ASIP – White Light

This is one of the first mixes I've put together with a complete story in mind. It began after I watched a video which showed five men as they stood on the ground as an Atomic bomb was detonated 10,000 ft above their heads. You can watch the video here – it’s pretty powerful and thought provoking for so many reasons. For example, this ‘test’ would never happen today with real people, so I found it ridiculously intriguing to watch and listen to, but it also made me think about what would’ve happened for real, when a nuclear bomb was dropped during wartime. From the very first moment; what you see, what you would think, how the country recovers, the thoughts the victims go through, the hope it inspires and the new life it creates. Pretty deep I know, but I really enjoyed trying to pick tracks which invoked these emotions and told a story from start to finish.

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Tracklist:

01. [The Drop] “Five Men At Atomic Ground Zero”
02. [The Moment] Norge – 165 Minutes With You (Forthcoming on ASIP)
03. [The White Light] Segue – House Of Cards (Dewtone)
04. [The Realisation] Wolfmaps – Landforms (Futuresequence)
05. [The Angst] The American Dollar – Par Avion (Self-released)
06. [The Clearing] Four Tet – Peace For Earth (Text)
07. [The Realisation] Max Cooper – Gravity Well (Forthcoming on Traum)
08. [The Determination] Lusine – Make It Easy (John Tejada Remix) (Ghostly)
09. [The Hope] Loess – Sofar (Toytronic)
10. [The Return to Life] Crisopa – Gaviot (n5MD)
11. [The Complicated Memories] Onego – Ne Serdis’ (Forthcoming on Fuselab)
12. [The New Life] Martin Nonstatic – Vertraumt (Subspiele)
13. [The View From Above] Aurastore – Outside The Solar System (Energostatic)

ASIP018 Parks - Black Day, Silver Sea

 

A sunny day at the beach can be a wonderful thing but a wind and rain swept endeavour across the shifting sands rewards just as richly. Surrounded by the elements, for ‘Black Day, Silver Sea’ Igor basked in the wild, monochrome splendour of the Black Sea. 

“In the spring of 2012, I travelled to the Caucasus…the Black Sea. It was a sunny day and I was looking for a place to shoot a video with my doll.” Igor explains.“I always shoot the video in high places and when I came to the beach there was a storm. The sea sparkled like molten silver and the sky was black as coal and I thought that the stratosphere was suddenly getting low.” 

There’s a constriction to ‘Black Day, Silver Sea’ as it slow burns to impending turmoil. Black in name, and equally dark in spirit, the threat lies in the contrasting beauty of the melting tar sky bleeding into the silver of the sea. It’s a toneless outlook underpinned by clean melodies left to seep and linger; the gentle resonance of the piano line; the wash of the strings; the clean clarity of the foot-step percussion perfectly combine to malevolent effect, the perpetual rhythm of the waves ebbing into a horizon of the vast and unknown.. 

An understated apocalypse that creeps on, if the sky and the stars do fall, let their accelerated descent be as magnificent as this. 

ASIP017 Sonae - Cologne

 

Finding beauty doesn’t always come easy. It’s a search, and concept, guided by bias and perception; subjectivity and selectivity. For the optimists, it can be seen in anything. For the pessimists, it’s a long-term battle to find inspiration in anything but the superlative. That search seems to be an extensive one for Sonae when it comes to her current place in Cologne. 

“Cologne has no beauty,” Sonae states. “It’s grey and full of cement and the asphalt ugliness doesn’t even stop at Cologne's biggest park. It’s a barely green area named Grüngürtel that sometimes feels like it’s been oppressed.” 

It’s a damning assessment but underpins the melancholic atmosphere of ‘Traurigtag’ and ‘Urban Cruising’. Twin tracks that carry a grey burden, the white noise hints at a discord and frustration, characterising Sonae’s struggle with the monotony of her surroundings. Frail piano lines and fallible melody struggle in their battle in the pool of acerbic static, the harmony painstakingly trying to emerge, only to slip back into the abyss.  

