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Mysteries' latest comes from The Spiral, whose debut release, Orange Sunshine, is a strange, cosmic unfolding, or a glimpse into another dimension that takes its influence from being, in fact, under the influence. The Spiral is a new project from Oliver Chapoy (formerly Certain Creatures), and the album is a sonic representation of a LSD-infused journey. The Spiral aims to capture not only a certain sound but a mood, as inspired by Chapoy’s own psychedelic wanderings in the mountains of Japan. The opening track, “Two Drops,” takes us down the proverbial rabbit hole, and we get the sense that we’re about to be transported to another world entirely. The tracks “Redshift” and “Blueshift” continue the transmutation and—nearing ten minutes each—are mini journeys in themselves. Frequency modulations and whirring oscillations make everything sound and feel wobbly. Similar to the come-up stage of a trip, there’s a sense we’re about to break through. By the time Orange Sunshine reaches its literal peak in “Moon over Minakami” we feel as if we’ve arrived in the center; this is very much the focal point of the album. This track is epic and euphoric, and is tied to a specific memory in Minakami. Chapoy says of his intentions with the album, "Much of this record is a sonic reinterpretation of my experience in Japan as an escape after such a tumultuous year."

Chapoy is a master of playing with the spatial qualities of soundscape, and at times sounds appear in one ear and retreat to the other, which adds to the visceral sensory experience and strengthens the conceptual aspect. At its core, Orange Sunshine is an intentionally disorienting collection of collaged arrangements that work cohesively, and to mesmerizing effect. The ending too is a gorgeous dissolving of textures, like energy being dispersed over the infinite. As signaled by its name, so much of this album is what you’d expect: trippy, transportive, adventurous, densely packed, and highly immersive. However like all hallucinogenic voyages, so much of it is unexpected: Orange Sunshine truly surprises. Chapoy has found a distinct voice with The Spiral, and this debut shows he is an artist finding himself and his sound, ironically, by creating a world we can easily get lost in. 

Written, Produced, and Mixed by Oliver Chapoy at Ohm Sweet Ohm, Brooklyn, NY
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY
Design by Gabriel Benzur
Words by Taylor Bratches
℗ 2021 Ohm Sweet Ohm (ASCAP)

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

© Mysteries of the Deep
MOTDLP011, 2021
mysteriesofthedeep.net

Orange Sunshine

Purchase Release

MOTDLP011 - The Spiral | Orange Sunshine – Afterglow

Mysteries’ latest from Melbourne-based producer Mosam Howieson falls somewhere between realms — percussive, deep techno and airy ambient — eventually landing in a liminal, stunning, undefinable space. From the wispy, tentacled opener “Explorations” to the IDM-leaning stunner “Cerebro,” Howison’s Aphelion is an intentional experiment in world building, and the world he’s built is a landscape brimming with a potent confluence of retro-futurist sounds, genres, and textures.

Aphelion refers to the point at which a planet is furthest from the sun. Despite the inherent darkness in this concept and its release coming in the wake of a turbulent year, Howieson assures us that he’s far from cynical: in fact, he says the album is “about coming back to the light.” Whether it's the acidic arpeggiation, airy pads, or intricately woven percussion that gets us there, Aphelion is emotionally transportive. In certain tracks, 80’s-influenced synth melody provides the teeth — the LP is not overly percussive, nor is it strictly ambient. Tracks like the IDM-tinged “Cerebro” showcase Howieson’s take on ethereal, breakbeat-influenced techno: airtight percussion and well-placed acid make this a standout. Howieson’s more rhythmic cuts are balanced by beat-less ones; “Low Orbit,” for example, is a dense cloud of a track, sweeping like ominous fog over a valley. But it isn’t long before we’re back above the clouds again with “Dream Sequence” and the title track, whose taut synth melodies and minimal, reverb-soaked percussion give power and depth to the overarching vision of the LP. In listening, there’s a sense of the ground moving beneath one’s feet — and despite Howieson’s skilled, masterful production, the listening experience of Aphelion is undoubtedly about surrender, not control. The soundscape it produces is both fresh and classic, or in another word, elegant. 

Official Video - https://youtu.be/J0Gf3ybLrhA

To my parents and friends who support me in countless ways, and to Rich for being my overseeing musical mentor.

