I’ve got an exceptional podcast for you today, folks. It’s not a mix but rather a continuous, single, long-playing track composed by Fields We Found. I’m sharing this fantastic music as an opening to an introduction to a brand new label, quiet details, which I will be profiling this week. Founded this year by the artist behind this piece, the imprint focuses on each artist’s interpretation of the phrase after which the label is named. Spanning multiple genres, the upcoming releases explore this idea in each artist’s unique way, with the catalogue and upcoming schedule including names such as the humble bee, Fields Line Cartographer, Luke Sanger, bvdub, zakè, and many others [with nearly two years of releases planned already!], whom I’m sure we’ll find on these pages. Each release will be accompanied by handmade artwork, with the music and each artist’s intuition as a guide to the palette and structure, available as a physical item with bespoke packaging and individual prints. It’s a wonderful series to follow from the very beginning, and I am honoured to be a part of this introduction to you. I’ll be back with more words on the label later this week, but for now, please enjoy this beautiful piece titled “chroma”.

Make sure to visit https://quietdetails.bandcamp.com for more!

chroma

Fields We Found - chroma

Ocoeur - L'éveil

So I finally decided to get rid of my CDs. I've even got a bit-perfect ripper to ensure my digital archive is immaculate. But as I started going through boxes and boxes of music, each physical item began to glow in its light. Marie Kondo would ask if a tiny digipack encasing a lonely compact disc would spark joy. Yes, it would. Yes, it does. Some of the very first releases from my beloved and now defunct Chicago-based electronic music label established by Paul Nielsen definitely still spark joy. These were the days of Tympanik Audio, and I was on a journey of discovering dark, glitchy, crunchy and punchy music of Emerging Organisms and Subheim's 2008 debut, Approach, was only its third full-length album [fourth release, because the opener was a compilation]. I still hold on to many other [first and only] copies of my favourite labels, which are now sadly gone. How can I dispose of music from Merck, Neo Ouija, Ad Noiseam and, of course, Tympanik? They're more than simple physical mementoes from those special days - they are a piece of history no longer in existence. And so, after ripping [and listening to] Approach, I put it back upon my shelves. But what's this? We've got another new release from Konstantinos Katsikas. In the last decade, this Greek electronic musician moved over to the celebrated Denovali Records [which has picked up and re-released his past catalogue], and on April 28th, 2023, it will be releasing Raeon, an ambient journey through a moody, spacious, lo-fi territory of sound. "Each composition feels like a distant, fading memory that unfolds faster than you'd expect it to and dissolves into an echoing nothingness before you’re able to hold on to it for more than a few seconds." There are no percussive elements on this record. Instead, Katsikas weaves intricate textures that move like ocean waves. Today I'm sharing the third piece from this album, titled "Akti".

Raeon

Akti

TRACK PREMIERE : Subheim - Akti

Music is a strange form of expression. As a composer [a term I'm finally willing actually to admit to myself], I often ask myself - what do I do it for? And if I do it for myself, then what is this internal drive to share it with the rest of you? And if I have something to say, then why must it be heard, reviewed and purchased? It's a rabbit hole of unanswered questions from this side of a creator. But I can also happily admit that being on receiving end of this communication, I am extremely thankful for the sounds. Listening to the music produced by artists I admire is more than just an inspiring showcase of sonic creativity and sound design. When I'm surrounded by all these frequencies, I am transported into the world within each mind that has the unexplained capacity to move, to make, to shape the space. There is a "unity" of sorts when all these engineered patterns, transforming on their lengthy journeys, finally arrive upon my ears. And in this unity, I rest. Regensburg (Germany) based Markus Guentner is no stranger to these pages. I have been a fan of his deep atmospheric explorations for many, many years, going back to the early 2000s and his appearance on Kompakt's Pop Ambient compilation series [I think for every annual release]. I suppose that's how he became familiar with Joachim Spieth, who also appeared in these celebrated entries. I've also highly praised his work on A Strangely Isolated Place (see Theia and Extropy), and yes, that's how he ended up on the third volume of For Ukraine compilation curated by Raf. With his latest album on Spieth's Affin imprint, Guentner follows up his Empire [ASIP, 2021], painting wide ethereal soundscapes with a soft and textured brush. This is an exercise in delicacy and restraint, as each harmonic swell is breathing in and out and truly resonating with particles that somehow make me feel alive. 

