Salvatore Mercatante Live at Public Records (ASIP044)

 
Video Block
Double-click here to add a video by URL or embed code. Learn more

Last December, we were fortunate to host one of our largest label nights to date at Public Records, New York, one of the most renowned venues in the world for sound system quality. One year later, we present to you one of the recordings from the evening, by Brooklyn’s own Salvatore Mercatante.

Live at Public Records captures Salvatore Mercatante at his most unguarded and instinctual, set free from the polish of post-production, delivered to a room of people who gave themselves over to the quiet pull of tension, decay, and harmonic dissonance on one of the best sound systems in the world.

Performed as part of a curated label night inside Public Records’ intimate Sound Room, Salvatore’s set was equal parts sculpture and erosion. Working with a minimalist setup that belied the richness of the result, Salvatore traced an arc through fractured rhythms, bent tones, and fogged-out signal paths, drawing on his 2024 album ‘Ø’ and a trove of unreleased and WIP material.

Following a DJ-set by Aspetuck and preceding a live set by OKRAA as part of the label’s biggest showcase to date, Salvatore’s set was the perfect middle-ground, with signature low-end blooms and crisp drum patterns, reconstituted in real time and massaged by the custom four-point sound system.

Live at Public Records was recorded on December 6th, 2024 in Brooklyn NY, mastered by Antony Ryan at RedRedPaw Mastering. Artwork and video taken from photography by Daniel Salemi.

Available as name your price on Bandcamp

Join us for the listening party at 2pm PST Friday

Photos by Daniel Salemi

Photos by Daniel Salemi

Photos by Daniel Salemi

 

WNDFRM / WVLT (ASIPV056)

 

WVLT is the newest sonic addition from WNDFRM (Portland-based, Tim Westcott), an album of eight distinct explorations of micro-rhythmic IDM.

Tim Westcott’s practice is rooted in an acute, nearly forensic attention to sound. Subtle tones, sculpted drones, and lean percussive gestures, always pursued with a patient ear and obsession with sound design. 

With previous releases on Prologue, Home Normal, and Dragon’s Eye Recordings, and several live performances at Mutek, a new album from Tim is a rare yet welcome occurrence. The conceptual approach for WVLT began in 2021, mixing synths with drum machines and granular processing. Lightly arced structures slip between gates of rhythm, shifting pulses, translucent washes, and disquieting residue. There’s a precision to the hesitation and an insistence in the space between notes, a deft balance of raw improvisation and sculpted quietude.

An exercise in immediacy and response, each track builds and unspools, like form in fleeting motion, driven by the moment’s tonal contrasts, micro‑rhythmic interplay, and slight gestures that alter entire planes of listening. It’s minimal without sparsity, intense without density.

Available digitally and on limited transparent dark blue 12”  vinyl on September 26th 2025. Mastered by Taylor Deupree @12k Mastering and featuring artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding.

Release page

 

isolatedmix 134 - Artefakt

 

The Dutch duo of Robin Koek and Nick Lapien, known together as Artefakt, have long been shaping their own atmospheric corner of techno. Bridging the meticulousness of academic sound design with an ever-present emotive pulse, their work has resonated deeply across releases for labels such as Delsin, Semantica, Field Records, and their own De Stijl imprint.

They've always struck a balance between abstraction and function, a rare knack for making club-appropriate music that still rewards deeper, solitary listening. That tension surfaced memorably in tracks like "The Fifth Planet" or "Somatic Dreams," but perhaps most personally, in "Entering The City", a track that found its way into my Reflection on 2017 mix and still holds that special late-night gravity for me, many years on.

Their contribution to the isolatedmix series lands as an expansive meditation on contrast and communion. As the duo describe it:

"This recording came together for us imagining being in spaces of sonic isolation - conversing with each other and through this act of exchange, unfolding a dynamic landscape. This emerges as an auditory refuge where we become the waves. As we navigate this appearing structure, we re-anchor ourselves as listeners, embracing the ephemeral and reconciling with strangeness to find solace in deviation.

The mix also draws from a lifelong inspiration that runs as a thread through our own music - the contrasts between natural textures, organic decay and fractal blooming sounds set against the quantization, designed function and electric qualities of the built city and the futures they represent, captured in musical imagination. The mix invites listeners to dwell in this synthesis of spaces, discovering connection within isolation."

