A song from each album released on Tiny Room Records since 2014.

Tiny Room playlist

'Goodbye' is the first single from True Sound, the new album from The World of Dust, the musical project of Stefan Breuer, featuring Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils). 

In some ways a concept album, True Sound charts a very personal exploration of the life and death of Stefan Breuer’s grandparents. The unique overarching narrative that plays out with each song, and the warmth of the delivery, unites the album into a moving and consistent whole. As with The World of Dust’s acclaimed previous album, Samsara, the instrumental elements on True Sound were created by Todd Tobias, who sent them to Breuer to write and sing the lyrics. Tobias’s wonderfully melodic compositions call to mind his work with Robert Pollard, creating a haunting marriage when combined with Breuer's pure vocal tones, reminiscent of The White Birch’s Ola Flottum. 

The mesmerising, drumless opening track ‘Sailing’ introduces Breuer’s grandfather, Jan (whose personal effects are on display in the Museum of Vlaardingen), over insistent, metallic guitar and burbling modulation. First single ‘Goodbye’ has a charming, wistful sway and gorgeous vocal harmonies, which belie its sobering story of Jan’s battle with cancer. Jan’s first wife, who passed away during childbirth, is commemorated on ‘Petronella’s Death’, with its elegant, descending guitar figures. And Breuer’s grandmother is touchingly memorialised on the elegant tempo shift and eerie arpeggios of ‘Nel’s Passing’. Ultimately, True Sound is testament to the liberation that comes from letting go.

“Its power lies in the intimacy… without drowning in desolate melancholy” – hifi.nl

The World of Dust is Dutch artist, musician and manager of Tiny Room Records, Stefan Breuer, based in Bilthoven, near Utrecht in The Netherlands. Breuer released his debut album, Bhava, in 2013, followed by X in 2014. On 2015’s Womb Realm, Breuer first collaborated with Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils), with Tobias contributing keyboard arrangements. Then, in 2017, Breuer released the experimental compilation Golden Moon. Samsara (2019) is Breuer’s second collaboration with Tobias, and his first release on Hidden Shoal. True Sound (2021) is his latest release, continuing his collaboration with Tobias.

Artist Info: https://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/the-world-of-dust
Licensing info (film, tv, web etc): https://www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing/

True Sound

Goodbye

More Info

The World of Dust - 'Goodbye'

Rotterdam-based folk outfit Ilsha’s debut is a record to comfort those who are sad and weeping.

For the debut of her band Ilsha, songwriter Ilse Hamelink wrote five songs that manage to be both personal and exuberant. Each song is a snapshot of a particular moment in time, capturing the feelings and thoughts of that precise moment in sound. This is also how Ilse lives her life: open to all emotions, while remaining an open book about her doubts and fears. Dive is by no means an ‘easy album’, but the raw, naked core of the songs has been made more bearable by the colorful arrangements added by the band. These layers make listening to the record an enlightening experience instead of a painful one. 

Dive has become an experimental folk album in which you can wonder around. The repetitive vocal lines are soothing and enthralling at the same time. As you wallow in melancholy, you may find yourself floating above the ground. There is a constant light in the darkness of this record, and Ilse’s heavenly voice guides you towards it. The beautiful simplicity of the songs is rooted in nature, where you can be at peace with who you are: barefoot in the grass, immortalizing these special moments in songs; the sorcery of good art. The record’s tension, dynamics, sad emptiness and lush arrangements will muster feelings, and these feelings will simply be welcome. Dive is a record to comfort those who are sad and weeping. 

Dive is the debut by Rotterdam-based band Ilsha. Ilsha is the main musical project of singer and guitarist Ilse Hamelink, who is a music/art/nature therapist in real life. On the record she gets help from a few veterans from the independent music industry, such as Gerrit van der Scheer (Bonne Aparte, Herrek), Aino Vehmasto (The Secret Love Parade), Anna Berkhof and Floyd Atema (Herrek). The record will come out on 12” vinyl with a lovely layered sleeve, released on Tiny Room Records on October 29, 2021.

Order record: https://tinyroomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dive

Ilsha - Dear Tree

Trasenster

The first Caspar Milquetoast release is a brilliant, eclectic grab bag of stories, perspectives and styles. 

