Billow Observatory - II: Plains​/​Patterns

I have to admit, I didn't see a follow-up Billow Observatory album coming. Jonas Munk and Jason Kolb's initial self-titled masterpiece was just that - a truly brilliant album - they somehow managed to encapsulate everything that's good about textured, emotional ambient music without a single note wasted. There was no doubting the purpose and vision they formed and executed upon flawlessly. I didn't need anything else. That was until, I heard their follow-up.

If you listen back to the Billow Observatory's ST album, it focuses on the gentle caress of guitars, lulled into oblivion - a colorful dream inducing pallet of superlatives, commonly associated and overused when describing ambient music (I for one am guilty). I'm not sure if Jonas and Jason felt a sense of achievement with the original album, but with this perceived perfection, comes the psychological inability to replicate it. 

II: Plains/Patterns, is a outstanding evolution on their original dreamy, distant sound. 

As described in the album's notes, "II: Plains/Patterns departs from the first LP’s amorphous ambient haze with a more rigid, albeit subtle, underpinning of rhythm and pulse". It's as natural a progression as evolution itself - the best parts remain, and the core essence of the album has morphed into an even richer, textured experience.

From the very first track, aptly named Pulsus, it's evident Billow Observatory have evolved. A stuttering of distorted guitars in Kercheval bring the album back into more familiar Billow Observatory territory, but the echoes of synthesizers in Nulstil remind us you're no longer *just* listening to the deep textures and dream-like murmurs found on their previous album - there's more energy, more light. Glimmers of their past album still however, remain. Guitars take to the foreground on Plains - perhaps the most stunning track from the album - but this quickly shifts back into a glorious ambient phase, reminiscent of early Biosphere pieces. 

The simplicity of Montclair harkens back to some of the earliest addictive textured melodies from Aphex Twin's Rhubarb, or many of Brian Eno's infamous pieces. The shifting beats and glazed static amongst Vex then tease out some additional electronic elements, before album closer Plum perfects the delicateness that I'm now realizing is the Billow Observatory magic. No-matter what elements have been added, they always manage to create this soft, hazy landscape. 

I didn't think there was any way to better their original album other than copy the exact same recipe. But Plains/Patterns has taken their ambient bedding, and added more color, and richness through these additional elements. The title is likely suggestive of the two layers that now form the music here. The soft, textured and dreamy plains, and the new pulses and patterns, add a new depth to Jason and Jonas' music that will go down as one of my favorite albums from either of them yet. 

Available on Bandcamp.

Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk - Passage (video premiere)

A duo of versatility and uncompromising musical output, Ulrich Schnauss and Jonas Munk are no strangers to our ears. In the past fifteen years, the pair have gifted us with some of our most admired albums and collaborations, and neither seem to be letting up anytime soon.

Ulrich, whilst in the midst of releasing his latest opus, No Further Ahead Than Today, is also now a part of the legendary electronic outfit, Tangerine Dream. And whilst Jonas hasn't been as relentless with his output in the midst of his family time, he has still found the time to re-ignite the spark that saw their revered skills combine on 2010's self-titled production. It was an output that came together almost naturally, with both artists possessing that ethereal, melodic take on shoegaze inspired electronic music; one, a master of the synthesizer and the other, the guitar.

When asked what pulled them back into the studio, Jonas makes it clear they were destined to continue what they started."We've been working together for quite a long time now and I can't remember ever getting stuck with a piece or feeling uninspired during a session. There has always been a really good work flow, with things rolling naturally. So when we both had some available time in early 2014 we figured it might be a lot of fun to start something new". Ulrich continues, "I think we always had some kind of silent agreement that we'd eventually continue - sometimes it's really just a question of fitting it into the schedule somehow."

The new album, Passage came to life through a variety of sketches, originally ideated by Jonas in Odense, (listen to Jonas' isolatedmix dedicated to the sounds of his hometown), bringing them over to Ulrich's London studio, with the pair then obsessing until completion. This revisited dynamic seemed to be a welcome change for Jonas, who enjoyed Ulrich applying his magic to his original sketches amongst the wonderful cave of equipment and synthesizers adorning the studio; "Once there's a fundamental idea going Ulrich will be adding most of the synths and be in charge of effects processing and so on, and I'll add guitar parts and perhaps come up with suggestions sound or structure-wise", Jonas says. going on to elaborate how much he enjoyed those days in London with Ulrich: "I always find it very inspiring doing these daily 14 hour sessions, totally immersed, with nothing else on my mind. It's quite different from my work flow at home – I've got a family now, so I usually head to my studio after dropping off my kid in nursery, work for 6 hours, before rushing back to get on with daily life. In London it's all music, except for the occasional coffee or Indian food break".