Written, Produced, and Mixed by Mosam Howieson
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY
Design by Gabriel Benzur
Video Direction by Candace Price
Words by Taylor Bratches

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

© Mysteries of the Deep
MOTDLP012, 2021
mysteriesofthedeep.net

Aphelion

Purchase Album

MOTDLP012 - Mosam Howieson - Dream Sequence

Mysteries’ latest from Melbourne-based producer Mosam Howieson falls somewhere between realms — percussive, deep techno and airy ambient — eventually landing in a liminal, stunning, undefinable space. From the wispy, tentacled opener “Explorations” to the IDM-leaning stunner “Cerebro,” Howison’s Aphelion is an intentional experiment in world building, and the world he’s built is a landscape brimming with a potent confluence of retro-futurist sounds, genres, and textures.

Aphelion refers to the point at which a planet is furthest from the sun. Despite the inherent darkness in this concept and its release coming in the wake of a turbulent year, Howieson assures us that he’s far from cynical: in fact, he says the album is “about coming back to the light.” Whether it's the acidic arpeggiation, airy pads, or intricately woven percussion that gets us there, Aphelion is emotionally transportive. In certain tracks, 80’s-influenced synth melody provides the teeth — the LP is not overly percussive, nor is it strictly ambient. Tracks like the IDM-tinged “Cerebro” showcase Howieson’s take on ethereal, breakbeat-influenced techno: airtight percussion and well-placed acid make this a standout. Howieson’s more rhythmic cuts are balanced by beat-less ones; “Low Orbit,” for example, is a dense cloud of a track, sweeping like ominous fog over a valley. But it isn’t long before we’re back above the clouds again with “Dream Sequence” and the title track, whose taut synth melodies and minimal, reverb-soaked percussion give power and depth to the overarching vision of the LP. In listening, there’s a sense of the ground moving beneath one’s feet — and despite Howieson’s skilled, masterful production, the listening experience of Aphelion is undoubtedly about surrender, not control. The soundscape it produces is both fresh and classic, or in another word, elegant.

To my parents and friends who support me in countless ways, and to Rich for being my overseeing musical mentor.

Written, Produced, and Mixed by Mosam Howieson
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY
Design by Gabriel Benzur
Video Direction by Candace Price
Words by Taylor Bratches

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

© Mysteries of the Deep
MOTDLP012, 2021
mysteriesofthedeep.net

MOTDLP012 - Mosam Howieson - Aphelion

Mysteries of the Deep presents a new album from UK-based producer & composer, Thomas Ragsdale & Richard Arnold, entitled ‘Transformations I’

A meeting of minds between family members – Thomas Ragsdale and Richard Arnold – instigated a serendipitous musical partnership, and ’Transformations I’ is the resultant first collaborative body of work. Ragsdale is Arnold’s stepson and both musicians share a fascination of exploring new sound terrain and innovative approaches to composition.

It began with Arnold sending a collection of his instrumental works over to Ragsdale who began to deconstruct and reshape each piece’s lavish sound palette, ushering in new detail with granular synthesis, micro sounds and live tape looping. Sounds were broken down, magnified and inverted, occasionally allowing glimpses of any original version to escape like submersed sands of time.

“A glimpse, a glimmer. A shimmer, a shade. Tonal delicacy, rhythmic suggestion. The soundtrack to a rich inner life. ‘Transformations 1’ is an invitation to the listener to dive deep within. The work of two artists whose kinship is not only filial, but expressionistic: each reconfigures the other, forging new paths in sound together. As past meets present, tradition finds its way forward. Lie awash in dulcet waves. Listen in as patterns emerge, blossom, dissipate. The finite expands. A gossamer beauty takes shape. Boundaries dissolve, and what is old is new again. Transformation.”

https://thomasragsdalemusic.bandcamp.com/album/transformations-i

Written and Produced by Thomas Ragsdale & Richard Arnold
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY
Artwork by Candace Price
Words by Chris Zaldua

Worldwide Distribution: Space Cadets Limited

© Mysteries of the Deep
MOTDLP013, 2022
mysteriesofthedeep.net

Transformations I

MOTDLP013 - Thomas Ragsdale & Richard Arnold | Transformations 1 - Walk

Video for 'Mosaic' https://vimeo.com/705175081

Behold the pearl, a phenomenon singular in nature. An evolutionary eccentricity, a manifestation of inadvertent beauty. Effulgent objects fashioned by perfect mistake. Each a gemstone forged by the living: a consummate union of the biological and the geological.

