ASIP - Cabin In The Woods

Just finished up a lovely session with the Modern Therapy crew who hosted a massive 24+hr Halloween takeover on Twitch also featuring Mr C, Bunny from Rabbit in the Moon, Jon Charnis, Tara Brooks + more. I prepared a 2hr trip into the woods - dark, weird, trippy and storied to bring in Sunday morning, scare the beats off, and raise the… living.

It features a few upcoming ASIP releases too for good measure. Halloween may be over but everyone likes a trip to the dark side every now and then.

Download

astrangelyisolatedplace · ASIP - Cabin In The Woods

Tracklist (Buy Music Club list here + embedded below):

1. Patricia Wolf - Sauvie Island Wilderness Area (pitched)
2. Secret Pyramid - Ceremony I
3. Tomas Jirku - A Warm Place
4. (Forthcoming on ASIP)
5. Higher Intelligence Agency + Biosphere - Meltwater
6. (Excerpt) (Forthcoming on ASIP)
7. FRKTL - Sól tér sortna, sígr fold í mar (pitched)
8. Faith Coloccia - Voice II Imprint
9. ASC - Cycle 9 (Subroutine)
10. (Forthcoming on ASIP)
11. Berangere Maxim - Free Verse
12. Quiet Places - Track 7
13. Max Würden - 00.00.00.00
14. Seth Cooke - In The Air Tonight (Snared 1000 Cuts remix)
15. Aphex Twin - Matchsticks
16. Berangere Maxim - Wax Melody
17. Gadi Sassoon - Black Hole Fanfare (Forthcoming on ASIP)
18. Wanderwelle - The Becoming (+ Sample)
19. Mount Shrine - Foggy Deck
20. qebrµs - ฌฎ๒๓๔ญ°°°°
21. William Basinski - O, My Daughter, O, My Sorrow.
22. DJ Healer - Hopes and Fears
23. (House on Haunted Hill Post Credit Scene)
24. Vernal Equinox - Autumn Sunset

V/A - Touched by Silence

This isn’t the first time I’ve felt compelled to share a release from Touched, but it is the first time I’ve been truly wowed by the effort Martin Boulton has gone to in aid of Cancer Research (and great music).

You can go for the epic end of the scale, and hunt down this wooden CD boxset containing full, new albums by the likes of Future Sound of London, and isolatedmix vets Scanner, Anders Ilar, Autumn of Communion + more, or you can scale it back slightly and get them all on digital (98 tracks). Or, if funds are tight but you still want music by The Orb, James Bernard, HIA, DF Tram, (Ghost), Atom TM + more, then there’s the ‘Touched by Silence The Compilation' featuring a more modest amount of tracks, still all for a good cause. All of the above, featuring designs by The Designers Republic.

I started at the compilation and with just this release alone, you’ve got some of the finest electronic-leaning ambient and ambient electronica of recent years. James Bernard is up there opening up proceedings, before a classic vocal dub track by The Orb, and a hypnotic piece by R&S vet David Morley. I also really enjoyed the DF Tram track, featuring an Orb-esque sample that sounds like an instant classic.

Available on Bandcamp

isolatedmix 65 - Würden & Pfeiffer

We start our 2017 schedule with two of ambient music's most recent strongholds, Max Würden & Thore Pfeiffer.

After arriving on Kompakt's Pop Ambient compilation in 2015, and making appearances with tracks in the subsequent two years ('16 & '17) both artists have helped shape the new-school of Pop Ambient artists and sound emerging from this notorious platform - an ever-developing, yet distinct sound from the mind of label boss Wolfgang Voigt. Thore also helped launch the Pop Ambient album series, following in the footsteps of Leandro Fresco, with his debut, Im Blickfield - a melodic and inviting sound that's synonymous with the series.

Whilst also in 2015, Max presented his album Retour on Wolfgang Voigt's other recently launched curated series, Exponate - a label which intends to, "open up new musical spaces and to sound out the increasingly liquified confines between abstract ambient music and art music, between electronica and new music". 

After a production together on 2015's Pop Ambient edition, titled Feinherb the duo intend to continue their plans of producing together. Max and Thore have been enjoying creating mixes in the meantime, with their first dropping Savvy Records last year, and more recently a Winter special on Kompakt last December.

For isolatedmix 65, we're treated to an amalgamation of overlapping textures and finely tuned atmospheres. Expect a similar approach to Markus Guentner's isolatedmix (Ten Years of Pop Ambient), which focused heavily on the Pop Ambient sound, but with some additional unique twists and turns that span the spectrum of influences for them both, all wrapped amongst some carefully considered, extended transitions. 

Mixing ambient music can be exploratory in approach given its similar capacity and textures, and the duo take advantage with many tracks played at the same time. Questioning when one ends and another begins will be a familiar experience throughout - but that's when you know you're wrapped in something so deep you won't want to surface. 

Download.

Tracklist:

01. Intro – Road Works / Open Fire
02. Anton Kubikov – Dekka - Pop Ambient 2017 (Kompakt) 
03. Marsen Jules – Yara 4 - Yara (Oktaf) / The Hunt For Red October (O.S.T.) – Plane Crash – The Hunt For Red October (MCA Records)
04. Gas – Pop 5 – Pop (Kompakt) / Efdemin – Ohara – Decay (Dial)
05. Higher Intelligence Agency & Biosphere – Augusta Road – Birmingham Frequencies (Headphone)
06. Markus Guentner – Paragon – Theia (A Strangely Isolated Place)
07. Max Würden – Perfect Moment - Or Lost (Farfield Records) / Pauline Oliveros / Stuart Dempster / Panaiotis – Suiren – Deep Listening (New Albion)
08. Thore Pfeiffer – Good Life – Pop Ambient 2017 (Kompakt)
09. Cory Allen & Marcus Fischer – Two / Twenty-Two / Seventy- Seven – Two / Twenty Two (Bandcamp) / Shades Of Orion – Liquid Shade – Shades Of Orion (FAX +49-69/450464)
10. Maps and Diagrams – The Shape of Things To Come – Air Texture Volume I (Air Texture)
11. Max Würden – Unterwasser III – Retour (Exponate)
12. Wounds – Losing Focus – Winter Ambient Box (Not on label) / Martin Schmitz – Orgel DX 10 - 50°58'2.19''N, 7°0'6.73''E (Noorden) / Main – Cavitation – Deliquescence (Beggars Banquet)

Würden & Pfeiffer | Facebook
Max Würden | Wuerden.com | Kompakt.fm | Soundcloud | Bandcamp | Facebook
Thore Pfeiffer | Kompakt.fm | Soundcloud | Facebook