The title of Caspar Milquetoast's first release, We'll Have Tea, is taken from a lyric in the final track: we'll have tea when the rapture comes. Each track on the EP is an attempt to inhabit one particular story (four novels, one novella, a play and a TV show) and speak from the perspective of one of its characters - to sit 
down for tea with them, if you like. 

We'll Have Tea was recorded between November 2021 and January 2022 (although most of the tracks were written much earlier) and mastered by Tiny Room Records’ label manager Stefan Breuer. The sound of the EP is eclectic, mirroring the different character voices: an exolinguist on an alien planet tells her story to the backdrop of far-out synth arpeggios and acoustic guitar. A jilted Shakespearean mistress curses the man who tossed her aside with a frantic clarinet solo. An understated piano keeps a young man company as he waits for the execution of his lover. Track 5 begins with a remix of Mendelssohn’s wedding march. 

Amani began making music around 2017, creating shaky arrangements in GarageBand and recording the vocals in her closet on a hissing USB microphone. Her methods now are much the same, although the microphone is a little better and the closet has become a one-room apartment. Caspar Milquetoast, on the other hand, came into existence in 2022: We'll Have Tea will be Amani's first release under that name. Two things define her approach to music: 1) her love of language and 2) her short attention span. This results in a gloriously chaotic songwriting process full of literary references and in-jokes, and generally brief songs with a clear story arc.

Pink House

Taken from "Wild Eye" which sees release on December 9th, 2022 via Tiny Room Records and Hidden Shoal.

More on Moonchy & Tobias here: https://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/moonchy-tobias

The music of Moonchy & Tobias is available for licensing via Hidden Shoal. Contact us for more details: https://www.hiddenshoal.com/contact-us

Wild Eye

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Moonchy & Tobias - Shangri La

Lost Bear - A Short History Of Chrome

The World of Dust - Space Mountain

Howart - Adore

Helen Ferguson (34 years old, Bordeaux, France) had never touched a guitar nor written a song until she was 27. Her only musical experience consisted of singing in the local church choir. When she finally got a guitar for her birthday, an inevitable urge to write songs came along with it. Parts and pieces from her diary, dealing with several difficult times and events, were used in the lyrics. Every chord she learned from her guitar teacher Julien Pras was immediately used in a new song. Helen’s song book quickly became thicker.

Helen appeared to be a natural talent in creating fragile, timeless folk songs with very personal lyrics. For Aligned With Juniper – under the moniker Queen Of The Meadow – she chose her best songs so far. The intimate arrangements were recorded with a warm and unadorned sound by former guitar teacher (and now spouse) Julien Pras, known from stoner metal band Mars Red Sky (among other bands and projects). He produced the album in their home studio and played half the instruments. Old friend Emily Jane White (Julien and Helen once played in Emily's live band) sang backing vocals on The Bride.

Although it was never her intention to be heard, we are delighted that Aligned With Juniper has not been put on a shelf – with a little lock, next to Helen’s other diaries.

Aligned With Juniper was released on cd/digital on June 10th, 2016.
Order: tinyroomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/alig…th-juniper
More info: www.tinyroom.nl

Queen Of The Meadow - Caleb

EVERY SONG OF SORROW IS NEW

Tiny Room Records presents Amialluma: a hypnotic 10-track collaboration between American musician Todd Tobias and English vocalist Chloë March. Dwelling in a mysterious hinterland somewhere between Cocteau Twins’ seminal Victorialand and The Caretaker’s Persistent Repetition of Phrases, Amialluma dances between the earthly and heavenly. Chloë March’s celestial voice shines a light through Todd Tobias’s dark, fantastical soundscapes, resulting in a sublime, uncanny experience that enraptures and unsettles in equal measure.

Through a process of improvisation sparked by the emotive power of Tobias’s music, March developed a lyrical world of word-invention sung into archaic lullabies and tales. The lyrics centre around a child’s journey from the safety of its mother’s arms through an ancient, shadowy world. Overcoming fear and meeting with otherworldly guides, the child finds independence and reveals a deep connection with nature.

Amialluma will be released on CD by Tiny Room Records, on September 4, 2018.