This in mind, consider 'Yeoville,' the latest from artist Brendon Moeller. Listen to its radiant accords, or chords of radiance. Swirl, and unfurl, its amber waves of dub. Locate in echoes its memory — or yours. And then, so attuned, hear it: the breath of the machine. Iridescent. Organic. The process of transmutation, one thing becoming another. It is a blessing undisguised.

'Yeoville was recorded in my basement home studio between August and November of 2021. Ambient music has been a huge part of my life since around 1986 when I was listening to David Sylvian and Cocteau Twins. Releases by KLF, The Orb and Angelo Badalamenti would inspire me to dive even deeper. The inspiration for these tracks was a desire to create drones and rhythmic drones. There’s no greater feeling than getting all the machines droning, then kicking back in the studio and letting the ambience roll on for the rest of the day. It’s a great pleasure and honor to share these tracks with you. I hope they bring you as much joy as they have me.' - Brendon Moeller

https://brendonmoeller.bandcamp.com/album/yeoville

Written and Produced by @brendonmoeller
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios NY
Artwork & Video Direction by Candace Price
Words by Chris Zaldua

Worldwide Distribution: Space Cadets Limited

© Mysteries of the Deep
MOTDLP014, 2022
mysteriesofthedeep.net

Yeoville

MOTDLP014 - Brendon Moeller | Yeoville - Mosaic

We're pleased to announce a very special release by Pavaka Group, a new project from William Selman (@wselman)

'Following modern utopian and human potential movements from the 60s through the 80s, one theme that runs through these groups is the inclusion of music and sound-making in their organized practices. As these groups sought to give their members the tools or environment from which to liberate themselves from the constraints and norms of postwar life, music was a common vehicle for that personal and spiritual liberation. Music—like collective, collaborative farm work or group guided meditation practice—was another channel for personal and group expression of a new ideal of living and being.'

Recorded March-May 2016

Written & Produced by William Selman
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios NY
Photography & Words by William Selman
Design by Gabriel Benzur

Worldwide Distribution: Space Cadets Limited

© Mysteries of the Deep
MOTDLP015, 2022
mysteriesofthedeep.net

Pavaka Group

MOTDLP015 | Pavaka Group - 14 Pillars

A voice in the ether. A calm, clement drone. A gentle, pulsing throb. Like the ghost of a forgotten future as imagined by the distant past, Certain Creatures' sophomore LP Nasadiya Sukta is a study in timelessness — crystalline, heartfelt ambient music designed to push light through shadow. 

CERTAIN CREATURES is the alias of Brooklyn-based artist Oliver Chapoy, and Nasadiya Sukta was crafted especially for Mysteries of the Deep. Divided into six tracks, Nasadiya coheres into a single extraterrestrial mass, its beautiful understated elegance encouraging repeat listens. Simultaneously harking back to ambient classics from the '90s while cementing Chapoy as a visionary artist with his own unique voice, Nasadiya Sukta is one for the space travellers indeed.

Releases January 5, 2018
Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

Written, Produced, and Mixed by Oliver Chapoy 
at Ohm Sweet Ohm, Brooklyn, New York. 
2017 Ohm Sweet Ohm (ASCAP) 

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, New York 
Photography by Candace Price 
Design by Gabriel Benzur

Nasadiya Sukta

Buy Release

MOTDLP001 - Certain Creatures | Nasadiya Sukta

What if music had no beginning, no end? Can music exist "for itself" or "of itself," without structure constraining it, defining it? Can music be non-linear, non-narrative, simply experiential, existential? The second full-length album on Mysteries of the Deep, Musica Enterrada from Portland's William Selman, neither answers these questions nor supposes them. But in listening, one can't help but wonder: What if I disappeared into this record forever?

In another time and place, William Selman was known as Warmdesk, an alias through which he issued a series of sharply precise minimal techno records. In recent past, Selman shifted gears, shedding the dynamics of tension and release that characterized his previous alias' output. Under his own name, Selman began releasing process-oriented, freeform experimental music on cassette-focused outlets like Digitalis and Hausu Mountain. Now comes Musica Enterrada, a diaphanous, weightless musical vision not unlike the theoretical square root of GRM and Popol Vuh's early electronic forays. 

Split into six tracks across two sides of vinyl, Musica Enterrada bubbles, churns, drifts, and dozes. Dulcet tones pile up gently like waves on shore. Patterns repeat and reconfigure, as if heard from different angles. Rhythms appear, shift the frame, then disappear, into the ether whence they came. Play Musica Enterrada on repeat. And if you disappear into it, fret not — you have drifted into solace.

A1. Lithic Reduction
A2. Thick Description
A3. Polysemy
B1. The World Without Us
B2. Inferno Of The Same
B3. The Island Before The Internet 

Recorded August 2016 - March 2017 in Portland, Oregon.

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, New York 
Photography by Candace Price 
Design by Gabriel Benzur
Words by Chris Zaldua

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

Musica Enterrada

MOTDLP002 - William Selman | Musica Enterrada

Through the looking glass comes Interpretations Vol. 1, the first in a series of remix EPs from Mysteries of the Deep. This first installment follows the release of Certain Creatures' Nasadiya Sukta — a deep-listening ambient album par excellence — and features four remixes from the record by Patrick Russell, Birds of Prey, tdel, and Gunnar Haslam, plus an additional original bonus track from the Nasadiya sessions.

Certain Creatures - Cross Star Woman (Patrick Russell Dub Version)
Certain Creatures - We Live Inside A Dream (Birds of Prey Version)
Certain Creatures - Nyau Dust (tdel Rework)
Certain Creatures - Golden Circle (Gunnar Haslam Version)
Certain Creatures - Seven (Album Bonus)

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, NY 
Photography by Candace Price 
Design by Gabriel Benzur

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

Interpretations Vol I - Nasadiya Sukta

MOTDEP001 - Certain Creatures - Interpretations Vol I | Nasadiya Sukta

Deeper still goes Interpretations Vol. II, Mysteries of the Deep's next collection of edits, reworks, and revisions, all culled from our second full-length LP, William Selman's "Musica Enterrada." Both the gentle bloom of Matthew Patterson Curry’s twist on the title track and Borne's shimmering percussion-forward version of 'The Island Before The Internet' hew pleasingly close to the source material. Elsewhere, rrao and Clay Wilson transform 'Thick Description' into a stygian journey, with a susurrant reiki session, and Strategy recombines 'Musica Enterrada' into a classic subaquatic house tune. A bonus original work from Selman, 'Sun Tunnels Tree Tunnels,' completes the release.

William Selman - Musica Enterrada (Matthew Patterson Curry Remix)
William Selman - The Island Before The Internet (Borne's Snail Mail Shimmer)
William Selman - Thick Description (rrao & Clay Wilson Remix)
William Selman - Musica Enterrada (Strategy's Recombinant Mix)
William Selman - Sun Tunnels Tree Tunnels (Album Bonus)

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, New York 
Photography by Candace Price 
Design by Gabriel Benzur 
Words by Chris Zaldua 

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

https://soundcloud.com/matthew-patterson-curry
https://soundcloud.com/borne
https://soundcloud.com/turiyarrao
https://soundcloud.com/claywilson
https://soundcloud.com/wselman

Interpretations Vol II - Musica Enterrada

MOTDEP002 - William Selman - Interpretations Vol II | Musica Enterrada

"I think of myself as a naturalist no matter the palette," says Lori Scacco, the New York multi-instrumentalist, composer, and electronic musician whose new album, 'Desire Loop,' is Mysteries of the Deep's third full-length LP.

Natural indeed: Scacco's music effuses warmth, enveloping listeners like a gentle embrace. Her first album, 'Circles,' was released in the early aughts on Eastern Developments, an imprint co-founded by Guillermo Scott Herren, aka Prefuse 73. She spent much of the interim period composing music for performance, film, and classical ballet, influences audible throughout 'Desire Loop.'