It’s forced Sonae to look deeper into the city and her surroundings, cherish the intermittent oases, and appreciate how the bleakest outlooks can also inspire the smallest victories. 

“Cologne definitely has its colourful spots on its grey mapping,” she explains “In the Südstadt, early century buildings frame the streets, there’s the old trees of Friedenspark and Volksgarten's rose-garden, and last but not least, the Rheinufer allows you to leave everything behind while cruising along the riverside to the small beach of Rodenkirchen.” 

Perhaps the beauty is in the struggle. 

Kettel & Secede – When Can (flavors mix)

The legendary Sending Orbs label has been quiet for the past few years but we’re about to witness a revival. Home to Yagya’s first releases (both ‘Rigning’ and ‘Will I Dream During The Process’) as well as Markus Guentner’s ‘Doppelgaenger’, the label has enlisted its debut artists to get the needle back on track, as Secede and Kettel team up for a joint release called ‘When Can’.

The Sending Orbs website has had a makeover in preparation and Kettel and Secede have prepared this lovely ‘flavours’ mix in anticipation of the release and have this to say about it:

To launch the new Sending Orbs website (www.sendingorbs.com) and to warm up for their new collaboration full-length “When Can”, Kettel & Secede have prepared little mix of tunes that have colored the fields of their inspiration over the past months. This mix does not feature any actual songs from the album.

So no tracklist then, and as yet no preview of the collaboration either. But if the flavours of this mix are anything to go by, we’re in for a truly exceptional experimental release. This is one beautiful journey packed full of the unknown, samples and touches of inspiration from both artists.

Subscribe to the Sending Orbs mailing list to keep up to date on the label and releases. And if you enjoyed this mix, you may also want to give Kettel’s isolatedmix a listen!

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(No tracklist as yet)

ASIP016 Mig Dfoe - Playa La Llorona

 

When the surroundings are right, inspiration usually comes easily. And if your surroundings take in the green vibrancy of the jungle, rolling energy of the Pacific and power of the sun, you’re in a good place. Inspired by the life and beauty of the Mexican beaches, Mig Dfoe definitely sees it that way. 

“Playa La Llorona is a place close to El Faro de Bucerias, in Michoacan Mexico,” he explains, “it is my favourite place in the world.” 

Stimulated by the variety of sounds, his “Playa La Llorona“ EP draws on both the physical and emotional; the perpetuating movement of the sea but also the sense of contentment it instils; the symbol of a hammock on the beach and the simple pleasure it provides. 

“It’s all related to the sea,” Mig continues, “’Playa La Llorana begins with jungle sounds because the intention of the song is that the jungle is part of the orchestral sounds of the sea. The waves are the music, and because the place is absolutely desolate, the only music made is by the sea, the birds, and the insects. Palapa, is a place where you can rest in an Amaca, a kind of bed where the people rest and sleep on the beach, usually at a kind of bar, or restaurant. It’s very common in Mexico. Mares, means seas, and it’s a tribute to all the seas in the world. There’s energy but also sadness; Mares is a song for the oceans.” 

Alive with tribal rhythms and ambient washes, ‘Playa La Llorona’ inhabits a place where the dense jungle breaks onto the panorama of the ocean, the moment of stumbling out of the foliage and across the sand. Yet it doesn’t sound like a triumphant escape from the clutches of the jungle, and nor should it, as Mig explains. 

“La llorona is a name for a phantom in Mexico,” he begins. “It’s a typical Mexican tale and it means the woman who cries. At Playa La LLorona, the sand is full of silica (quartz) so that every step you do, it makes a sound like a cry. That’s why it’s called Playa la Llorona.” 

The sound of satisfied lazing, ‘Palapa’s clean drumbeat claps with every break of the waves, the gentle keys and strings easing the sun to sleep whereas the downbeat beauty and pensive piano lines of ‘Volver’ tell a tale of a slight return. 

“It’s been four years since I’ve been back to Mexico,” Mig reminisces, “but when I go back, these are the feelings I have returning to these beautiful places.”