isolatedmix 115 - HVL

I’m not sure how I first came across Gigi Kaiji, aka HVL’s music. But the Georgian artist has done an amazing job at releasing nothing but quality for the past few years now, establishing himself as a true hybrid of techno in all its various guises. Not only that, but the set Gigi played for the Astral Industries takeover on 9128.live was one of the most immersive moments of the event.

Whether it’s the meandering, grainy textures in Aura Fossil’s album opener Newenslo, or the addictive, bubbling didgeridoo in Sallow Myth, it’s no surprise to see Gigi getting plays and support from the likes of Aphex Twin, along with a bunch of superlative comments across his Bandcamp page, and inclusions in many of 2021’s ambient sets I’ve listened to. (Just this week, Trainspotters would’ve spotted HVL in Traumprinz’s latest mix dump).

In the same way perhaps that emerging producers such as Skee Mask are constantly adding new twists and fresh approaches to their music, through his own self-releases, HVL is quickly gathering a similar cult following that doesn’t really fit amongst the traditional techno crowd. As one person puts it on one of his Bandcamp albums, “…one of the world's most exciting, inventive electronic musicians”, or as a glowing RA review recently noted., “this is music that works well in large doses: dreamy and uplifting, all soaring rhythms and twilit atmospheres. It's also impressively dynamic”.

Given the many ambient and dreamy undertones to be found in HVL’s music, I was keen to find out a bit more about Gigi and invite him over our way for an isolatedmix.

Hi Gigi, can you tell us about your musical background?

I have studied classical music on piano and guitar since I was 6. Composed at a young age too, but discovered electronic music only in my late teens.

Your music is extremely varied, but how would you describe your own output?

I couldn't really. I know it's electronic because of the instruments I use to record it. I like to think of it as music that you can enjoy at home in your favorite chair, or on a night drive. Whenever you're comfortable to dive into it.

HVL albums have been released on your own label to much success on Bandcamp, what was the reason for not approaching a label with your great music? Do you think we will see vinyl editions of your self-released records at any point? 

I do work with labels usually, this time the reason was time saving and the fact that you can profit from it immediately. Also I had this batch of tunes that I wanted to put out exactly the way I wanted. With labels I'd need to make some adjustments. It's useful financially, especially because there are no live gigs happening in Georgia right now. 12" sampler versions of the two albums I released in 2020 will be out on Appian Sounds soon.

What role does ambient music play in your life and music production?

That's all I listen to in recent years. Most of the music I play at home is either drone or ambient. I haven't really done that many ambient tracks but I use elements of it quite often.

Some people might have discovered you from Aphex Twin playing your music in his DJ sets - did this come as a surprise to you?

It was a big surprise when I first found out on reddit by accident, but then I learned that he's quite a digger of obscure stuff and it made more sense to me.

Also, it was very humbling as I have enjoyed his music for more than a decade now, so It felt great!

You have a great track record on Bandcamp so far, so what can we expect from you going forward? 

I like to release almost everything I record, so there will be more albums on my Bandcamp and friends' labels too. 

And lastly, can you tell us a bit about the mix you have prepared?

This is a collection of tracks that I would use to fall asleep. Enjoy!

~

Listen on Soundcloud, Mixcloud, or the ASIP Podcast.

astrangelyisolatedplace · isolatedmix 115 - HVL

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Tracklist:

01. Aleksi Perälä - UK74R1619200
02. Tamo Nasidze - In Memoriam
03. Area - Tessellated Rhubarb
04. The Abyss Within Us - Part I
05. Ryo Murakami - Deist
06. Bowery Electric - Under The Sun
07. LF58 - Metamorfosi
08. Gustavo Santaolalla - Breathless
09. Unearth Noise - Message From The Dead
10. Seal Bient - Runout 06.08
11. ZOV - Yedoma
12. Bipolardepth - Runout 01.06
13. Shine Grooves - Salubrious Waters
14. Seal Bient - Runout 06.03
15. Okinawa Lifestyle - Underwater
16. Ludvig Forssell - Bridges
17. Levan Shanidze - L1 (chushi edit)
18. Vladislav Dobrovolski - type 2
19. Kaiji - teapot_lim_hi
20. Unearth Noise - Soul Surgery
21. Masterknot - 14.03.2018-3
22. Nuances - We're Becoming Each Other
23. HVL - Temppa
24. Donato Dozzy & Tin Man - Test 3
25. Nuances - Death of November

~

HVL | Bandcamp | Discogs | Soundcloud

ASIP - Reflection on 2020

As with all past ‘Reflection’ year-end mixes, I start with a collection of albums I have enjoyed over the year. Through the process of compiling a mix that flows well, songs are whittled down and selected from this collection. This means many of my favorite tracks and albums are often omitted in the process, due to the need for them to fit in a mix that comes together as organically as possible. As I say every year, this isn’t a definitive ‘best-of’ list, but a selection of some of my favorite music from the year in one easily listenable format. It’s the most enjoyable way for me to boil down music I’ve loved from the year using these self-imposed restrictions, for you to then enjoy and discover more. I encourage you to use the mix to jump off and explore each artist, album and label (and check the Buy Music Club list).