Flush with incandescent scree, bubbly synthesizer, and easygoing dulcet tones, the album's simplicity belies its emotional impact. At times — "Cosmographia" and "Other Flowers," for instance — Scacco's songwriting approaches a therapeutic purity that feels nearly virtuous, immaculate. This is by design: she wrote this album as counterpoint to today's destructive political landscape . "I had to create an empathic means of access for myself, and in turn, for the listener, using the core of all that I value as my way into the music,” she explains.

"I wanted to provide a vehicle for the listener to impart their own emotional experience without imposing my own meaning. I found myself returning to that space over and over again.” After listening to 'Desire Loop,' we expect that you will, too.

Lori Scacco - Desire Loop

A1. Coloring Book
A2. Strange Cities
A3. Cosmographia
A4. Interactivity in Plastic Space
B1. Back to Electric
B2. Tiger Song
B3. Red Then Blue
B4. Other Flowers

All songs written, performed, and produced by Lori Scacco. New York City 2018 (BMI)

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, New York 
Photography by Candace Price 
Design by Gabriel Benzur
Words by Chris Zaldua

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

Desire Loop

MOTDLP003 - Lori Scacco | Desire Loop

"When I make a record, I always know exactly what I want it to sound like — so it's all about building a holistic world from the sounds I hear in my head at that moment," says Lori Scacco, the New York-based composer and multi-instrumentalist whose latest album, "Desire Loop," is Mysteries of the Deep's third full-length album release. 

For "Desire Loop," Scacco built a world all her own, and shared it with the world: "an album of synthesizer music that puts the study of color and texture at the forefront," writes Pitchfork's Philip Sherburne, with "consonant harmonies and simple melodies … evocative of European folk music." 

An array of friends and collaborators re-envision "Desire Loop" through their own lens on the accompanying remix EP "Interpretations Vol. III": William Selman gently extends the subtle melodies of 'Red Then Blue.' Helado Negro shifts the mood of 'Other Flowers,' from somber to exploratory. Victoria Keddie amplifies the found sounds in 'Back to Electric.' A Grape Dope cuts up 'Interactivity In Plastic Space,' lending it downtempo flair. And last but not least, Certain Creatures offers up 'Other Flowers in Strange Cities,' an extended 12-minute journey that swirls, undulates, and arpeggiates in equal measure.


Lori Scacco - Red Then Blue (William Selman Remix)
Lori Scacco - Other Flowers (Helado Negro Remix)
Lori Scacco - Back to Electric (Victoria Keddie Remix)
Lori Scacco - Interactivity in Plastic Space (A Grape Dope Mix)
Lori Scacco - Other Flowers in Strange Cities (Certain Creatures Mix)

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, New York 
Photography by Candace Price 
Design by Gabriel Benzur 
Words by Chris Zaldua

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

@scacco, @wselman, @heladonegro, @agrapedope, @certain-creatures

Interpretations Vol III - Desire Loop

MOTDEP003 - Lori Scacco - Interpretations Vol III | Desire Loop

Vanishing Point -- Title track from the forthcoming album by @birdsofprey

If emptiness is heaviness is Godliness, Birds of Prey's third full-length LP is an immaculate conception from on high. The record luxuriates in the spaces between. What's left out says as much as what made it in. Deep, droning, and dub wise, “Vanishing Point” cascades in elegance. Its reference points call towards the sample manipulation of American tape music and the downward gaze of amniotic British bass music. It charts its own path nonetheless, building its own space for drifting off to. 

Unlike many peers operating in similar realms, Birds of Prey are a proper band, a foursome: Grant Aaron, Clay Wilson, Eric Holmes, and Camille Altay. Each are artists in their own right with a distinct practice. In Birds of Prey, their collaborations in studio take on a greater shape, whittled and edited into cosmic formlessness. 

Although borne of improvisation, you may never know that in the listening. "Vanishing Point" is a tight, coherent work, the sound of a cadre of talented musicians locked in flow. Rippling tones become glacial melodies. Cavernous drums emerge barely from the ether. Rhythms interlock, interpolate. Patterns repeat and dissolve whence they came. There is untold potency in simplicity, and Birds of Prey make it known.

Releases June 14, 2019 

All songs written and produced by Birds of Prey 

Mixed by Oliver Chapoy at Ohm Sweet Ohm, NY 
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, NY 
Photography by Candace Price 
Design by Gabriel Benzur 
Words by Chris Zaldua 

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

Vanishing Point

MOTDLP004 - Birds of Prey - Vanishing Point

XYZ - from the forthcoming album by @birdsofprey. Vocals by Camille Altay.