"Onda captivates with its orchestral-like progressions, an endlessly interwoven carpet of sound that spreads out over six etudes. As if in slow motion, he scans through the individual sound particles, works out details, lets dust fall from the source material, cores, connects and in the end lets everything flow..."

Onda

Prisa

TRACK PREMIERE : Markus Guentner - Prisa

Fields We Found is the moniker of an artist and the newly-launched quiet details label founder, bathing our ears with ambient bliss. In the last few years, we were gifted with deep-evolving soundscapes appearing on Ambientologist, Seil Records, and Handstiched Recordings, with the most recent album, Paths, “… exploring the routes we all choose and where they take us” on Facture. Late in 2022, Alex also put out music on the beloved Home Normal, run with tremendous devotion by the one and only Ian Hawgood. Today’s mix on Headphone Commute Podcast is essentially a love letter to our mutually adored ambient imprint, showcasing a lot of the beautiful music appearing on the label. Please support the label, check out the full tracklisting and more words from Alex on the mix directly on the site: https://hcdi.gs/trees

Mixes

Fields We Found - Looking Beyond the Trees

For today's exclusive track premiere, I am featuring a piece from the second volume of music by a UK trio called Quiet Places, consisting of Dennis White, Charlie May, and Dave Gardner. Their debut release, appropriately titled Volume 1, showed up on my radar back in 2020 [has it really been that long?] by way of Ryan Griffin's meticulously curated A Strangely Isolated Place imprint, the output of which I consistently and hungrily consume. As is foreshadowed with the title, we are now gifted with Volume 2 of this group's creations, featuring four long-players, each taking up an entire side on this gorgeous marbled 2x12" release [the piece you are hearing today is not on the album, and is a digital-only special bonus track]. As I described the first volume three years ago, the swirling atmospheres in a haze-inducing daydream,  the humming synth pads with the layers built upon each one, and the kaleidoscope of sampled snippets are back again in Volume 2 to snatch me back from this reality and drop me into times when Boards of Canada, Global Communication and The Future Sound of London soundtracked my days. On their latest for ASIP, the trio once again command the sonic artistry and deep knowledge of the stylistic snapshots that are stitching up my memories into a cohesive whole. This is a welcome escape from the bombardment of the "usual", a future flashback into the past of the present, a twist in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop.

Volume Two

TRACK PREMIERE : Quiet Places - The Empty View

When was it exactly when I first came upon the sounds of Hecq? It must have been back in 2004 when Hymen Records picked him up for Scatterheart. I then hungrily collected all his IDM releases on this German label until, sometime in 2008, Ben Lukas Boysen revealed his cinematic side. I mean, if you listen closely to all of his music, you'll hear that it was always there, but it wasn't until Night Falls that I was taken aback by the soundscapes within. Speaking of which, I have recently revisited this album in my FLASHBACKS column here. I wasn't the only one impressed with this direction. And even though Boysen still continued to release his glitchy goodness as Hecq on Hymen, he also began producing for video games, television, and film (see his most recent score for The Lazarus Project out on Erased Tapes) under his real name. That didn't leave much time for playtime, and Hecq was put on the back burner in 2017. But I was always hoping that he will return. And, yes, five years later, Boysen is back with a 5-track EP for a London-based Mesh imprint, and all the sounds are as fresh as ever [and even slightly grown up]! On the track I am premiering for you today, the micro-percussion is perfectly positioned within the spectrum of deep bass and atmospheric synth pads sprinkled with the reverb-drowned piano keys. This is the return of the "intelligent" form in all that made the IDM genre so appealing to the listeners of electronic music. For now, I'll take the five delicious tracks, but I'm truly hoping there are more.