With Jonas' signature guitar work and Ulrich's synchronization, chord manipulation and warming analog sounds, it's easy to point to a variety of influences on the sound emitted when their powers combine.  This mutual respect for each others strengths made it easy to point towards specific ideas, with Jonas asking Ulrich, "could you try a really creamy early 1990s synth-pad in the intro" or "could we make this more new-agey in a vintage kinda way" or "This needs more Simple Minds". The response from Ulrich heard bouncing across his north east London studio: "Jonas: bring some Fleetwood Mac to this part, goddamnit!"

If you recall their earlier album, these inspirations would definitely ring true as a general theme throughout. With Passage however, it's a little harder to tell. The album is much more varied in approach, a purposeful result, as Ulrich mentions: "the 'method' actually, is to avoid developing one, and to capture the joy of recording without being tied to the framework of a certain concept instead - we keep surprising ourselves by what we end up writing. from my perspective we've managed to create a varied album that's not stuck in a particular genre - a piece that's inspired by 80s Californian New-age maybe followed by a slowed down tech-house groove, coupled with folky guitars". 

Album opener Amaris (see the exclusive video by London based photographer and film maker Nat Urazmetova below) forms the bridge between the last album and Passage - featuring a recognizable Schnauss structure punctuated with Jonas' guitars. However the album quickly introduces other signature moments and structures. The more euphoric reverb of Intervention : Sol; the Klaus Schulze or Tangerine Dream influences on Intervention : Stjerner; the sparse drum-beats reminiscent of Joy Division (obviously not as gloomy) form the back-bone of MST,  and the classic chord-step progressions we've come to enjoy from Ulrich transcend moments within Spellbreaker.  

It's not all accidental euphoria though, as Ulrich describes,"the rather narcotic, somnambulist vibe of the song 'Anywhere But Here' is at least, to a degree, the result of my excessive aspirin consumption during the recordings. Now it's actually one of my favourites".

As Jonas goes on to describe the main differences between this album and the last, it's clear both he and Ulrich had fun building on an already perfected relationship, likely bringing in new ideas and energy from recent projects to form another unmissable piece of work. "Even though we deliberately stayed away from any overall concept, to my ears this album ended up with more of a laid-back vibe in general – compared to the more euphoric vibe of the self-titled album. Which is something I didn't really think about until very recently. It's like there's a mild breeze blowing through all of these tracks". 

Simplified and unrestricted intentions undoubtedly bring out the best in these two. 

Passage will be available through Jonas Munk's newly created Azure Vista Records, with pre-orders available on Bandcamp now.

isolatedmix 49 - Manual

This will be the third time Jonas Munk has graced the isolatedmix series. The first, depicting the many great influences to hail from his native Denmark (isolatedmix 21 – Dreamy Sounds from Odense). The second, alongside Jason Kolb as Billow Observatory (isolatedmix 39 – Summer Memories) and now, as Manual – the very first pseudonym that led me to discover this talented and multi-faceted producer.

October just gone, Jonas released Memory and Matter, a selection of rarities and unreleased tracks that spanned his fifteen-plus-year catalogue as Manual.  It was a culmination of his perfected sound and a compilation of the many shoegaze/post-rock-esque and ambient tracks he has graced us with over the years. If you need to understand how Jonas and Manual came to be, how he pushed his sound, and how far it has come over the years, then this is it.

For many of us however, we can’t settle on the back catalogue alone to truly understand the influences behind some of our favourite Manual tracks like, Summer of Freedom, Tourmaline, Miraparque, and Blue Skied an’ clear. So we invited Jonas back one more time to illustrate the inspirations behind Manual. Jonas has kindly provided an introduction and detailed track-notes to this very special isolatedmix.

Download

Tracklist:

1. Two Lone Swordsmen: ”Hope We Never Surface”
2. Autechre: ”Pir”
3. Pluramon: ”Noise Academy”
4. Morgan Caney & Kamal Joory: ”Blanket”
5. Freeshca: ”Abominable Love”
6. Ulrich Schnauss: ”Einfeld”
7. Franco Falsini: ”Cold Nose pt. 3”
8. Tortoise: ”The Suspension Bridge at Iguazu Falls”
9. Dub Tractor: ”Hum (Part 4)”
10. Sensations Fix: ”Music is Painting in the Air”
11. Durutti Column: ”Bordeaux Sequence”
12. Dif Juz: ”No Motion”
13. July Skies: ”Swallows and Swifts”
14. The Dead Texan: ”Girth Rides a (Horse)
15. Mark Isham: ”Sympathy and Acknowledgement”
16. Simple Minds: ”A Brass Band in African Chimes”
17. Roedelius: ”Veilchenwurzeln”
18. Auburn Lull: ”Shallow in Youth”
19. Ashra: ”Ocean of Tenderness”
20. Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno: ”Always Returning”

Introduction and track notes by Jonas Munk (Manual)

A couple of these tracks are recent discoveries but the vast majority of them are from records that have had a very distinct and durable influence on the Manual albums. These are some of the essential tracks.

People who have followed my work extensively will surely be able to recognize obvious traits of these sounds in my work. Which is cool. I’ve never felt it was important to maintain any sense of mystery about where ideas come from, or nurture any romantic conception of genius, for that matter – as if inspiration could appear out of nowhere. Besides, the music I’ve produced as Manual for the last 15 years has never sought to constantly reinvent itself, nor has it been my ambition to produce something strikingly original or progressive. Rather, my hope has always been that if I kept my vision long and intensely enough – if I continously starred at the same idea, only changing the angle from time to time, something personal and long-lasting would crystalize. The degree of success, at least in any conventional way, has always been secondary, maintaining the vision primary. In my view originality, at least in the traditional sense, is overrated. The focus on originality as the prime criterion for artistic quality and relevance is a cultural symptom of limited attention span, and a lack of depth. I have always had a quite limited scope for the Manual sound, always returning to a small but well defined set of ideas and sources of inspiration. And everything on this mix is something I’ve kept returning to since discovering the tracks during the last 15 years.

1. Two Lone Swordsmen: Hope We Never Surface
I got deeply into electronic music in early 1999, the result of a musical chain reaction after seeing Tortoise live at Roskilde Festival the previous summer. Looking back it wasn’t the worst time to discover Warp Records who had recently put out BOC’s Music Has the Right the Children, Autechre’s LP5 and Two Lone Swordsmen’s Stay Down, where this track is from.

2. Autechre: Pir
This track nicely captures everything they did so well back then. I was deeply into Autechre for several years and still find their 1995-2000 output hard to beat.

3. Pluramon feat. Julee Cruise: Noise Academy
It doesn’t seem that long ago that it felt like there existed vast possibilities fusing shoegaze with electronic beats and all kinds of digital processing, but for me this album represents some kind of zenith of that fusion. And yes, it’s Julee Cruise of Twin Peaks fame. Lovely track.

4. Morgan Caney & Kamal Joory: Blanket
Thomas Morr from Morr Music gave me this 7” single on one of my first trips to Berlin. Back then discovering music was such a different activity. This track made a huge impression on me and perfectly captured the sound I was aiming for back then, but didn’t fully have the expertise to execute as well yet. Just beautiful.

5. Freescha: Abominable Love
Freescha is another band I discovered early on and have kept coming back to. They create lo-fi synth-scapes that will appeal to any Boards of Canada fan but they have their own distinctively Californian vibe going. This track is from the Slower Than Church Music mini LP – a good place to start for the unacquainted.

6. Ulrich Schnauss: Einfeld
I first heard of Ulrich Schnauss visiting CCO/Baked Goods (now Boomkat) in Manchester in July 2001. We were hanging out in the office on the fourth floor, all windows open due to the intense heat (and due to everybody smoking Marlboro Lights), and Shlom (CCO co-owner) threw on a test pressing of forthcoming LP with the word Schnauss scribbled on it. Halfway through the A-side I knew this was something truly special. I’ve often wondered why the compositional and harmonic elements in electronic music – even the rather good stuff – so often verges on the banal. Ulrich is a rare exception: at the heart of his music lies an insistence on creating interesting chord progressions and compositional structures. His music, as well as his dedication, continues to be an inspiration.

7. Franco Falsini: Cold Nose pt. 3
This is quite a recent discovery. Franco Falsini made a handful of experimental space-rock albums in the seventies, under his own name as well as with Sensations Fix, that would probably have been called ”krautrock” had he originated from Germany instead of Italy. In a weird way this short piece connects perfectly with a lot of the other stuff included in this mix.

8. Tortoise: The Suspension Bridge at Iguazu Falls
TNT must be one of the records I’ve listened to the most times ever. You can hear Tortoise in everything I’ve ever done, but the melodic aspect is probably what’s been cannibalised into the Manual albums. I also love the way they blend very different things in the mix – in this case marimbas, percussion, analog synths, dub effects and a surf-guitar inspired Fender Jazzmaster melody line. The part when the second guitar comes in halfway through the song has to be one of my all-time favourite moments. It kills me every time.

9. Dub Tractor: Hum (Part 4)
Beautiful, moody piece from one of Denmark’s finest.

10. Sensations Fix: Music is Painting in the Air
Another Falsini piece, this one from the first Sensations Fix album Fragments of Light, released in 1974. Music like this will never get old.

11. Durutti Column: Bordeaux Sequence
I simply had to include Durutti Column in this mix. I’ve always imagined the Manual albums to exist as part of an imaginary tradition, or as part of a family tree of sound – a kind of alternative historic line drawn back through the last four decades of music, bypassing most of the stuff that is normally deemed important, whatever that means. If there’s one artist I feel the Manual albums are genealogically connected to it’s Vini Reilly.

12. Dif Juz: No Motion
Much the same can be said about Dif Juz – a band that has remained in obscurity even though they have out some of the finest releases on 4AD in the label’s history and being far ahead of their time (this is from the mid-1980s!). Exceptional guitar-playing.

13. July Skies: Swallows and Swifts
July Skies, a.k.a. Anthony Harding, has built an entire style on records such as Slowdive’s Pygmalion and Durutti Column’s Vini Reilly. The beautiful calm, inwardness and melancholy on albums such as Dreaming if Spires and Where the Days Go is something very unique.

14. The Dead Texan: Girth Rides a (Horse)
As a whole this album probably isn’t among Adam Wiltzie’s (Stars of the Lid and others) finest, but this track does weird things to me each time.

15. Mark Isham: Sympathy and Acknowledgement
Mark Isham is probably best know as a trumpeter and film composer. I got into him via his work on classic David Sylvian records. He has made a couple of very nice electronic works as well, and this track comes from his 1983 album Vapor Drawings, released on Windham Hill, which is an extremely undervalued piece of electronic minimalism from that era.

16. Simple Minds: A Brass Band in African Chimes
When I was a kid Simple Minds and U2 were my favourite bands in the world. And around the time I started working on Azure Vista I got heavily into that big 1980s sound again. During my rediscovery of Simple Minds I also realized they created some amazing instrumentals along the way, where they would really dig into sound-scaping in an interesting way. This is a reworking of Shake Off the Ghosts, released as the B-side to Don’t You (Forget About Me) in 1985.

17. Roedelius: Veilchenwurzeln
Of all the great electronic music that came out of Germany throughout the 1970s the stuff that Roedelius was involved in (along with Manuel Göttsching’s projects) speaks to me the most. There’s an organic quality to his sound and a certain warmth and melancholy that still feels very timeless today.

18. Auburn Lull: Shallow in Youth
Cast From the Platform is one of my all-time favourite albums. It almost feels weird choosing just one track from it as it deserves to be listened to in its entirety. It came out in the early summer of 2004 and since I brought a mini disc (!) with this album with me around the world that summer, it still evokes images of Spain, Tokyo, California and Greece when I listen to it now. After a surf session that summer I was hanging out in Oceanside with James from Darla and Jesus from Acuarela Records, who was on holiday in California at the time. -We were talking about what a wonderful album it was and Jesus suggested we did a Manual/Auburn Lull split EP. The EP never happened but it did bring me in touch with the band and I’ve been working with Jason Kolb for the past eight years.

19. Ashra: Ocean of Tenderness
I’ve always loved Manuel Göttsching’s guitar playing, his sense of melody and the way he used those incredibly lush 1970s ”ensemble” synthesizers – a kind of instrument I cherish deeply and have used extensively myself . He’s definitely another important part of my imagined family tree.

20. Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno: Always Returning
It’s hard to think of anything more essential than Brian Eno’s, Apollo when considering music that have inspired the Manual sound.

Manual on Facebook | Bandcamp | Soundcloud

Manual – Selected Remixes, Rarities and Unreleased Tracks 2007​-​2014

Jonas Munk‘s pseudonym’s may have changed over the years, but there will always be one that hits home with me. From his work with Ulrich Schnauss on ‘Epic’ in 2010, to his more dreamy ambient guise as Billow Observatory (along with Jason Kolb of Auburn Lull), it was his work as Manual that I first fell in love with back in 2001.

His guitar-laden, summer washes have graced numerous releases on Darla, Morr Music and Make Mine Music, and with an elusive discography that’s pretty hard to track down (I was so grateful to find a copy of ‘Until Tomorrow‘ in a record store in Seattle recently) i’ve been frustrated and beaten to hear new (but old) tracks pop up out of nowhere every now and then. Take “Miraparque” for example – previously only released on this limited edition CD alongside Orange Crush back in 2008, it was Milieu that teased me with this track on his isolatedmix back in 2009 and it’s remained elusive ever since.

Take Manual’s remix of City Of Satellites‘ “Skeletons” – easy to overlook yet thoroughly deserving a release of its own; an absolutely beautiful track that defines the very meaning of shoegaze. Or ‘Camellia’ – a seventeen minute expanse of gentle guitars alongside an early 80’s vibe akin to Art of Noise.

This isn’t just an attempt to round-up a bunch of unreleased tracks either. The compilation is perfectly curated with more open-aired guitars and vocals upfront, slowly descending into Jonas’ more ambient works on Disc 2 – a likely introduction to his approach within Billow Observatory, should this be new to you.

This feels like a very-much needed and perfect journey through Manual’s expansive catalogue – I’ve often wondered why he hasn’t gotten more attention, and this release is proof that his work as Manual was an extensive and beautiful labor of love across the decade, and one that needs to be heard far and wide.

Available to buy on Darla’s Bandcamp in CD and Digital formats.

isolatedmix 39 - Billow Observatory

The Billow Observatory’s self-titled album released last year was both highly anticipated (six years in the making) and hugely rewarding for many of us shoegaze inspired ambient listeners. The combination of Jonas Munk (who you should be familiar with already on ASIP withisolatedmix 21) and Auburn Lull guitarist Jason Kolb was a tantalising recipe and it turned out to be one of the best records of the year.

Almost exclusively analog, and painstakingly crafted into a world of textures through numerous amps, mics and further treatments, Billow Observatory nailed a soft, euphoric sound that struck many-a-chord and heartstring of us all. Kolb’s ambient guitar work, and Jonas’ wealth of experience as a producer in his own right resulted in a sound that is hard to withdraw from – an all engrossing world of warm guitars and atmospheres.

Jonas and Jason met in the summer of 2004 after Jonas was introduced to Jason’s work as Auburn Lull, and it’s obvious the warm hazy days have had a lasting effect on both their sound and inspiration. With a brilliant introduction by Jason and extensive accompanying track notes, I needn’t say any more apart from a big thank you to them both for soundtracking what looks to be an amazing summer.

Billow Observatory’s self-titled LP is available here or on Jonas’ bandcamp here.

Introduction (by Jason Kolb from Billow Observatory):

I’m almost psychotically seasonal with my listening habits. There are songs/records that I strongly associate with certain times of year, almost down to the month and time of day. The first time I listen to a record or hear a new song is typically the time of year I always end up associating with that record. I have a very hard time listening to things “out of season” and this feeling is strongest in summer. To me, “summer songs” hit the hardest because I tend to associate a lot of them with the euphoria of long, lazy warm days spent outdoors, the nostalgia of childhood summer vacations, and generally trying to maximize what always feels like the shortest time of the year. The tracks I picked for this mix are those which instantly transport me back to summers past.
-Jason

Download.

Tracklist:
01. Lovesliescrushing – Halo
02. Slowdive – Moussaka Chaos
03. Landing – Migration
04. Waterwheel – Jejune
05. Auburn Lull – Gunpowderbluedragon (Kiln rebuild of ‘Arc of an Outsider’)
06. Fennesz – A Year in a Minute
07. JD Emmanuel – Part V, At-One-Ment
08. Tape – Root Tattoo
09. Boards of Canada – Ataronchronon
10. The Verve – A Beautiful Mind
11. To Rococo Rot – Die Dinge Das Lebens

Track notes:

1. Lovesliescrushing – Halo
A good friend of mine came home from the record store one summer day in ’94 or ’95 with a copy of ‘bloweyelashwish’ and said something really mundane like, “this is supposedly some cool guitar stuff made by some local guy”, which was a funny understatement. Lovesliescrushing was a really interesting product of mid-Michigan in the 90s formed by Scott Cortez. Dense, lush, and formless without being thoughtless, this record came into my life just as I thought droning, blissful guitar sounds were dying out. -Jason