If emptiness is heaviness is Godliness, Birds of Prey's third full-length LP is an immaculate conception from on high. The record luxuriates in the spaces between. What's left out says as much as what made it in. Deep, droning, and dub wise, “Vanishing Point” cascades in elegance. Its reference points call towards the sample manipulation of American tape music and the downward gaze of amniotic British bass music. It charts its own path nonetheless, building its own space for drifting off to. 

Unlike many peers operating in similar realms, Birds of Prey are a proper band, a foursome: Grant Aaron, Clay Wilson, Eric Holmes, and Camille Altay. Each are artists in their own right with a distinct practice. In Birds of Prey, their collaborations in studio take on a greater shape, whittled and edited into cosmic formlessness. 

Although borne of improvisation, you may never know that in the listening. "Vanishing Point" is a tight, coherent work, the sound of a cadre of talented musicians locked in flow. Rippling tones become glacial melodies. Cavernous drums emerge barely from the ether. Rhythms interlock, interpolate. Patterns repeat and dissolve whence they came. There is untold potency in simplicity, and Birds of Prey make it known.

Releases June 14, 2019 

All songs written and produced by Birds of Prey 

Mixed by Oliver Chapoy at Ohm Sweet Ohm, NY 
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, NY 
Photography by Candace Price 
Design by Gabriel Benzur 
Words by Chris Zaldua 

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

MOTDLP004 - Birds of Prey - XYZ

We are pleased to announce a new album on Mysteries of the Deep from Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist and creative producer — Nathaniel Young (@nathanielyoung)

Video: https://youtu.be/-nX8B8hWBck
Artist: Nathaniel Young
Album: Accosting Form, Pure Intent
Cat No: MOTDLP005
Format: 12” White Vinyl LP, Limited Edition CD, Digital

"Accosting Form, Pure Intent" — Nathaniel Young’s new album for Mysteries of the Deep — is a contradiction that makes sense. At once raw and elegant, it emerges from a place of constraint and desire. Its individual tracks reflect this paradox as the album unlocks itself like a koan: a riddle that, once solved, dawns on the listener like an epiphany. 

Despite the assorted elements at work, a visceral quality binds everything together. Even the record's more subdued works are textured and tangible, at times balancing or playing against the serrated edges of its more structured pieces. Like all compelling works, the sounds here exist in a liminal space that is not entirely classifiable. Still, it is wholly cohesive in both its moodiness and its adeptness. 

“The entirety of the LP was written using a Korg MS-20 Mini, Korg SQ-1 step sequencer, Korg Volca Beats, Korg Volca Kick, Behringer Model D, and a Zoom H4N. The core of each track was recorded live in one or two takes and subsequent synth parts were overdubbed after the fact. Since I was working solely with monophonic synths, I utilized a lot of panning in the overdubbing process to help create new harmonics, and even chords in some cases, which really helped flesh out the often extremely monolithic and singular sounding analog synths. Beyond that, as I mentioned, I really focused on creating sequences that I found I could listen to on repeat no matter their level of simplicity.” 

All songs written and produced by Nathaniel Young (@nathanielyoung)

Mixed by Oliver Chapoy at Ohm Sweet Ohm, NY 
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, NY 
Photography by Candace Price 
Design by Gabriel Benzur 
Words by Taylor Bratches

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

Accosting Form, Pure Intent

MOTDLP005 - Nathaniel Young - Communal Dysphoria

Mysteries of the Deep is delighted to present its second album by Portland, Oregon-based musician and multimedia artist William Selman (@wselman), entitled “Naming Before Names.” In a world that demands categorization of everything around us through taxonomies, genres, and strict schemas, Selman’s album aims to explore the spaces between categories. His goal is not to offer concrete explanatory gestures, but rather, to create a deliberate space for suspension and ambiguity. These eight compositions conjure a world in which humans are asked to stand on the periphery, observing their surroundings from a vantage of curious wonder, rather than clear definition.

