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

isolatedmix 114 - R.A.D.E

Our latest isolatedmix comes from R.A.D.E, an English artist who (at the time we first spoke) was living in my home of Los Angeles. We were introduced to each other after both he and Illuvia were included in a Bandcamp feature by Joe Muggs, and I thanked Joe for bringing R.A.D.E’s music to my attention, along with many other great releases in the article. It turned out both David (R.A.D.E) and I were both in LA, so had planned to meet up and talk all things music, but life got in the way and David unexpectedly moved to Barcelona earlier this year.

Mixing breaks, ambient, bass, and DnB elements, R.A.D.E’s music sits in that nostalgic territory for anyone who grew up listening to a wide variety of electronic music. Working anywhere between the dancefloor and the chill-out room, it’s a style that draws upon the best parts of each genre, sometimes across a single track, and is often caught varying in focus between each EP, making each of his releases so far, a lovely, varied listen.

As Joe Muggs, put it in the original Bandcamp article best; “The L.A.-based R.A.D.E. loves smooth textures and high production value in his outer-space inspired grooves. Occasionally, that can steer things towards the excesses of prog house (as on “Alta Vista” here); but more often, it works as an update of the warm ‘90s vibes of The Orb, Future Sound of London, and LTJ Bukem”.

With an obvious connection to a musical era and many heroes that I grew up listening to, I was keen to get to know what inspired the (so far) two lovely EP’s from the R.A.D.E camp.

ASIP: Your R.A.D.E catalog is still in the early stages with two mini-albums on Bandcamp - when did you start producing and what was the inspiration to begin R.A.D.E?

R.A.D.E: I’ve been making music for quite a while and put out a couple of releases under a different name on labels in the UK. This would have been mid 2000’s and I would say at that point I hadn’t really found “my sound” so there was a lot of exploration and experimentation but also a lot of procrastination which meant that not much got finished. When I moved to California in 2015 it felt like a new start and I had more of a creative urge than I had for a while, so I spent some time reflecting on the music that had shaped my taste over the years and tried to distill the common elements...The atmospheric nature of ambient music, the low end of dub and drum n bass, recycled breakbeats - these all seemed to be recurring motifs in a lot of the music that I loved, so I tried to weave them together with R.A.D.E into something that sounded contemporary and coherent.

Was it a surprise to be picked out and featured in the Bandcamp article?

Absolutely! Especially given the other artists that were featured - Illuvia, Special Request, Zed Bias, Distance - these are people whose music I really admire. I was very conscious of the fact that R.A.D.E is a new, self-released project and that I didn’t have any kind of profile or label support, so to find myself in that kind of company with my first release gave me a huge confidence boost and motivated me to get back in the studio. I should also shout out Joe Muggs at this point, who wrote the article for Bandcamp and introduced the two of us. His book “Bass, Mids, Tops” is a great window into the influence of UK soundsystem culture. Highly recommended.

Your music takes many sources of inspiration, can you tell us in your own words what influences your output? 

In terms of musical genre, I already mentioned some of the reference points... I’m drawn to the more electronic end of the ambient spectrum, but breakbeats and bass have also been a constant musical thread for me whether via hip hop, breaks or D&B. A lot of the music that I love fuses those two things - the atmospheric, immersive aspects of ambient and the physicality of Soundsystem music. 

I used to DJ chillout rooms and post-rave spaces and so R.A.D.E was partly inspired by that - I wanted to capture some of the communal energy and exhilaration of the rave and blend that with the more solitary, inner exploration that ambient music tends to encourage. There are a lot of interesting contrasts there I think - euphoria versus melancholy; introspection versus shared experience; listening versus dancing; headphone music versus Soundsystem music... 

You recently moved to Barcelona, do you see this impacting your music in any way?

Difficult to say right now as I’ve only been here for a month or so. I think California definitely had a subliminal effect on the music. There’s a certain optimism, maybe idealism that is associated with the West Coast and I think that crept in there - albeit tempered with some good old British realism. One of the reasons that I’m drawn to the music of the 90’s is also that there was a lot of positivity and optimism about the future and technology’s role in it during that era. Obviously that’s become quite tainted in recent years, but it’s good to recapture some of that idealism at a time like this I think. 

We previously spoke about how you used to DJ as well as produce, what came first and was the mix a nostalgic trip to your DJ days? 

DJ’ing came first - just because of a love of discovering new music and sharing it with people. And I enjoyed the fact that in the spaces where I was playing, there was less pressure to make people dance and so you could experiment a bit more and play for people’s heads rather than their feet. Early on, I didn’t think that making music was an option for me since I don’t have any formal musical training, but once it dawned on me that Ableton Live was just another instrument, I dedicated myself to learning to play that and DJ’ing took a back seat. I rarely DJ at all these days, so the mix was an opportunity to dust off my record box and dig out some old favourites but I wanted it to look forwards as well as backwards, so there are quite a few recent tracks in there as well. I’m as excited about discovering new music as I ever was.

Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind the mix and the tracks featured?

The mix is almost like a blueprint for the R.A.D.E sound really - it takes in quite a few of the influences that I mentioned earlier and transitions from spacey ambient dub into more breaks driven territory in the second half.