Form

Gyro

TRACK PREMIERE : Hecq - Gyro

I think the collaborative project by Zach Frizzell (zakè) and Damien Duque (City Of Dawn) first saw the light of day back in 2020 when these two ambient artists got together to release Wander on Frizzell's own Zakè Drone Recordings. The duo have also released music as Frizzell & Duque, appearing on these pages numerous times in the last few years, including the addition of Ossa, for the album I picked as one of the best of the year. Last year, Jonas Munk, aka Manual, picked up Agape for his Azure Vista Records, and I have subsequently highlighted the album in my Music For Bending Light And Stopping Time for Best of 2022. All of these opening words, with a brief journey through history, are only here to demonstrate how excited I am about their follow-up release on Azure (co-distributed by Frizzell's Past Inside The Present imprint for the US friends and followers). The title track, "Ash", which I am premiering for you today, is a perfect example of the unhurried, unfurling, and unpretentious ambience that blankets the senses when you need these sounds most. "Their focus offers up the steady ebb and flow of sound, cultivating a profound sense of meditative stasis and explorations of high-fidelity sound." This is the type of slow-evolving minimal music that you want to turn all the way up in volume so that each frequency permeates, saturates, and eradicates all the wrinkles and spikes in your jittery mind. Lovely textures on this one, folks, carefully curated by the mastering touch of James Bernard.

"The music the two create together reflects the expansive landscapes of their native Texas and Indiana. Slowly unfolding melodies that seem to rise like the sun from a Texas horizon and drones that resonate like leaves in an endless Indiana woodland. It's a sound that's both beautiful and slightly haunting – a sound that encompasses the listener and demands attention. This is music to get lost in."

TRACK PREMIERE : zakè & City of Dawn - Ash

Earlier this year, I launched [or, rather, repurposed] a new column called Flashbacks, in which I revisit music I covered 15, 10, and 5 years ago by going through my archives, selecting a favourite of each month, and updating the relevant content. What has become a bit striking and slightly unnerving about this process is the reflection on the passage of time. I couldn’t believe that many of my favourite albums were already over a decade old! It feels as if only yesterday I discovered a new artist and hailed their debut, but, in reality, it was ten years ago. Ten years! Can you fathom the difference between being 12 years of age and then becoming 22? It feels like a lifetime of memories [during that particular time], which we are all still reliving throughout the years. Ten years ago is when two brothers, Andrew and Michale Tasselmyer, and a friend, Steven Kemner, formed a project they called Hotel Neon, taking its name from a quote in Jack Kerouack’s book “On The Road”. In the summer of 2013, they released a batch of 100 cassettes collecting “a loose collection of minimal drone experiments.” Two years later, the album was remastered by Ian Hawgood and re-released on his Home Normal, which got noticed by Stationary Travels and subsequently, yours truly. Today, I am happy to premiere a track from an upcoming 10-year celebration of this project, with each track being entirely reworked from the ground up to be unique and familiar.

Mastered, this time, by the one and only Rafael Anton Irisarri, the album will be released on July 31st via the beloved Fluid Audio. Please take note that the Book Edition is strictly limited (only 100 unique copies of each!), stamped, hand-numbered, and even scented (!) to create a cherished little package. More details on the contents, and of course, a link to pre-order, can be found on this Fluid Audio page: https://hcdi.gs/44KeNE2

Hotel Neon 10: Reworks

Deprivation

TRACK PREMIERE : Hotel Neon - Deprivation

Nocturnal Lament 

Intrusive Thoughts

https://soundcloud.com/logic-moon

Tracklist

1. Chihei Hatakeyama - Voices
2. Logic Moon - The Wanderer
3. Hotel Neon - Gossamer
4. Porya Hatami, Aaron Martin, Roberto Attanasio - Gelarêzan
5. Moss Covered Technology - Sea
6. Taylor Deupree - The Lost See
7. Barry Lynn - Alpha Taurii
8. Chris Weeks -  Spiders & Plughole
9. Sven Laux - Paper Streets
10. Logic Moon - Oblivion
11. Black Swan - The Escapist

Have a good listening.

Deep Breakfast 032 - Logic Moon

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

TRACK PREMIERE : Hotel Neon - Deprivation

Headphone Commute

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