Selman draws from distinct sonic realms, however, citing David Berhman, Maggi Payne, and Alvin Curran as influences. He says, “I like the way these artists use simple forms to ground dense compositions with an approach to composition that is improvisational and collage-like.” In line with this sentiment, the album’s quality is uncannily natural. Many of Selman’s field recordings, collected over a twenty-year period, find a home here, adorning a landscape that’s as visual as it is sonic; we hear hydrophone recordings of tide pools and summer lagoons, grasshopper wings in a lava field, broken humidifiers and sandstorms alongside moments of intentional instrumentation. Light vibraphone gives way to slow hand drum movements. Textured synths add viscosity without extracting us from the ecological world. It feels inaccurate to say the album’s occasional rhythms are constructed; rather, patterns seem to arise organically out of the aether. In Selman’s universe, there’s a sense that everything exists in primordial unity, untouched by the human imprint that insists on fragmenting the world into recognizable parts. 

Written, produced, and recorded by William Selman in Portland, Oregon Jan 2018 - Feb 2020
Bass guitar on "A New Old Firmament" by Steve Wade
Special thanks to Paul Dickow and Marcus Fischer for percussion and the time-share vibraphone
Additional mixing by Oliver Chapoy at Ohm Sweet Ohm, NY
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY
Photography by Candace Price
Words by Taylor Bratches

Naming Before Names

MOTDLP006 - William Selman - Bubble House In Shallow Depth

Mysteries is excited to present a new album from NY-based sound designer and musician, Matthew Patterson Curry, known formerly for his project Safety Scissors. These pieces are thoughtful arrangements, each one complete in and of itself. However, when placed together, the result is a stunning and harmonious collection from an artist with a clear vision, voice and sound. Each of these seven compositions were commissioned for various film and art projects in New York and beyond, including a sci-fi short, an installation in Manhattan’s Oculus, a quad multimedia installation by artist Peter Coffin, and others.

https://matthewpattersoncurry.bandcamp.com/album/scores-vol-1

Scores Vol. 1

Purchase Scores Vol. 1

MOTDLP007 - Matthew Patterson Curry | Scores Vol. 1 - Not Where I Intended to Go

100% of digital sales will be donated to Black Lives Matter and related causes. Friday, June 5th, from midnight to midnight Pacific Time, Bandcamp is waiving their share of sales to support artists impacted by Covid-19. On Friday June 5, Bandcamp will be donating 100% of their share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Mysteries is proud to release a new album from Turkish-born, NY-based musician and designer Løt.te (@lottesounds). While he is mostly known for his club-oriented releases on The Bunker New York and New York Trax labels, Løt.te has been experimenting with sound design and narrative compositions since he launched the project in 2014. His experimental tendencies and growing interest in politics collide in a 60 minute piece that’s composed as the soundtrack to a short story and film script he wrote. Though the details of the story are not essential for full enjoyment of the musical composition, the overall theme does give context to the dark and emotionally-charged feel of the piece. The story is set in Turkey a few decades in the future, and revolves around the government’s use of surveillance and artificial intelligence to try to hold onto power. It explores themes of autocracy, oppression and resistance, and the growing role technology plays to propagate, enable and counter them.

While Løt.te’s interest in politics has been building since first noticing his home country’s descent into autocracy under the current regime, the specific inspiration for the piece originated from how Turkish and other oppressive governments have been using the internet and social media to silence dissent and incarcerate citizens they deem threatening to their rule, and the way common people have been using similar technology to organize and enable anti-government protests around the world.

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio NY
Artwork & Words by Mehmet Irdel

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

© Mysteries of the Deep
MOTDLP008, 2020
mysteriesofthedeep.net

Longplay

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MOTDLP008 - Løt.te | Longplay

Guy Hobsbawm, the new alias of Gunnar Haslam, offers Mysteries a debut LP that is perfectly tailored to the times. Communes Qui Poussent Comme Des Champignons Après Le Déluge, which literally translates to ‘communes that grew like mushrooms after the flood’, is sparse and cinematic: an ideal score to any dystopian film. Except “dystopia” denotes an imaginary or speculative scenario, and what Hobsbawm has created is a natural reaction to the current global crisis as it relates to the past. In his own words, the title “pictures the flood of hunger, economic depression, and wide-scale political instability that was the background of 1848, draws links to the coming flood of 2020, and (tries to) imagine a brighter future of communes growing like mushrooms.”

