isolatedmix 17 - Winterlight

It’s weird to think that Winterlight was one of the very first artists featured on ASIP around three years ago. I can’t remember how I managed to stumble across Tim’s Winterlight and Lightsway projects, but it was one of those finds which ultimately ended up shaping many epic train journeys, hours of headphone time, endlessly long commutes, moments of personal reflection and of course, (not forgetting) a great night out last year.

Tim’s music pays homage to classic shoegaze and is filled with beautiful atmospherics and ethereal ambience – the perfect matrimony of shimmering guitars and electronic ambient music. I’m often asked for similar music to the likes of Ulrich Schnauss and artists such as Winterlight are first to mind.  Whilst Winterlight can sound completely different and is definitely more instrumental in approach (with a heavy focus on guitars, delays and reverb), Tim manages to capture the most unimaginable beauty and escapism in his productions, which can only lead to a mutual admiration for epic shoegaze influenced music I often associate with the likes of Schnauss, Jonas Munk, The Cocteau Twins, and Hammock.

It’s this combination of guitars and electronic ambient which has shaped Tim’s isolatedmix, reflecting on his own personal journeys:

“When I was younger I used to go on long coach journeys just to escape. I made up C90 mixtapes and then bought a return ticket for somewhere far away. I would travel through the day and night watching the world pass by me in a blur and listen to my Walkman and disappear somewhere inside myself to a place I wanted to be. It was if there wasn’t any real world just a backdrop to the music. Nowadays I make my own music to do the same thing. This mix is an attempt to recreate the feel of those tapes and those journeys.”

Classic shoegaze from the originators, including Robin Guthrie, Slowdive and Airiel, amongst the more electronic ambient influences of personal favourites, port-royal. Tim also manages to sneak in some lesser known yet similarly talented artists such as Luga, kontakte and Jesper Lundager, adding depth and variety to the already mouthwatering lineup.

Modest in his ways, Tim hasn’t included any tracks of his own in the mix. But, after a recent signing to one of our favourite labels N5MD(home of port-royal, Lights Out Asia and Near The Parenthesis), the door is open for you to explore Tim’s latest and greatest album, ‘Hope Dies Last’. Including some reworked tracks from Tim’s early Lightsway guise, guest vocals and additional production duties from Mike Cadoo (Bitcrush), the album is a welcome return after what has seemed like an eternity of missing dreamy and ethereal Winterlight productions.Available now on N5MD.

The isolatedmix series will always be a way for me to enlist the musical minds of some of my biggest influences, so I think many of you will join me in saying what a pleasure it is to have a stunning mix from one of the original discoveries on ASIP – and one that’s still releasing amazing music to this day.

Download.

Tracklist:
01. Northern Picture Library – Dreams and Stars and Sleep
02. Helios – Coast Off
03. Disco Inferno – Footprints in Snow
04. The Papertiger Sound – This is How it Ends
05. kontakte – A Snowflake in Her Hand
06. Ultra Vivid Scene – Lynne-Marie #1
07. Airiel – Firefly
08. Slowdive – In Mind
09. Jesper Lundager – Robot Friend Sleeps Well
10. Robin Guthrie – Camera Lucida
11. Dif Juz – The Last Day
12. Luga – This Hard Day
13. Aerosol – Excess
14. Crisopa – Fibra de Carbona y Cambios Automaticos
15. Angelmark – Twilight World
16. port-royal – Ernst Bloch
17. Felt – Be Still
18. Pacific UV – L.A.P.D vs N.Y.P.D (Eluvium remix)

Tracknotes from Tim:

Northern Picture Library – Dreams and Stars and Sleep
Perfect music to watch the world drift past to from a great album.

Helios – Coast Off
I could have made an entire mix of Helios, like epic 45 this sounds exactly like travelling in a bus or train, staring out of the window to me.

Disco Inferno – Footprints in Snow
I love all the messy sonic stuff that is going on in the background just doing enough to disturb the pretty piano line.

The Papertiger Sound – This is How it Ends
I love short instrumentals. Felt did an album of them, Let the Snakes Crinkle their Heads to Death, and this one is just perfect – comes along does its thing then stops.

kontakte – A Snowflake in Her Hand
I have been lucky enough to play with kontakte a few times and they are a fantastic, powerful live band. This track from their new album shows what beautiful music they make.

Ultra Vivid Scene – Lynne-Marie #1
I loved the first UVS album when it came out and remember being amazed he did it all himself, not so common then but it is probably the first time I thought it might be interesting to make music without a band. Only short but sometimes, like here, that works.

Airiel – Firefly
It sounds like Cocteau Twins and Slowdive, what more could you want?

Slowdive – In Mind
It always comes back to this band for me, the blueprint shoegaze female vocal in a hypnotic setting and not a guitar in sight.

Jesper Lundager – Robot Friend Sleeps Well
The Schnauss of Denmark.

Robin Guthrie – Camera Lucida
Cocteau twins are an obvious influence and Robin’s solo work showcases his incredibly beautiful guitar sound. He makes the guitar sound so beautiful; I wish I had his effects set up.

