2024 Label Compilation (mixed by todos)

Handing over a year’s worth of releases to todos and watching the magic unfold is always an exhilarating experience. His ability to craft a narrative from such a rich and varied palette is unparalleled, offering fresh insights into the music and the year behind us. A true specialist in narrative witchcraft, todos continues to redefine DJ mixes with such a limited palette to build from. This year’s selection posed an increasingly complex challenge, with its mix of tempos and styles, but it’s a testament to the incredible work of the ASIP artists in 2024, all tied together under the meticulous eye of our trusted selector.

The year began with new label signing Salvatore Mercatante, and his pin-point drum patterns and room-filled IDM. This was followed by an about-turn in style with a new label signing, Lihla, presenting her hypnotizing blend of spoken word and atmospheric multi-instrument talent. Lapsed Pacifist (who happens to be a good friend of todos' in the UK - another full circle moment for the label) presented his debut album, featuring 'rolling waves of lavender synths', which Pop Matters recently listed as one of its best ambient albums of 2024. Keeping things unexpected, we then presented another new artist, Theef, who released a selection of timeless deep techno cuts from a DJ mix he posted online in 2018. It was then a chance for one of ASIPs most cherished sounds to return, as Illuvia continued his monumental exploration into the deep expanse of ethereal ambient drum'n bass. By now, we were approaching the much-celebrated half-century catalog number, and who better than long-time label artist, Markus Guentner to bring it over the line, alongside eight other fantastic talents. Colombian producer OKRAA, evolved his living-and-breathing psychedelic electronics, introducing more breaks and electro to his palette, in a truly unexpected second album. And closing out the year, Hungarian artist swanasa, presented a taster of her sonic capabilities in a short EP, that shone a light on multiple approaches we hope to explore from her very soon.

Thank you for all of your support, comments, and encouragement this year. Here's to those who explore the unique, the nostalgic and the new, and those who forge their own way forward.

Download on Bandcamp

Join us on Friday 20th December, 12pm PST for the full mix premiere and Bandcamp listening party.

todos Continuous DJ mix tracklist:

1. swanasa - Swan Song (edit)
2. Lihla - Resonance
3. Markus Guentner - Father Of Waters
4. Lapsed Pacifist - Tragic
5. Markus Guentner & Arovane - Utopian Fragments (edit) / Illuvia - A New Tomorrow (edit) / swanasa - AHO / Lihla - Becoming Human (edit)
6. OKRAA - La Gran Corriente
7. Salvatore Mercatante - Love Of Lies
8. Illuvia - Tectonic Shift
9. Markus Guentner & Abul Mogard - While Hunting Nightmares And Dreaming For Peace
10. Theef - Strange Nights
11. Salvatore Mercatante - How Many Hands
12. OKRAA - Para Desaprender (edit)
13. Theef - Odd Entity
14. Lapsed Pacifist - Almost Remembered

A Strangely Isolated Place Label Showcase at Public Records - Photos from the night

We had an amazing night at Public Records, New York last Friday, as we held our first label showcase in a very long time. With OKRAA in town from the UK, and local artists Salvatore Mercatante and Aspetuck, it made sense for us to put some firepower behind this moment and bring them together for a special evening (and then also spend the weekend record shopping!).

Aspetuck opened the evening with his sublime meld of ambient-forward beats, debuting new material, including tracks from his upcoming ASIP album in 2025.

Salvatore Mercatante followed, and put the epic Devon Ojas 4-point surround system to the test through his chest-rumbling electronics and sharp hi-hats, taking music from his recent release ‘Ø’, plus plenty of unreleased material.

OKRAA closed the evening with a mixture of his amorphous ambient and big swells of drones, interspersed by his more electronic breaks and electro from his new album ‘La Gran Corriente’. By the end, the room was jacking, and Juan was pulling at our hearts as the closing track from his 1994 release, ‘Ola De Luz’, rounded out the evening in fine fashion.

A big thank you to everyone who came, said hello, and purchased some records. Visuals on the night were created by Salvatore for his own set, and Dead Society for OKRAA’s, with photography by Daniel Salemi.

See you at the next one.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

ASIP Label Showcase @ Public Records, New York: OKRAA + Salvatore Mercantante + Aspetuck

A Strangely Isolated Place presents an evening of room-filled atmospherics, taking over the Public Records Sound Room.

Colombian-born, OKRAA, presents his intense analog walls of sound and complex IDM, as heard throughout his new album on A Strangely Isolated Place, ‘La Gran Corriente’, as well as his previous outings, ‘1994’ and his more beat-driven alias ‘Laudrup’.

Debuting on the label earlier this year, New York-based artist Salvatore Mercatante is quickly defining a sharp and soaring IDM style, with complex drum patterns and clinical progressions, that cry out for a big system, and now finally unleashed in his hometown.

With a release set to arrive on the label next year, local producer, and Hudson NY native, Aspetuck will be opening the evening with a DJ set, highlighting his unique ear for a blend of electronic styles, and a taste of what’s to come on the label in 2025.

Tickets via Dice

RSVP to the event on Resident Advisor.

Monument Waves 002 : ASIP

A new mix for the brilliant Monument platform, and their new series ‘Waves’ which looks to feature more of the ambient side of things, rather than the deep techno world they are known for, if the first of the series by Chris SSG is any indication.

After our label showcase mix I did for them a few years back, I was extremely pleased to return to Monument again and decided on a new approach for #2.

Taking inspiration from the podcast series’ title, I aimed to create a mix that focused on repetition and layers, as if staring out to sea watching blankets of waves roll in from miles out; changing in intensity, but forever calming in their unbound repetition.