The conceptual framework of 1848 and the ideologies of Louis-Auguste Blanqui, serves to mold the sonic landscape. In these pieces, there’s a focus on absence rather than presence. Sparse, long-form arrangements, like “Blanquistes du Nil” and the cricket-laden “Exil au Serir” seem to conjure a world in which the earth has supplanted man, or moved on without him. Many of these tracks make use of natural instrumentation and field recordings taken by Hobsbawm in North Africa and Mexico, to haunting effect. The lapping water and creaking wood in “Palermo, June 1848” suggest the residue of a flood, thereby linking the sonic to the conceptual. The final track, “Fustat,” which builds tension through metallic clangs and a Japanese sho, is an homage to Iannis Xenakis, the pioneering Greek-French composer. Guy Hobsbawm has taken the strange predicament of our global climate and created a cohesive album that represents the despair of the present — while connecting it to the past. The result is a landscape that is both foreign and familiar: a sonic paradox that represents the recurrence of a dark history. And yet within this, there is a glimmer of hope for a different future. 

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio NY
Cover Artwork by Maya Rossignac-Milon
Words by Taylor Bratches

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

© Mysteries of the Deep
MOTDLP009, 2020
mysteriesofthedeep.net

Communes Qui Poussent Comme Des Champignons Après Le Déluge

MOTDLP009 - Guy Hobsbawm | Communes Qui Poussent Comme Des Champignons Après Le Déluge – Fustat

Picture a skyline. Then, fog cascading down the wooded hills of San Francisco, towards the Pacific. And rising up from that land is a tower — the radio antenna of the Sutro Tower — that reaches upwards like a metal claw, as if to harness all of the power of the sky. That is the image Christina Chatfield’s Sutro conjures and is also its point of inspiration.

Christina Chatfield, based in SF, offers Mysteries an impressive, visionary full-length debut. Abound with polyphonic synth work and immersive tonal structures, these arrangements unfold into lush, cinematic soundscapes. Chatfield has long been a versatile producer with roots in techno, electro, ambient, shoegaze and more — and all of these influences come through in Sutro, creating an album with remarkable power and emotional depth. 

At times, tracks like “Nameless,” with its misty vocals layered over hypnotic synth, pay homage to the shoegaze greats. At other points, the album turns retro-futuristic, becoming a sonic rendering of the Sutro Tower itself. In “Pearls Scattered,” for example, an off-kilter synth melody lends eccentricity to an already moody atmosphere. Arguably the most immersive arrangements on the album are “Concatenate I” and its connected successor “Concatenate II,” as well as the richly textured, panoramic track “Drin.” As “Concatenate” derives its name from a linguistic programming concept meaning linking (things) together in a chain or series, it seems natural that the album extends “Concatenate” into two sequences. In both, synth arpeggiation guides the ear through maximalist landscapes accented by lush pads. “Drin” is melodic and sweeping, bringing to mind the ruins of the Sutro Baths, bathed in the glow of afternoon light. “Drin” especially is a microcosmic example of what happens in so many of the tracks on this album: they start quiet and evolve, until it’s clear the silence is teeming with life. The album closes with its title track, which leans into Chatfield’s techno sensibilities; its elegance leaves the ear satisfied. Altogether, the album nourishes and satisfies, for what Chatfield has composed is thoughtfully conceptualized and wholly complete.

Releases March 26, 2021

Written and Produced by Christina Chatfield
Mixed by Oliver Chapoy at Ohm Sweet Ohm, Brooklyn NY
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY
Design by Gabriel Benzur
Words by Taylor Bratches

Worldwide Distribution: wordandsound → what people play

© Mysteries of the Deep
MOTDLP010, 2021
mysteriesofthedeep.net

Sutro

MOTDLP010 - Christina Chatfield - Sutro

Mysteries of the Deep is a New York-based record label, podcast, and event series — focused on ambient & experimental music in various forms. Mysteries — as fans lovingly call it — is concerned with exploration of unknown realms, and its focus, in addition to showcasing a dynamic spectrum of electronic music from foremost artists in the field, is to thoughtfully engage its audience. 

Conceptualized in 2011, Mysteries began as a podcast series that, now in its eleventh year, has hosted an array of mixes and original works. The project has since evolved, expanding into a curated global event series and record label.