2. Slowdive – Moussaka Chaos 
‘Souvlaki’ came out as an import in the US in late Spring of ’93. As a teenager who had recently just gotten a license to drive and was about to be on summer break from school, this record was truly a soundtrack for those hazy days of a teenage summer. “Souvlaki Space Station” was the track that really hit me initially. For this mix, I included the alternate version from the ‘Outside Your Room’ EP. -Jason

3. Landing – Migration
Landing is an incredible band from Connectitut that has always seemed to remain in obscurity despite releasing one fantastic album after another. Their music has a kind of rural American atmosphere that I love (which actually can be said about a number of artists on this mix) – even though most of their influences, such as krautrock and shoegaze, are of European origin. Their music spans a wide range of genres but there’s a unique sense of drift that runs through all of their work. This blissful track is from their latest, self-titled album, released last summer.-Jonas

4. Waterwheel – Jejune 
Waterwheel is a splinter project off of the Kiln/Fibreforms tree. The ‘Panchroma’ LP came out in ’97 and was hugely influential on me. There were a lot of interesting people doing interesting things locally (mid-Michigan) at the time, but this (along with Kiln’s ‘Holo’ LP) just seemed to come from another planet altogether. This particular track always reminds me of walking around my practically deserted home town in the summer, seemingly having the whole place to myself. -Jason

5. Auburn Lull – Gunpowderbluedragon (Kiln rebuild of ‘Arc of an Outsider’)
It feels a little awkward to include a track from the other project I’m in (Auburn Lull), but this is a very unique and special cut that I particularly enjoy at dusk during “peak summer”, around mid-July. We asked Kiln to remix tracks from our last record and ended up with two absolutely stunning ‘rebuilds’, of which this was the first. It would be unfair to call this merely a “remix” because they completely overhauled the original track and re-shaped it into something entirely fresh and new. I prefer this to the original version and wish everything could turn out this way.
-Jason

6. Fennesz – A Year in a Minute 
I was very late to the ‘Endless Summer’ party and I don’t really know why. It took years after the release before I finally heard it. It’s really hard to find something original to say about a record so hyped and highly lauded. The funniest thing is that I bought the record because it had the word “summer” in the title. The first time I listened to it was on an oppressively hot day – one of those days where you almost can’t move. I just sat there and listened intently, wondering why this record came into my life so long after its release. -Jason

7. JD Emmanuel – Part V, At-One-Ment
JD Emmanuel is a pretty obscure artist from Texas who has been doing hypnotic synthesizer music since the late 1970s. This track is from his 1982 album Wizards, which is a perfect crystalization of his vision. This stuff is really timeless and holds up well today. You can hear the minimalists (expecially Terry Riley) in this stuff, which gives the music a distinctive American flavour that sets it apart from most of the synthesizer music of the period. -Jonas

8. Tape – Root Tattoo
Tape is an extremely underrated trio from Sweden. I discovered them by accident nine years ago when I was invited to play at a small summer festival way out in the Swedish countryside. One night after hanging out at a bonfire with some of the other artists (and a local didgeridoo player) drinking cheap wine and chatting, I decided to go back inside an check out whoever was playing and I walked into Tape’s set. It was completely mesmerizing, and looking back on it this was probably the perfect place and circumstance to see these guys. They really capture the unique serenity of open skies, trees, wildlife and summertime in Scandinavia. Every summer I listen to Tape’s albums. -Jonas

9. Boards of Canada – Ataronchronon
The Campfire Headphase propably is my favourite Boards of Canada album. It has a laid-back, breezy and otherworldly vibe to it. This little piece is truly gorgeous. -Jonas

10. Verve – Beautiful Mind 
This is (The)Verve at their creative peak, right before going horribly downhill in my opinion. Everything they put out up to and including ‘A Storm in Heaven’ was incredible and influenced me profoundly. Picking one song was really tough, but I’ve probably listened to this track more than any. Incidentally, this record came out only a month or so after ‘Souvlaki’ in the summer of ’93. -Jason

11. To Rococo Rot – Die Dinge des Lebens
To Rococo Rot’s The Amateur View is one of my alltime favourite electronic releases. I bought this album in June 1999, a few months after it was released and it still has vibes from that summer all over it. It’s one of those albums I keep coming back to, every June, year after year. And this piece is just perfect. And it’s based on a sample from a Gigi Mason track from the 1980s by the way. -Jonas

Billow Observatory Bandcamp | Soundcloud | Boomkat