The result is reflective of the many adjacent styles I enjoy from ambient, to IDM and deeper techno and some of the seconds of tracks that stand out to me, or I forever wished to be looped in my head - be it a texture, vocal or beat pattern.

Thank you Monument for the support over the years, and for inviting me to what I am sure will become a very special series.

MONUMENT · Monument Waves 002 : ASIP

Listen on Soundcloud or the ASIP Podcast

Download MP3

Tracklist:

01. Mikkel Rev - Evocation  [Unreleased / A Strangely Isolated Place] (Loop/edit)
02. Chronovalve - Almost There [Home Normal] (Loop/edit)
03 . Yumi Iwaki - Nocturnal[Kankyō Records]  (Loop/edit)
04. DJ Healer - Great Escape [All Possible Worlds] (Loop/edit)
05. Susumu Yokota - No Kaori [Leaf Label] (Loop/edit)
06. The National Pool - Through The Beach [Infraction] (Loop/edit)
07. Bana Haffar - Lifter [Touch] (Loop/edit)
08. Pontiac Streator - Stuck In A Cave [Motion Ward] (Loop/edit)
09. TSR - 01 [Record Union] (Loop/edit)
10. Christina Chatfield - Sutro [Mysteries of the Deep] (Loop/edit)
11. Oneohtrix Point Never - Format & Journey North [Arbor] (Loop/edit)
12. Gi Gi - Montjuic Feat. Mi Mi [Quiet Time] (Loop/edit)
13. Jonny Nash - All I Ever Need [Melody As Truth] (Loop/edit)
14. Saphileaum - Elegant Voyage [Mysteries of The Deep] (Loop/edit)
15. RQ - Hounds (Sam KDC remix) [Auxiliary] (Loop/edit)
16. Michael Stearns - In The Beginning [Continuum Montage] (Loop/edit)
17. Solar Quest - Flying Spirals [Crammed Discs] (Loop/edit)
18. Zodiac Childs - Kepler Track Two (Zodiac Wax) (Loop/edit)
19. Central Industrial - After Image [Auxiliary] (Loop/edit)
20. Intrepid Soul - Under The Sun (The Gods Planet) (Loop/edit) 
21. Anatolian Weapons - Teachings In Stone [Self] (Loop/edit)
22. Theef - Sun & Smoke  (Unreleased / A Strangely Isolated Place) (Loop/edit)
23. Quiet Places - Side B (A Strangely Isolated Place) (Loop/edit)
24. Courtesy - You're Not Alone [Kulør] (feat. Erika de Casier & August Rosenbaum) (Loop/edit)
25. Maxime Denuc - Ouverture [Vlek] (Loop/edit)
26. µ-Ziq - Whale Soup [Self] (Loop/edit)
27. Adam Johnson - Version 02 [Merck] (Loop/edit)
28. Autechre - Bronchusevernmx24 + Aphex Twin - On + Aleksi Perala - UK74R1406070 (edit)
29. Pub - Summer [Vertical Form] (Loop/edit)
30. Loess - Sofar [Toytronic] (edit)
31. Biosphere - Monju 1 [Touch] (Loop/edit)
32. Salvatore Mercatante - Classical [Unreleased]
33. OKRAA - La Gran Corriente [Unreleased / A Strangely Isolated Place]
34. Lihla - Becoming Human [A Strangely Isolated Place] (Loop/edit)
35. Ylia - Drifting Off into The Waves  [Balmat] (Loop/edit)
36. The Eightsome Reel - A Stranger Landing  [Self] (Loop/edit)
37. Terre Thaemlitz - Music is Controllable Desire You Can Own [Self]
38. Echospace - Love Always Lives [Self] 
39. Bill Laswell & Pete Namlook - Telepathy II [FAX] (Loop/edit)

Salvatore Mercatante / Ø (ASIPV045)

Our first release of 2024 welcomes New York musician Salvatore Mercatante and his new album 'Ø', a stunning suite of electronic music born from the idea of starting from nothing, again and again.

With previous releases on Castles in Space, Werrafoxma, and Subexotic along with his own label Nocimiste, Salvatore’s output can bridge many styles, and here, we’re treated to a crowning mixture of ambient, IDM, downtempo, and techno influences, all underlined by his mastery of soundtracks.

~

The concept of naught (Ø) has challenged Salvatore Mercatante throughout his musical career, specifically, trying to understand how the idea of ‘nothing’ fits into the realm of sound, and at the same time, exist in a world of influence at every turn. In the absence of everything, are we able to create something truly free?

As a lifelong New York-based musician, Mercatante’s influences and productions run a wide spectrum. Just as happy producing 80s-inspired horror soundtracks as he is refining acute drum patterns over and over again, Salvatore is the first to ask himself, where next? When a musician’s output can be influenced today by so much, and there is no self-defined or perceived artistic goal in mind, how do you start from a place of nothingness, again and again?

This approach has born many minimal and experimental albums of note in the past, but with Ø, Salvatore ended up with an almost controlled maximalist approach. Beginning with open spaces and allowing sonic textures to live and evolve past where you may expect, Ø allows the space between notes to become equally as important as the notes themselves. Walls of noise, soaring soundtracks, dense techno, glittering IDM, and minimal glitch, sit side-by-side to present an all-encompassing palette of sonic possibility.

Often, even without any intent, what can be born from nothing will somehow transpire back into something more recognizable. It’s human nature after all. A subtle fingerprint, as a sequence, melody, pattern, or drum kick. Whether Salvatore intended for this record to represent his defining sound or not, only time will tell.

Visit the release page for more info and links to buy

Written and produced by Salvatore Mercatante
Mastered by Giuseppe Tillieci @ Enisslab, Rome, Italy. 
Artwork by Brandon Locher