This is Artefakt working in longform and dictating progression, where subtle shifts feel tectonic and sequences unravel like a conversation across timezones. There's techno here, but blurred through the lens of wide-angle composition - a unique trance-like state that mimics their unique dance-floor rituals.

Download

Listen on Soundcloud, the ASIP Podcast or the 9128.live iOS and Android app.

Tracklist:
01. Arovane & Hior Chronik - A Day, November 2013
02. Multicast Dynamics - Field of Dreams
03. Jake Muir - Twilight Transmissions
04. 2030 - Key to the Universe
05. Neel - Alchemy
06. Stenny - Dew
07. 1991 - High-Tech Love-Life
08. Imaginary Softwoods - Globe IV
09. Emika Elena - Reflection (Multicast Dynamics Remix)
10. BFTT - Enin
11. queniv - Viba
12. Hiver - Inner Motion
13. Sven Weisemann - Cascading Lights
14. Imprea - In a Landscape
15. Purelink - Stadium Drive
16. The 7th Plain - Chords Are Dirty
17. Marianna Maruyama & Hessel Veldman - Softly, at first

~

Artefakt Bandcamp | Soundcloud | Instagram

 

isolatedmix 133 - Pentagrams Of Discordia

 

Somewhere between tape hiss and transmission error, Pentagrams Of Discordia have been quietly assembling fragments of forgotten broadcasts, reel-to-reel experiments, and dusty rhythm boxes into something that might resemble a memory.

The elusive trio work collectively, in analog shadows, and their fingerprints are embedded deep within this mix. Much of the material you’ll hear is unreleased- looped, spliced, and sequenced exclusively for this set. It's both a showcase of their sound, and an enigma; a nodding towards certain iconic duos and chill-room auteurs without ever tipping fully into homage.

Their isolatedmix is the kind of journey that begins with no particular destination, meandering across shortwave frequencies, roadside daydreams, and the occasional flickering motel sign. A collage of found melodies, distorted lullabies, and cracked-lens nostalgia - less a DJ set and more a shared hallucination.

“Expect unreleased gems, spectral edits, and glitchy whispers from forgotten projects: each track chosen not just for sound, but for how it haunts. A guided descent into the vaults, stitched with care, mischief, and just enough distortion” - PoD.

Download

 

KILN / Lemon Borealis (ASIPV053)

 

After following their lush analog output via Ghostly International in recent years, I couldn’t be more excited to present an album by KILN here on ASIP. By way of an entry point to anyone new to the trio of Hayes, Marrison & Rehberg, think more electronic worlds of Christian Kleine, Bitstream, Freescha, ISAN et al, all captured as live performances, combined with micro-field recordings and further saturated with color and texture…

A big thank you to Sam Valenti IV for connecting our two worlds.

~

KILN return with an opulent new display of hue and swing on Lemon Borealis, a sumptuous gallery of dazzling motifs that display a finely hewn concoction of visual tones and vital pulse.

Across its 12 cuts, this collection utilizes a fresh process of condensing immersive sprawl into compact, punchy and colorful sound. Using aspects of live performance, beatmaking and waveform sculpting, the troika of Kevin Hayes, Kirk Marrison and Clark Rehberg III create evocative and invigorating dioramas, continuing to surprise and enchant listeners after over thirty years into their collaboration.

Deep in waves of Hi-meets-Lo Fi, KILN delivers a panchromatic daymark arranged to biochemically align and stimulate your personal syntax, forging a tapestry of sonic reveries ranging from the aquarium-on-fire radiance of DrnkGrlfrnd, a garden groove of field-recorded percussion in Maplefunk Diptych, to the sizzling guit-noise whiteout of Deacon Rayhand.

Their eighth album, and first for A Strangely Isolated Place, on Lemon Borealis, KILN expands upon the long-explored themes of mosaic texture, subtle melancholy, eroded consonance, and vivid cadence to reveal yet another aperture to their unique magnetic universe.

Lemon Borealis is available on 12” Transparent Yellow Smoke vinyl and digital on July 18th. Mastered and cut by Andreas Lupo Lubich, and featuring artwork by KILN.

See the album release page for full details to buy