Matti Bye
Between Darkness and White Snow

EU Stock: ✅UK Stock: ✅What if music had no beginning, no end? Can music exist "for itself" or "of itself," without structure constraining it, defining it? Can music be non-linear, non-narrative, simply experiential, existential? The second full-length album on Mysteries of the Deep, Musica Enterrada from Portland's William Selman, neither answers these questions nor supposes them. But in listening, one can't help but wonder: What if I disappeared into this record forever?In another time and place, William Selman was known as Warmdesk, an alias through which he issued a series of sharply precise minimal techno records. In recent past, Selman shifted gears, shedding the dynamics of tension and release that characterized his previous alias' output. Under his own name, Selman began releasing process-oriented, freeform experimental music on cassette-focused outlets like Digitalis and Hausu Mountain. Now comes Musica Enterrada, a diaphanous, weightless musical vision not unlike the theoretical square root of GRM and Popol Vuh's early electronic forays.Split into six tracks across two sides of vinyl, Musica Enterrada bubbles, churns, drifts, and dozes. Dulcet tones pile up gently like waves on shore. Patterns repeat and reconfigure, as if heard from different angles. Rhythms appear, shift the frame, then disappear, into the ether whence they came. Play Musica Enterrada on repeat. And if you disappear into it, fret not — you have drifted into solace.

Shipping from EU: ✅Shipping from UK: ✅The second instalment in the Titrate series marks the debut of Pagan Red. This 180g vinyl album, housed in 350gsm reverse board print packaging, contains three experimental compositions featuring subtly enveloping drone, weightless percussion and immersive tonal resonance. Field recordings interweave with the synthetic, sparse rhythms emerge and dissolve, absorbing textures layer and evaporate. Exploring the symbiosis between the natural and the nonmaterial, Materia guides listeners on a journey across the threshold.

Shipping from EU: ✅Shipping from UK: ✅With ‘Terrain,’ Joachim Spieth presents the fourth long player on his Affin imprint.The follow-up album to ‘Ousia’ (2021), ‘Terrain,’ reflects on the human relationship with nature. The album title is a reference to a musical language that layers Spieth’s music production practices and intimacy with nature.‘Terrain’ was forged in deep solitude.“ It’s an interplay of euphoric flashes and introspection” – says Spieth. The eight compositions take the listener into a captivating cascade of sonic textures resembling internal states fluctuations and emotional release. The tension between the organic warmth and static curves broads tones into liquified roars and empty spaces.Unlike Spieth’s previous albums, ‘Terrain’ holds more intimate gestures and emotional sensibility. Soothing frequencies here are intended to create a state of awareness in the listener. It is a work of conceptual and emotional beauty, evoking a form of spatial imagery that is as grounding as elevating.

For nearly 40 years, English producer Mark Van Hoen has been making challenging music that eludes easy categorization under his own name, as Locust, and in the groups Autocreation, Scala, and Drøne. While his output has skirted around the fringes of IDM, techno, trip-hop, ambient, drone, and electropop, it has mutated these genres' elements in distinctive ways, revealing a mind always questing for unprecedented sounds.This is Mark Van Hoen’s ninth album as Locust, and an instant classic.Drifting, hanging, holding. Hoping, seeking, searching. And then finding.Mark Van Hoen's ninth album as Locust is a cosmic whisper, a tender touch, where candid songwriting commingles with the afterimage of trip-hop and jungle. Across eight tracks, spectral melodies dance between languid breakbeats, and a formless murmur drifts through the ether, seeking a common thread.Layered in strata, "The First Cause" reveals itself anew with each listen. Delicate tones share space with bass weight. Drums crunch, and rhythms cascade. Voices loop and intone, bodiless. What at first seems melancholy, you may later find reoriented—toward promise.We seek solace in each other, and we seek solace in sound. Kinship isn't easy to come by. When a record offers its kind embrace to us as this one does, without reservation, we should take heed.Written, performed and produced by Mark Van Hoen© Touch Music/Fairwood Music UK Ltd℗ 2023 Mark Van Hoen under exclusive license to Mysteries of the Deepmarkvanhoen.comMastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NYPhotography by Grant AaronDesign by Gabriel BenzurWords by Chris Zaldua

EU Stock: ✅UK Stock: ✅The album you are holding in your hands showcases the cast of musicians in the first edition of the Ensō Festival. Records that document or accompany actual events are not quite able to capture all of the uniquely staged experience of music happening ‘here and now’; they typically can’t substitute the extended immersion and effervescence that are among the goals of any festival worth its name. However, records can give us a glimpse into the meanings of such events, however imperfect. They can convey some of the sensations, emotions and ideas encoded in the music, however incomplete. What counts is how affectively touching they are, not how effectively truthful they appear.

Shipping from EU: ❌Shipping from UK: ✅A showcase of individual tracks from A Strangely Isolated Place’s 2021 labelreleases and a special continuous DJ mix by todos.~~For last year's label compilation, I mentioned how I hoped to invite a guest DJto compile the next edition, and here we are. Of course, it just had to be ourlong-term musical companion, a good friend of mine, and well-respected DJ,todos.I was first introduced to todos through his well-respected Kilchurn Mix series.I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, they remain some of my favoritemixes of all time (listen to them all on the ASIP site when you get a chance).His ability to craft a narrative, manipulate samples and respect the grey areabetween ambient and electronic music, is second-to-none.Since blogging about his mixes all the way back in 2008, and inviting him tocompile a special isolatedmix a few years later, Doug (todos) and I havestayed in touch and connected further after learning we grew up with verysimilar musical trajectories. Doug also coincidentally, ended up living wheremy family are today (and where I spent my life growing up) in a surprisingtwist of fate. And in 2021, after years of speaking online, we finally got tomeet, playrecords (in real life!), and go for a long overdue beer.I always earmarked Doug to be a part of ASIP somehow, so it is my absolutepleasure to hand over the DJ reins for the 2021 compilation edition. Doughad free choice over which tracks to choose, as long as he included one trackfrom each release of the year. The result is a very special mix, taking usthrough the ASIP 2021 release catalog in his unique, signature, todos style.“2021 has been another tough year but the music that has come out of it hasbeen wonderful. With so many excellent releases on the ASIP label, it wasexciting yet challenging to be asked to showcase a few on this mix. Massivethanks go out to Ryan for the opportunity and trust in letting me do this, theartists for their incredible talent and hard work, and lastly all the supportersof this music we love, I hope you enjoy.”- todosI’m excited for 2022, despite what will undoubtedly be a challenging year forall small labels, navigating the ever-increasing vinyl challenges. As you arenow evidently the beholder of the classic CD format and reading this, youmay be excited to learn that a few more shiny discs are coming very soon...ASIP