Amialluma

Todd Tobias and Chloë March - Lallulow

'Une Saison En Enfer’ is the 1st single lifted from "Moonchy & Tobias", an electrifying collaboration between Italian vocalist Pat Moonchy and American instrumentalist Todd Tobias. The album will see release on November 2nd 2018 through Hidden Shoal and Tiny Room Records. More here: http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/todd-tobias/

"Moonchy & Tobias"
Brace yourself when entering the disorienting world of Moonchy & Tobias, where churning rock textures created by Todd Tobias are the landscape within which vocalist Pat Moonchy runs riot, warping her voice into every recess and shape available. Skirting the boundary between fairytale and nightmare, the angular architecture of the music is softened and stretched at every juncture. Whether the pounding bass of ‘Juu Ichi’, the bubbling submarine atmospheres of ‘Vertigo Trail’, or the percussion and fuzz carnival of single ‘Une Saison En Enfer’, Moonchy and Tobias create a transformative musical experience in which giddy tangents abound.

Moonchy & Tobias pairs Italian vocalist Pat Moonchy with American instrumentalist Todd Tobias. Moonchy is one-half of the experimental band Sothiac, in duos alongside trombonist Angelo Contini and jazz drummer Lino Liguori, in the Tai-No Orchestra, and with German krautrock pioneers Faust. Ohio native Tobias is a long-time collaborator with Robert Pollard (Guided by Voices), and provided the musical backing to Pollard’s vocals in the freak-rock trio Circus Devils. Tobias has also released a series of themed instrumental albums under his own name.

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com | www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

Moonchy & Tobias

Moonchy & Tobias - Une Saison En Enfer

Naked Shortsellers - Harbour Men

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Best Of Folks

The second single lifted from Samsara, the fifth album by Dutch slowcore dream-pop artist The World of Dust. The album will see official release on the 1st of March 2019 via Hidden Shoal and Tiny Room Records.

Pre-orders available now: https://tinyroomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/samsara

Video by Stefan Breuer here: https://youtu.be/UkA5BI5srjA 

Samsara is effectively a full-length collaboration between The World of Dust’s Stefan Breuer and Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils). Previously contributing keyboard arrangements for 2015’s World of Dust album Womb Realm, Tobias created all the instrumental backdrops for Samsara’s evocative songs. A shadowy universe of forlorn beauty, this lo-fi bedroom pop experiment is shrouded in elemental imagery and laden with ennui. Intimate and wistful, Samsara mines a similarly rich emotive seam to Norwegian slowcore legends The White Birch.

The process for Samsara saw Tobias send Breuer 26 instrumental ideas, from which Breuer chose those which resonated with him most. Over the course of nearly two years, Breuer wrote and refined an especially personal suite of lyrics, reflecting his struggles with his mental health and his experience of becoming a father. The result is World of Dust's most fully realised and vivid album to date.

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com | www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

The World of Dust - Tarot (feat. Todd Tobias)

Combo Qazam consists of four early Millennials who grew up in an analog world. Being a kid in the 90s meant that you were taught the importance of creative freedom. Now, as adults in a digital era, they feel ambiguous. The present, global society offers opportunities to break existing structures and celebrate life together. But it is the same society that also causes control and alienation. Combo Qazam is operating on these crossroads of analog and digital, old and new, hope and fear.

You hear this dichotomy throughout the music of Combo Qazam. The band can sound mechanical and human at the same time. Prog-like perfection goes hand in hand with Pavementesque dissonance. Detached lyrics are being sung with heavenly harmonies. The rhythm section was recorded on a 4-track cassette unit, the rest was multi-tracked in Logic Pro. Repetitive beats are leading you through eerie melodies, with hints at postpunk, mathrock, and kraut.

Together, the four men of Combo Qazam (Ab al Tamimi, Gino Miniutti, Arno Breuer, Stefan Breuer) have 80 years of experience in 40 bands. The album was mastered by Floyd Atema (The Sweet Release of Death, Howrah, Zea) and was released by Tiny Room Records on May 20, 2020.

Order the vinyl here: tinyroomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/flight-music

Owls

Microplaza writes super short quirky indie pop songs. The duo clearly divided the tasks: one writes the music, the other takes care of the vocals and lyrics. 'A Question' comes from their second mini album 'We'll Never Fit In This Poem Together' and is about death as a big and inevitable eternal question mark.

Check out the whole album here: 
https://tinyroomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/well-never-fit-in-this-poem-together

We'll Never Fit In This Poem Together

Microplaza - A Question

Karl Blau (USA) and Stefan Breuer from The World of Dust (NL) cross paths when they perform together in an old mill in The Netherlands, September 2017. Being a longtime admirer of Blau’s work (both solo and with The Microphones, Laura Veirs and LAKE), Breuer was touched by the unfiltered niceness and sincerity of the person behind this music. They stayed in contact and decided to make a record together. The 7” record ‘Blue Herons’ (limited edition of 200) will come out on April 7, 2020 on Breuer’s label Tiny Room Records. 

Karl Blau recorded his side of the vinyl ‘Slightly Salted’ in Germantown, Philadelphia, where he currently resides with his family. The song was originally written by Bryan Elliott and recorded by his band Pounding Serfs in 1989. Since then, it more or less became the theme song to Anacortes, Washington (also the home of Mount Eerie and Beat Happening). The lovely, seaside village of Anacortes was Blau’s home for 25 years, until his recent move to Philadelphia. Spiritually he may still be found in Anacortes of Skagit Valley, northwest Washington State.

Four years ago, Stefan Breuer and his family moved out of Hoograven, Utrecht to a nearby village called Bilthoven. Hoograven is a grey neighbourhood with a lot of flats, sandwiched between two busy highways. Apart from the uninspiring surroundings, the vibe was unfriendly and hostile. Eventually, Breuer and his wife decided not to raise their kids in Hoograven. In Bilthoven they found peace, serenity, and woods. The first half of ‘The Life of Gods’ is about Hoograven, the second half is about Bilthoven. 

Blau grew up on Samish Island, a former island in Washington. In the late 1800s, the Dutch settlers diked off the tide flats to make farm land there. Because of this, you can now drive to Samish Island, making it a peninsula shaped like the head of a blue heron. Hence the title of this combined effort, where both songs are tributes to the place you live(d).

Karl Blau - Slightly Salted

Taken from "Blue Herons", the new split 7" from Karl Blau & The World of Dust. These two gorgeous tracks will be released through the wonderful Tiny Room Records with licensing of The World of Dust track 'The Life of Gods' through Hidden Shoal. The vinyl is limited to a run of 200. 

Karl Blau (USA) and Stefan Breuer from The World of Dust (NL) cross paths when they perform together in an old mill in The Netherlands, September 2017. Being a longtime admirer of Blau’s work (both solo and with The Microphones, Laura Veirs and LAKE), Breuer was touched by the unfiltered niceness and sincerity of the person behind this music. They stayed in contact and decided to make a record together.

Karl Blau recorded his side of the vinyl ‘Slightly Salted’ in Germantown, Philadelphia, where he currently resides with his family. The song was originally written by Bryan Elliott and recorded by his band Pounding Serfs in 1989. Since then, it more or less became the theme song to Anacortes, Washington (also the home of Mount Eerie and Beat Happening). The lovely, seaside village of Anacortes was Blau’s home for 25 years, until his recent move to Philadelphia. Spiritually he may still be found in Anacortes of Skagit Valley, northwest Washington State.

Four years ago, Stefan Breuer and his family moved out of Hoograven, Utrecht to a nearby village called Bilthoven. Hoograven is a grey neighbourhood with a lot of flats, sandwiched between two busy highways. Apart from the uninspiring surroundings, the vibe was unfriendly and hostile. Eventually, Breuer and his wife decided not to raise their kids in Hoograven. In Bilthoven they found peace, serenity, and woods. The first half of ‘The Life of Gods’ is about Hoograven, the second half is about Bilthoven.

The music of The World of Dust is available for licensing (film, tv, web and more) via Hidden Shoal.
https://www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

Blue Herons

The World of Dust - The Life Of Gods

A band formed out of nostalgia in the remembrance of good times. Inspired by the likes of Daniel Johnston and others in the hopes to feel what you used to feel. 

Archer EP will be released by Tiny Room Records (NL) and Salty Speakers (USA) on December 22, 2020.

Tiny Wine - Leaves

Follow us on Bandcamp: https://tinyroomrecords.bandcamp.com/follow_me

Tiny Room Records is a Dutch record label for underground artists. We help upcoming bands with their recordings, tours, releases, and with reaching their (niche) audience. We focus on experimental indie rock, lo-fi, noise, grunge, shoegaze, etc.