This Retrospective mix is ​​dedicated to the third anniversary of the Chitra Records label and consists of tracks from different releases, starting with the latest and ending with the very first track, released on the Noises of Nature compilation on December 17, 2021.

01. Deep Dive Sound - In the Stillness of Green (Where Shadows Sleep) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/where-shadows-sleep
02. Dionisaf - Cyclone (Scrapbook) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/scrapbook
03. Dvory & July in January - Diamond Glints (Warm Hands) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/warm-hands
04. Marco Lucchi & Henrik Meierkord - The Third Stage (Lieder Ohne Worte) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/lieder-ohne-worte
05. Dionisaf - Symbols on the Stones (Memories of the Present) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/memories-of-the-present
06. KapTep - NPN-Reel (The Perfect Error) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-perfect-error
07. DRGBL5 - The Box (The Wasteland) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-wasteland
08. Adrian Lane - Water Wash Away the Waves (Water Wash Away the Waves) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/water-wash-away-the-waves
09. Demetrio Cecchitelli - Environment 2 (Towards the Unknown) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/towards-the-unknown
10. zYklen - 7:45 pm - Warp & Weft (Palace of Chords) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/palace-of-chords
11. Soloi Sounds - Warmth (Currents) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/currents
12. Pagination - Somehow Diminished (Status) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/status
13. Michele Andreotti - False Awakening Loops (Sonoris) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/sonoris
14. Blanket Swimming & Demetrio Cecchitelli - Light Passage (Sein) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/sein
15. Sebby Kowal - Particles (Take This Moment) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/take-this-moment
16. Darren McClure - Mold (Mold) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/mold
17. BinJa - Vishnu Hare (Atmareka) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/atmareka
18. Macrogramma - Mawaru (Pacification) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/pacification
19. Toni Dimitrov - The Road to Revolution (Noises of Nature) https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/noises-of-nature

Mixed by Dionis Afonichev (Dionisaf)
Cover picture by Dionis Afonichev (Dionisaf)
Cover design by Dionis Afonichev (Dionisaf)

Three Year Retrospective Mix

Chitra Podcast #17 Three Year Retrospective Mix

In the words of the composer:
In this piece I am trying to capture trying and failing, improving...moving towards the light.
The opening 3 chord phrase is extended and re-harmonised, growing in length, density and volume each time. After several tonal tangents we eventually succeed in resolving to a home chord of D major in the final bar.

Fail Better

'Pentatonic Ruins' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den385
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/mansur

"Pentatonic Ruins" is MANSUR’s 5th release on Denovali - it follows the 2022 "Oscuras Flores" album. "Pentatonic Ruins" is more of a song adaptation album than a new material album. It highlights the vocals of Martina Horvath and presents a collection of Mansur songs in a more hypnotic and trance like manner. This album can be seen as songs for transcendental rituals.

Mansur - Szaturnusz

Once in a while, I come upon an artist whom I cannot wait to introduce to you. I met Evan Gildersleeve via the remnants of social media channels when he shared Ben Chatwin's remix of one of his tracks with me. I am a massive fan of Chatwin's ability to combine musical and grungy elements into a single sonic journey - enough so that I invited Ben to be the next featured artist on Headphone Community (in April 2025). Gildersleeve's music grazed one of the OUT TODAY columns back in 2020, but today, I'm happy to highlight this British producer front and center. All of my favourite elements of electronic music are here, from cinematic storytelling to memorable melodies to intricate sound design. Gildersleeve is not a stranger to the scene, having collaborated with artists such as Jónsi of Sigur Rós and the dearly missed Jóhann Jóhannsson. His forthcoming debut EP, Wake, appears on Max Cooper's Mesh imprint, and it's an immense pleasure to discover this artist at the beginning of his solo career [I would love to be the first one to share his first full-length!]. There are only six pieces on this teaser, and I secured the final track for this premiere, titled "Grief". The music of Wake documents "a turbulent period of self-recovery and exploring the power of collective empathy" expressed through the emotionally-charged tapestry of energy-building highs and deeply-resonant and dense collapsing lows, the likes of which are culminated on this closing piece. "Grief" is a perfect glimpse into this artist's heart, and I can't wait for you to hear the entire thing.

TRACK PREMIERE : Evan Gildersleeve - Grief

From the album Layers of Afternoon, Available June 13, 2025 on Western Vinyl
Pre-order / Listen https://lnk.to/layersofafternoon

Bandcamp

WV283 - Goldmund - Before I Sleep

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

Blurstem’s 'Remnants and Whispers' is an album of memory-of echoes and fragments, of moments gathered and reshaped, of the past carried gently into the present. Released on Fluid Audio, renowned for its exquisitely crafted physical editions, this collection of soundscapes and textures is imbued with nostalgia, intimacy, and the quiet weight of time.