~

This year was different. Well, of course, in an obvious mask-over-the-face-lock-down kinda way, but all that aside, the amount of music made and consumed by all accounts was like no other year. No doubt, because everyone is locked-up inside, encouraged by platforms like Bandcamp and the now regular ‘Bandcamp Fridays’. As a result, this years Reflection mix started as a daunting effort and took me to developing a slightly new process to get it over the line.

Listening behaviors were forcibly changed for all of us. In addition to the crazy Bandcamp Friday release rampages, Live streams became the weekend plans and we had a brilliant year over on 9128.live hosting five weekend takeovers, which, by all accounts provided some amazing respite as we all hunkered down inside. We never would’ve guessed in August 2019 when we launched 9128.live, that online streaming events would be such a focus for the entire year ahead. As a result of the takeovers; the DJs; live acts; labels, and a bunch of listeners ID’ing music in the chat, music discovery accelerated even further (for me atleast) during these takeovers. An example track ID list from the last takeover can be found here.

This seems to be the first year I haven’t been able to keep up syncing purchases on my hard-drive (which is primed for mix prep due to my playlist organization OCD). I still listened to it all, but I listened even more through the Bandcamp app, so haven’t felt the need to obsessively download it all throughout the year. That was a problem if I was going to start compiling the mix in my usual way with digital files…

As a result, I decided to create even more self-imposed-restrictions (always needed given the enormity of choice) and began by mixing some vinyl from the past year.

I got about an hours worth of a good mix which I was happy with enough to exist online for eternity - just cherry-picking records from my 2020 collection, recording until I had a mix that sounded a bit shoddy. At that point, I was a little relieved, as a direction and vibe had already been set and would pave the way for the rest of the mix to be built. (It also gave me the opportunity to swap out the first track post recording, which began with some bad static for some reason). So the mix ended up being about an hours worth of vinyl, followed by digital. I know some people really don’t give a crap how a mix was made, but this helped with my overall curation process and ensured it actually got done!

Upon reflection, the mix manages to hit on my 2020 music spectrum and gives a good idea of what I’ve had on rotation. Lots of deep textured ambient (LOG, Slow Reels, KMRU, Patricia Wolf, Chronovalve etc - this part could go on forever), abstract beat driven atmospheres (Evan Caminiti, Daniel Avery, Space Afrika, Tomas Jirku etc) and the more joyous, playful, euphoric side of electronic music (Ian Boddy, Pub, DJ Lostboi, Rone etc). My rave roots rarely disappear it seems and muscle memory still finds a way through via Sophia Loizou and later on in full force with Wardown. Maybe in a desperate desire to return to events listening to DJs and Live acts, I wanted to end the mix on a high-note, and hopefully lift-up the terrible year it’s been for everyone.

This year’s mix; vinyl or not, every track is available on Bandcamp. Score any of them below using the Buy Music Club list and for even more music I’ve been enjoying this this year, see my Bandcamp collection.

Thank you for reading, listening, supporting in 2020, before and beyond. I hope you can escape for a few hours with this mix, as it ending up being a joy to piece together and reflect on the great music from the year, not only included in the mix, but also the many other albums I simply could not fit in but had fun revisiting during the process.

Listen on Soundcloud, Mixcloud, or the ASIP Podcast.

