Jo Johnson & Hilary Robinson / Session One (9128-1)

The inaugural 9128.live label release came from the UK’s Jo Johnson and Hilary Robinson, and is now available on 12”. Featuring subtle, harmonic drones and manipulated piano, originally aired as part of the duo’s set for the CALMA (Madrid) takeover on 9128.live, the vinyl edition was cut by Andreas LUPO Lubich, and new vinyl side masters prepared by Rafael Anton Irisarri.

Jo Johnson was a guitarist with punk band Huggy Bear in the 90s, inspired by and aligned with the riot grrrl and queercore movements. She organized underground techno parties with Bleep43 in the early 2000s and founded the crew’s label. Since 2012 she has explored experimental, minimalist music and her debut LP Weaving was released on Further Records in 2014.

After a classical training with composers including Kaija Saariaho, London-based composer, pianist and sometime vocalist Hilary Robinson is active across genres from contemporary classical concert music to experimental. Her music has been performed at festivals such as the UK’s 'Music We’d Like to Hear' and broadcast on BBC Radio.

The 9128 label aims to document significant live performances by artists that previously performed on the 9128.live platform. With recordings initially created for a singular collective listening moment, and often as part of a festival or takeover weekend, label recordings will re-present this music for further listening across various formats that best suit each release.

Session One is available digitally on Bandcamp, with the vinyl available on Bandcamp, Juno and One Eye Witness, with more stores to follow.

Illuvia / Iridescence of Clouds (Sea of Vapor) now shipping

Copies of Illuvia’s Iridescence of Clouds (Sea of Vapor) have arrived with us at ASIP HQ looking and sounding amazing. The double CD digipak features extended artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding, and a full suite of reworks by Ludvig - versions that didn’t fit the original album or feature additional reworks, alongside completely new tracks, to bring it all together as one complete ambient dnb odyssey.

You can buy the CD direct with ASIP on Bandcamp, with Juno in the UK/EU, or even with Ludvig’s 8Merch store (also good for EU).

More info is available on the album release page.

2012- 2022: Ten years of the ASIP record label

Ten years ago today, we began our ASIP label endeavors.

While it might seem a little self gratuitous to write about a meaningless moment in time, it’s something I personally like to do in order to take stock, and be able to reflect back on in another ten years.

After a few years of blogging about music here on ASIP, we had created a small community of listeners and artists who were of course, looking for a wider audience. It seemed like a natural step for me to begin a label and start connecting the dots. After all, I was getting sent some brilliant music at this point that simply didn’t have a home past artists self-releasing.

It started with The Places Series. A humble, digital-only series that called on artists we knew at the time to submit a piece of music that represented their strangely isolated place. We had contributions from new artists, and friends and even managed to persuade the likes of Markus Guentner, Leandro Fresco and 36 to contribute - all of whom were (are) musical heroes to me. The releases ranged from single tracks, to EPs and full albums. The latter of which, marked our very first release as Kit (Kit Fegradoe) took a punt with us to put Tré em, out into the world - a time-traveling piece of intricate field recordings and diverse musicality that still manages to stand out amongst a crowd.

The Places Series ended up running for 29 releases, with all of them captured in this compilation on Bandcamp for ease (and also available individually) marking the 30th release in the series. At this point, it felt right to step into physical editions, and with limited idea on how or funding to make such a step, I decided to kick-start our very first release. Uncharted Places began with a brief to existing Places Series artists to choose an existing track and remix it. What came back was beyond expectations, as was the support to make the project happen.

Once this project sold out, it left me with the motivation to keep going (and a little bit of spare change to invest in the next release, Europe). This process was also new to me, so I took the time to document it as best as I could, to help others, and take stock of the challenges. Reading back on this now, every single point still stands, ten years later (but now I could write a list of 100 things!)

After these compilations, it became exciting to think of the platform I could now offer artists, many of whom, I wouldn’t have dreamt of approaching prior. Our first few artist releases consisted of Arovane, Hior Chronik, Markus Guentner, and Chymera, all of whom I held in high regard and was honored to work with. This trend, working with musicians I hold in the highest regard, luckily didn’t stop, 30 or so vinyl releases later.

Fast forward to 2022, and we’ve kept a regular average cadence of albums/releases per year, and even managed to launch a little sub-label for 9128.live. Despite our reviews and features slowing down here, due to the label focus, we have managed to keep the blog rolling with mixes and some in-depth features through our Portals series. DJing and mix culture will always remain a passion, and be interwoven into ASIP wherever we can.

I have been planning a couple of things to celebrate the 10-year milestone (and would have ideally had a vinyl release to commemorate the milestone, given our focus), but this past year has been a whirlwind. Look out for a couple of projects which will hopefully see the light of day in the next few months.

A massive thank you if you’re reading this - not just acknowledging us on social media, but taking the time to ready a bit of a back story, means a lot. And of course, thank you to every single person, listener, artist and cog in the big vinyl machine that has been a part of this journey for the past ten years.

There are no lofty ambitious goals moving forward. In a small way, I hope to do more events and be able to support our artists in other ways, perhaps more fun merch, but the focus will always remain the same. Putting out music I love, irrespective of where it lands on the spectrum. And ideally, writing a post much like this in another decade.

~

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski with an edit by yours truly.

A Strangely Isolated Place X In Sheeps Clothing Records

We are excited to be hosting our second event alongside our favorite Los Angeles (once listening bar now record store) collective, In Sheep’s Clothing Records.

Join us this Saturday, April 9th between 3-7pm at the store for a mini ASIP takeover, featuring guest DJs, complimentary drinks, and exclusive ASIP records and merch.

I’ll be bringing along some location-specific hand-stamped ASIPVA01, as well as previously out-of-stock ASIP titles from my personal collection, ASIP merch + stickers.

We will also be joined by a few TBA ASIP friends spinning records.

Come, say hi! And visit the ISC playlists in the meantime.

436 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles

A big thank you to Dorian Denes for providing the stunning custom illustration for the flyer - an interpretation of the shop space, in a similar style to his previous flyer for our event at the ISC listening bar.

 

Merrin Karras / Silent Planet 12" now available

Merrin Karras’ 2020 foray into extended compositions combining his Berlin School tendencies and expansive ambient is finally pressed-up on cloudy transparent 12”. Remastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri and featuring revisited art by Noah M / Keep Adding.

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Conceived and composed in two days, Silent Planet is Brendan's first attempt at a fully continuous piece of music. Normally, albums under his Merrin Karras guise take many months, if not years, to put together:

"I wanted to challenge myself to create a mini-album in a short amount of time, not to think too much about it, but just to let it flow and see what happened. Everything was created in one project, but it's comprised of six distinct sections. Several motifs and elements are re-used at various points throughout the work. It's also the first time that I've used percussion elements in a Merrin Karras work".

The mood spans from brooding to almost Balearic at points, with strong elements of Berlin School and Space Music, classic Trance, and Ambient all intertwined.

Silent Planet is available in digital formats and transparent smoke 12”.

Buy at Bandcamp

Buy at Juno

Buy at One Eye Witness

Note, people who purchased the original Silent Planet album on Bandcamp will be able to re-download to access the new remastered files.