Dif Juz – The Last Day
I saw Dif Juz quite a few times and they were one of the most inventive bands and the fact they were instrumental impressed me enormously. So far ahead of their time, they invented post-rock years before it happened.

Luga – This Hard Day
I love the distorted keyboard layers on this, Mirror started from an attempt to copy that sound.

Aerosol – Excess
All That is Solid Melts Into Air is one of my favourite albums and this track is sublime.

Crisopa – Fibra de Carbono y Cambios Automaticos
Santi is newly signed to n5md; I have constantly listened to this song since I first heard it a few years ago. Just a perfectly put together, relaxed feel; I could probably listen to it on repeat for the whole journey!

Angelmark – Twilight World
Beautifully resonant guitar, sounds like sadness to my ears (a good thing!)

port-royal – Ernst Bloch
No mix would be complete without port-royal! This track is an epic journey in itself, they are the masters of ebb and flow. I can’t think of anyone who influences my music as much as Attilio.

Felt – Be Still
I will never stop loving Felt. This is a wonderful cover of a Beach Boys song.

Pacific UV – L.A.P.D vs N.Y.P.D (Eluvium remix)
This is my standard “set finisher”. It is a great remix, I love the way it overwhelms you with waves of distortion and feedback building into crescendos over and over again. Superb.

ASIP - Modyfier: Process Part 262

Number 200 saw a live set from Irisarri and The Sight Below, 217 and Canadian maestro Jesse Somfay jumped on board. February 2010 and ASIP posted Tom McCarthy’s inspiring mix and a year later, another beauty arose in the form of Franklin Da Costa’s Process part 250.

Modyfier’s Process series is one of my favourite mix series I’ve been lucky enough to stumble upon in recent years, and inspiration from the artists and productions included has been non-stop. From the stunning sets mentioned above, to three-minute miniatures and one track made from 15 others, Modyfier aims to bring out a very specific principal from its contributors; why things are made, not how.

I’m extremely honoured to participate in this series and I hope I’ve done it justice, by focusing on tracks which I believe have been made with something in mind – an inspiration of sorts, with a specific reflection or moment in time conjured by the artist.

I didn’t expect this mix to hit at the same time as the Origami Sound guest mix – weirdly enough these were both put together a few months back, so it’s great to finally let them loose. They’re very different approaches, and the ambient enthusiast among us may well appreciate this mix a bit more.

Many of of you already follow Modyfier religiously, but for those who don’t, make an essential stop and trawl through the other 261 mixes on offer. Hopefully mine is up to scratch and you enjoy it just as much as I did putting it together.

Here’s my Intro text for the mix over on Modyfier:
This is some of the most simple, yet interesting, evocative and at the same time, complex music I have had the pleasure of listening to over the years. When perfected, ambient music can take you where ever you want to go, transport you from madness to bliss. The greatest producers have found influences from experiences and surroundings, then channeled it for us lucky people to reflect upon and experience in our own way.

Most of the artist’s featured are personal favourites who I spend hours and hours listening to, wondering what, where and when helped conjure up such aural bliss. A Mojave desert, a British summer, an airport, a New Zealand fjord or a damp studio in South East London. Whatever fueled this music doesn’t matter, where we escape to when listening is the only importance.

Big thank you to Rayna for giving me the opportunity to put this mix together.

Download, or see the original post on Modyfier

01. Stellardrone – Forever
02. Altus – Sodium Glow
03. 36 – Inside
04. Markus Guentner – Express Yourself
05. Klimt – Pozegnanie
06. Kontakte – A Snowflake In Her Hand
07. Emphemetry – A Lullaby Hum
08. Thomas Fehlmann – Titan
09. Rhian Sheehan – Part 4
10. Ourson – 237
11. Koss – 1978to2008
12. Loscil – Erit
13. Negative Neutron – Trantor
14. bvdub – A Quiet Doorway Awaits
15. Geotic – We’re Gods On Miles Of Clouds
16. Biosphere – As The Sun Kissed The Horizon

ASIP - Origami Sound

It’s been nearly two months now since Herne from the brilliant Origami Sound site approached me, asking if I’d be interested in guest posting a few tracks on the site. Since then, I’ve got to know him pretty well and we share an immense amount in common for discovering new artists, spending an enormous amount of time listening to music, and cultivating our own little passions in life (i.e a website!)

I asked Herne what type of music he’d like me to post and the brief was kept open. As a reader of ASIP, I guess he had confidence in my choices, but that put a little bit of extra pressure on. I toyed with posting nothing but new stuff, or featuring ambient classics, but instead settled it by creating a mix – a method which rarely has any method at all…

For me, a mix rarely has a predefined track list but instead, I choose tracks as it goes along. What I ended up with was mixture of both old and new – fifteen posts on Origami Sound which i’m happy to see, have lent themselves to even more ears than normal over the past few months or so.

The mix (and ultimately the selection of guest posts) ended up pretty electronic, with only one ‘strictly’ ambient piece. Tracks i’ve loved for years, and some i’ve loved for just weeks. Music that hopefully provided a small insight, some new artists to dig into more, and a mix which everyone can enjoy.

You can read my words on each track over on Origami Sound, or I’ve distilled the fifteen tracks into three posts on ASIP: Wrap one, Wrap two and Wrap three (tracks were posted in no particular order).

Keep an eye on Origami Sound in the near future – i’ve had a small insight as to what Herne has up his sleeve and it sounds very nice indeed…

And as some of you know, I’ve been pretty busy on the mix front recently, so expect another one very soon…

Download.

Tracklist:
01. Gusgus – Detention
02. Chymera – Umbrella (Beatless mix)
03. Isan – Ampule
04. Freescha – Slo-Peeq
05. Sabi – Screaming Bulb
06. aus – Clocks
07. Arc of Doves – Lotus
08. D_rradio – Wish For More Wishes
09. Christian Kleine – Handsome Used
10. Dominik Eulberg – Der Zug Der Kraniche: Boten Der Veränderung
11. Ourson – 237
12. Monolake – Arte
13. FRKTL – Tidal
14. Zephyr Nova – Searching For Signals
15. TTK – Wavecoaster

isolatedmix 16 - Kettel

A producer of fine experimental, IDM and electronica, Kettel‘s sound has been instrumental in my years discovering music. Organic, with a massive appreciation of melody and ability to strike the most poignant and interesting electronic soundscapes, Kettel’s productions sit neatly alongside the likes of Aphex Twin’s finest productions, yet on a different day have the ability to stand a million miles apart in a world of their own. Gentle piano’s in Memory Steps polarise against Aphex Twin sounding tracks such as Dolend and Coddle. Reimer Eising is a producer with years of experience and there’s something for everyone amongst his immense electronic back catalogue.

Needless to say, Reimer’s influences are varied and have arisen from all walks of life. isolatedmix 16 is a very special ‘mixtape’ style journey, all lovingly glued together with added loops, samples and utmost care. Whilst the first half dabbles in genres and tempo, the second half is a deep dive into Reimer’s more IDM influenced side.

The mix contains tracks that are all special to him in one way or another. Close friends Coppe and Phoenicia feature, with his own favourite hip-hop moments from, A Tribe Called Quest, “masters” in the form of FSOL and “the master”, Morricone. Special memories invoked from, Mouse on Mars sit alongside “meditative arrangements” from Miles Davis, and of course a Kettel mix wouldn’t be complete without an appearance from Boards of Canada’s very own seagull, in Happy Cycling.

Purveyors of quality mixes get ready for something very special…

(Previous Soundcloud link was removed - new Mixcloud below)

Download.

Tracklist:
01. Miles Davis & Bill Laswell – In a silent way
02. Coppe – Zojoji
03. Boards of Canada – Happy Cycling
04. A Tribe Called Quest – Start it up
05. Talib Kweli & Madlib – Funny Money
06. Gescom – Push Button Objects (remix)
07. Future Sound of London – Yage
08. Dead Can Dance – The Carnival is Over
09. Mouse on Mars – Chagrin
10. Ennio Morricone – Il Ritorno di Ringo
11. Future Sound of London – Coastline
12. E.O.G – Shoot Out
13. Phoenecia – Somory
14. AFX – Unreleased
15. Fennesz – Badminton Girl
16. Meat Beat Manifesto – Radio Babylon (The Orb mix)
17. Autechre – Goz Quarter
18. Bibio – Saint Christopher
19. Kettel – Tomorrow Jail (Unreleased)

You can follow Kettel on Facebook for all his latest news.

isolatedmix 15 - Rhian Sheehan

An acclaimed composer and instrumentalist, Rhian Sheehan has been releasing the very finest cinematic music for over ten years now. Film scores, soundtracks, orchestral works and field recordings; Rhian is a specialist when it comes to refined, melodic ambient soundscapes and compositions. His music draws inspiration, entices escapism and reflects sheer beauty for many, and isolatedmix 15 is no different. Gentle pianos, delicate textures and touching melodies combine in this beautiful set from New Zealand’s finest musician.

“Here is a selection of some of the most beautiful music I’ve had the pleasure to listen to in recent years. I highly recommend hunting down and purchasing more of their work, you will be greatly rewarded. Whilst compiling these works I became inspired to write an introduction piece for the compilation. I hope you enjoy. – Rhian Sheehan”

Download.

1. Rhian Sheehan – Beginning (Intro)
2. Jonsi & Alex – Indian Summer (2.08)
3. Goldmund – Sumi-e (11.00)
4. Jon Hopkins – Temple (13.15)
5. Brian Eno – (Untitled) The Lovely Bones (15.20)
6. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – The Mother (16.17)
7. Amiina – Glamur (18.55)
8. Parachutes – Where Were You (24.20)
9. Steve Reich – Section vii (29.10)
10. Loscil – Endless Falls (33.00)
11. Clint Mansell – Xibalba (40.00)
12. Max Richter – On The Nature Of Daylight (45.23)
13. Cliff Martinez – Wear Your Seat belt (51.30)
14. Sigur Ros – Tiki (54.37)
15. Rhian Sheehan – Returning (61.30)

http://www.rhiansheehan.com/
Image by Tim Williams, titled ‘Sun over the Sound‘.