Download

astrangelyisolatedplace · ASIP - Reflection on 2020

Tracklist:

000.00. Yumiko Moriaka - 銀の船 (Métron Records)
004.41. LOG - Log 9 (Experiences Ltd)
008.19. Úlfur (Ft. Cellist Gyda Valtýsdóttir) - Feathered (Touch The Plants)
011.13. Yumi Iwaki - Initial Tidings (Mystery Circles)
015.00. Slow Reels - Miya (Morr Music)
016.45. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Arduous Clarity (Dais)
020.13. Ian Boddy - Omicron (Behind The Sky)
025.00. Jonathan Fitoussi - Oceans (Transversales Disques)
028.00. Evan Caminiti - Plume (Dust Editions)
031.20. LF58 - Iniziazione (Astral Industries)
034.45. Night Sea - This Will Take Time (Silent Season)
039.25. Neel - Alchemy (Ido)
043.20. Sophia Loizou - Vestal Waters (Houndstooth)
047.06. Tomas Jirku - Entropy 8 (Silent Season)
051.05. Daniel Avery - Into The Arms of Stillness (Phantasy Sound)
056.32. Abfahrt Hinwil - Phase4 (Lapsus Records)
059.00. Pub - Fragile Root (Ampoule)
1.03.10. Space Africa - Self (Self)
1.04.45. DJ Lostboi - Ordinary People (Queeste)
1.07.09. Lucy Gooch - We Carry (Looking Glass)
1.10.15. Robert Lippock - With Tomorrow (7K!)
1.12.30. HVL - newenslo (Self)
1.20.00 KMRU - ulmma (Seil)
1.23.10. Patricia Wolf - All Things Change (Beacon Sound)
1.25.17. Perila & Ulla - Every something is an echo of nothing (Silence)
1.27.53. Awakened Souls & Pepo Galán - Center of the Sea (Hush Hush)
1.30.25 Chronovalve - Breathing Space (Home Normal)
1.34.39. Adam Wiltzie - How to Disappear inside a thirty-piece Orchestra (7K!)
1.37.37. Epic 45 - Sidings (Wayside & Woodland)
1.39.24. Ocoeur - Ascent (n5MD)
1.43.47. nthng - With You (Lobster Theremin)
1.50.10. Wardown - Culverhouse (Blu Mar Ten)
1.53.17. Rone - Human (InFiné)
1.58.55. Malibu - Lost At Sea (Kelly Moran remix) (Uno NYC)
2.02.34. Il Quadro di Troisi - Real (Raster)
RIP Harold Budd, Pauline Anna Strom & José Padilla.

Astral Industries 9128.live Takeover April 4th/5th/6th

*Now updated with Mixes that were posted online after the event*

Our good friends at Astral Industries were set to throw a weekend of music at Cafe OTO in London recently, but had to cancel due to the Coronavirus situation. Instead, we’ve teamed up to present a similar weekend over on our radio station, 9128.live.

During the event, we’ll be asking for a small donation of anything you can spare, to be split between Astral Industries (to help recoup the thousands lost on the cancellation), the artists involved and the South London Refugee Association, who provide expert advice, specialist services and effective support (made even harder given the current situation) to refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants in South London.

See 9128.live for the full schedule and to tune in.

Lineup + details:

Exclusive material:

The Chi Factory premiere new material and future releases on Astral Industries.

Deepchord presents 2hrs of previously unheard ambient works, as well as a 1hr live mix of Immersions, including the previously unheard Immersions III & IV.
A first full play of LF58’s forthcoming album on Astral Industries - Alterazione - out on Monday.

Craig Tattersall, aka The Humble Bee, premieres an hour of new music.

Get a sneak preview of Waveform Transmission’s next LP, V 3.0-3.9.

Wolfgang Voigt presents an hour of music from his unreleased ‘Konstrakt’ project.

Live sets:

Enjoy previously unheard exclusive live mixes from Ligovskoï and Sa Pa.

Listen to a 90 minute live mix from Menion comprising of solely his own productions.

A first airing of Multicast Dynamics’ live set at FOMO Club, Białystok last month.

Sonmi451 digs into past, present and future tracks in a one hour exclusive live mix.

An hour of Tape Loop Orchestra’s own productions, including fresh, unheard material.

Wanderwelle share a specially made one-hour live set, including a track from their forthcoming album.

DJ recordings:

Check out 90 min cuts from both Ario and Guillam’s DJ sets at the Astral Industries takeover of Haimney Gallery in Barcelona back in November 2018.

A first listen back to Chris SSG’s mix from Kizen Records x Astral Industries in Hong Kong in December 2018. 

Claudio PRC dives deep for 2hrs at Ambient Bar x Vurt, Seoul back in September 2019.

An exclusive first play of LF58’s marathon live set at Brancaleone, Rome.

DJ mixes:

Anthony Linell (including an exclusive unreleased track of his own), ASIP (including eight forthcoming tracks on A Strangely Isolated Place), Azim Fathi, Djilogue, Eight Fold Way, F-on, George Sova, Grant Aaron, hems, HVL, islas, Koen Hoets,  Koshin, Lynne, o.utlier, Refracted, Romi, SUNA & Unjin.

Mixes posted after the event: