed Earth
08.  Katharina Schmidt - The Multiplicities 
09. Tomosla - Rivermouth

418. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

The Other Side
by Vitaliy Rybakin

All copies are sold out, digital here:

https://shimmeringmoodsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-side



Vitaliy Rybakin - The Other Side

On The Level

Brief excerpt from a recording actually made during dawn on Friday 2nd May 2025, because the weather was perfect, and because I could get out there; whereas the forecast for Sunday 4th May wasn't as good, and I couldn't get out there that day. Raw recording. Just a friendly postcard from the other pole, where it's not spring, but on the way to winter.

For the Northern Hemisphere's 'Dawn Chorus Day', from the Southern Hemisphere.

I’ve been mesmerised with the sound of Deaf Center since the very beginning. I think it’s been more than 20 years now since their Neon City EP was released on Type. This is way before I even knew that behind the project was a Norwegian duo who started making music together as friends. This is before I knew their names to be Erik K Skodvin and Otto A. Totland. Before I listened to, admired, and celebrated their solo works on here. And, before I met each one in person, and of course, before we naturally became friends. This is precisely why, when it came to launching Headphone Community and deciding on who I should profile there from the start, I reached out to Erik and his partner Monique Recknagel (who runs Sonic Pieces imprint) to pitch them this idea (it was actually when I visited their mi-so shop in Berlin). This is why Erik is the currently featured artist for the month of May on Headphone Community (join for just $1 for an intimate journey!), and this is why I am premiering this track for you today. It’s been another long period of silence for Deaf Center, but the two long-form pieces on Reverie clearly show that they have not put their collaboration on hold. If anything, it has only evolved into a hypnotic meditation on Otto’s keys and Erik’s strings, guitar, effects, and atmospherics, designed for a very deep listening session. The recordings actually come from a live performance in October 2024 in Rabih Beaini’s studio, Morphine Raum in Berlin, during the 15th anniversary celebration of Sonic Pieces. This is less of an improvisation and more of a dialogue between the two friends who haven’t spoken in a while. It is truly magical, and I only wish I could be there to experience it live.

In “Rev”, deeply effected piano motifs reverberate and echo in the depths of the room, evolving through looping and electronics into a blissful, mesmerising cloud of (dis)harmony. The sound is reminiscent of the 7inch “Vintage Well” mixed with the basic elements of 2011’s “Owl Splinters”. […] The immediate duality of the two performers has rarely been so strongly felt, Totland’s deep melodic feeling is underscored by Skodvin’s abstract ambience and processing. Dark versus light, loud versus quiet – this has always been at the core of what makes Deaf Center a special project.

TRACK PREMIERE : Deaf Center - Rev (excerpt)

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Fade to Black:
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the world's asleep

Piano M 7865 3:50 10-05-2025

Here are some original solo piano pieces...  some mixes from my podcast... some exclusive track premieres...  and some tracks from the albums I review on Headphone Commute... Enjoy!

TRACK PREMIERE : Deaf Center - Rev (excerpt)

Headphone Commute

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