The album weaves together the delicate and the vast, the small and the sweeping. Tiny, almost imperceptible guitar plucks flicker like candlelight amidst expansive ambient washes. The sonic palette moves seamlessly between lo-fi warmth and pristine clarity, embracing the imperfections of cassette recording and the wobbly, warbled charm of home videos from a lost era. Each track breathes with a human touch-organic instruments processed and reimagined, from tremolo strings pitched and resampled on “Tethered” to layers of sound that feel like old photographs brought to life.

At its heart, 'Remnants and Whispers' explores the idea of remnants-what we carry with us through life, the fragments of friendships, memories, and fleeting moments that shape who we are. Much like the album’s sonic construction-built from past sketches, ideas, and textures revived and given new form-the music mirrors the way we collect and reinterpret our own experiences over time.

This ethos extends beyond the music itself into its physical presentation, with Fluid Audio’s deluxe edition incorporating 1920s sheet music and book fragments as old as the 1890s-historical relics that feel like the perfect visual counterpart to the album’s themes of memory, loss, and renewal. The tactile nature of these artifacts deepens the listening experience, making 'Remnants and Whispers' not just an album, but a tangible connection to the past.

Mastered on Bartels’ late ’60s analog tape machine, the album’s final touch further enhances its warmth and character, adding an unmistakable depth and timeless quality to its sonic palette.

A meditation on change, nostalgia, and the beauty of imperfection, Remnants and Whispers is an invitation to pause, reflect, and listen-not just to the music, but to the quiet echoes of our own stories.

Music: Blurstem
Mastering: Bartels
Design: Crossley

www.fluidaudio.co.uk
www.blurstem.bandcamp.com

Blurstem - Along the Rails

'Petrichor' is the third studio album from long-time collaborators James Osland and Andrew Heath, and serves as a natural continuation of their creative partnership following the release of Elysian Fields (2024), also on the esteemed Fluid Audio label.

The two artists were initially brought together by a shared admiration for each other’s work within the ambient music community. Andrew Heath is an established figure in the genre, with numerous albums and EPs released on respected imprints such as Disco Gecko, Whitelabrecs, Rusted Tone Recordings, Elm Records, and White Paddy Mountain. James Osland, meanwhile, is both an accomplished artist and the founder of Elm Records, a boutique label known for its thoughtful curation. His personal discography includes releases on Unknown Tone Records, Whitelabrecs, Flaming Pines, and Dewtone Recordings, among others. Osland’s practice explores the intersection of sound, memory, and place, working across both sonic and visual mediums.

Petrichor began to take shape during an exchange of ideas between the two artists in the late winter and early spring of 2024. As Andrew shared loops and sonic sketches, James found himself listening from his studio, watching the unrelenting English rain from the window. These moments of stillness-quiet reflections on the shifting of seasons-informed the mood and direction of the album.

What emerged is a collection of slowly evolving compositions, revealing gentle melodies, nuanced textures, and soft drones-much like the tender unfolding of early spring leaves. The album carefully weaves together field recordings, organic textures, and synthesis to create immersive soundscapes that capture the subtle beauty and contemplative atmosphere of seasonal change.

James Osland & Andrew Heath - Outside The Light Was Starting To Wane

South African Jason van Wyk is quickly becoming a favourite and prominent artist on these pages. You may even think I’m biased, because I asked Jason to rework one of my tracks. But this relationship is indeed in reverse – I only requested his participation because I admire his sound, and am indeed inspired by his music when I choose to work on my own. There’s something ethereal, delicate, and dreamlike in how his cinematic pads swirl in a cocktail spatial ambience and pulsating rhythm that takes over my heart and bewitches my soul. Stunning harmonic progressions show off true musicianship, while the layered textures keep me occupied with intelligent sound design. This is the culmination of elements that I highly respect in my music. This is why I keep listening to Jason’s music and try to share it with the world. This is why, I’m sure, Mike Cadoo continues to invite him on his label. We last heard from Jason nearly three years ago [time is always speeding up], when in October of 2022, he released Descendants, which inevitably landed on my Best of the Year list in the most coveted category, Music For The Film Behind Closed Eyelids. This is a sacred space, often occupied by the likes of Max Richter, Ólafur Arnalds, and, of course, Jóhann Jóhannsson. With his latest sixth full-length album, Inherent, Jason is back on n5MD, pushing his boundaries forward, featuring even more expansive soundscapes of warm ambiance, haunting piano melodies, and trance-inducing beats. Enjoy this exclusive track, and who knows, maybe Jason will show up on Headphone Community (wink, wink).

TRACK PREMIERE : Jason van Wyk - Remnants

Daydream - WIP

Come With Me

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 : Øystein Skar - Levva

Headphone Commute

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