It’s book-ended by Carl Sagan - starting out with his famous “Pale Blue Dot” monologue and then the voice you hear in the final track “Touch Forever” is Sagan’s wife Annie Druyan. She’s talking about how they met and fell in love whilst working together on the Golden Record that accompanied NASA’s Voyager spacecraft. It’s like an interstellar love story - I loved the epic scale of that and the Pale Blue Dot speech. I return to that a lot when things get overwhelming and I need to regain perspective ;-)

So the first two tracks (by Reagenz and A.P.L) are both perennial favourites of mine and then the Om Unit track that follows is taken from his “Acid Dub Studies” LP that came out earlier this year. Jim (Om Unit) is the type of producer that I really admire. He’s not confined by genre and is able to transition from one style to another in a really authentic way. Whether he’s making jungle, footwork, ambient or in this case electronic dub - the quality and consistency is never in question. There are a couple of pretty chill dubstep tracks on there from Ruckspin and Reso after that and then a bit of a lost classic (in my opinion). Jaguar’s “Odyssey” came out in 1998 I think on Rennie Pilgrem’s TCR label and is a great example of the kind of atmospheric breakbeat stuff that inspired R.A.D.E. That sort of sets the tone for the second half of the mix I suppose, although most of the tracks that follow came out in the last couple of years. MOY is from London and has been putting out some really emotive acid breakbeat records on Bandcamp. Long Island Sound are two lads from Dublin who have their own label called Signs of Space. The Will Silver track came out on LA’s Nice Age label and just seemed to be crying out to be mixed into Orbital’s “Belfast” (I’m sure I’m not the first to do this). Plus it was really nice to include Orbital because without them I never would have got into making electronic music in the first place. I remember reading an early interview with them and being struck by their punk DIY ethic - but instead of “buy a guitar and start a band” they applied it to computers, synths and samplers which I found much more relevant and inspiring. And then the last two tracks are both mine. “Witch U” is from my recent EP “Pacific” which was kind of a farewell ode to California and “Touch Forever” is from my debut EP which was called “The Overview”. If you want to know what R.A.D.E is all about I think the mix is a pretty good introduction - I hope you enjoy it.

Listen on Soundcloud, Mixcloud, or the ASIP Podcast.

astrangelyisolatedplace · isolatedmix 114 - R.A.D.E

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Tracklist:
01. Reagenz - Ä
02. Carl Sagan - The Pale Blue Dot
03. A Positive Life - The Calling (Loved ‘Ub Mix)
04. Om Unit - Rolling Stock
05. I:Cube - Le Dub
06. Ruckspin & Quark - Sunshine
07. Reso - Namida
08. Jaguar - Odyssey
09. Lone - How Can You Tell
10. MOY - Megatherium
11. Toke - Coast Line Thoughts
12. Long Island Sound - Shadows From Nowhere
13. Will Silver - We Can Talk|
14. Orbital - Belfast
15. Baile - Amae (Sasha Fabric 1999 Mix)
16. Barker - Paradise Engineering
17. R.A.D.E - Witch U
18. R.A.D.E - Touch Forever

R.A.D.E on Bandcamp | Instagram

isolatedmix 113 - Sunju Hargun

We’ve fallen a little behind the monthly schedule with isolated mixes recently, but that’s mainly because the artists lined up have been working hard on some very special journeys for us all. Getting back into the swing of things now, our latest mix comes from an artist who I got to know through a small online group that obsesses over Trance music, and ultimately helped us bring to life our recent Rapture Network 9128.live takeover, helping organize and provide the brilliant logo/identity for the festival and t-shirts.

When he and I are not obsessing over all types of ambient and psychedelic trance music, Sunju Hargun has been busy launching his new label, Siamese Twins Records, which since 2020 has not only been an outlet for some of his own work, but also served as an introduction to many pan-Asian artists through compilations such as Kāthā, and Vinyan, presenting a spectrum of “Eastern psychedelia”. The compilations represent a great starting point for many new artists stemming from a local scene, and one that I am excited about digging deeper into through both Sunju and his new label curation.

“A hypnotic sound bath in which tribally-rooted ambient morphs into one entity. Drones, live instruments and esoteric textures are transformed into a contemporary Kāthā interpretation.”

Coincidentally, during my trip to Hidden Sounds record store in London, I had picked up a remix EP from Sunju’s label, that delved into the slightly trancier side of his tastes (and label). It was a fleeting visit where the shop owner Alex loaded me up with so many nice bits, that I had hardly stopped to look at the artists and labels in my bag and was purely grabbing stuff on sound - always an exciting tactic for exploring new records when you get them home and realize you ended up supporting someone you enjoy based on music alone.

It’s with great pleasure to have Sunju behind the decks for this isolatedmix and a get peek into his own influences that undoubtedly shape his own productions, mixes and label output…

Hi Sunju, can you give us an intro to your musical upbringing?

I’m of Indian descent, born and raised in Thailand with some roots from Japan. I find love and happiness in connecting with people through music. I co-run the Siamese Twins records record label focusing on psychedelic sounds from the East. I’m also a part of the Karma Klique collective organizing parties in nature across Thailand with proceeds going to local social causes.

I was surrounded by lots of music when I was young. Lots of people whose music is sought after in the local Thai jazz/blues wave were my father’s friends, and some of that music was connected to psychedelic rock as well. Around that time was also another side of music which was an integral part of my life, came from my mother’s passion for Indian art and traditional Hindu soundtracks from the early 60’s to 70’s.

We are both deep Trance fans at heart - but how did you get into the ambient side of music?

At the time I was living in Shanghai, my friends would host intimate house sessions every other weekend to experience ‘trip’ gatherings with the music we felt connected to and grow our little prog-trance family by inviting other ravers we met along the way. Most of us were music nerds of the group that had to contribute to certain hours of the night to share our playlists, and I was mostly in charge of sunrise. Although I was not familiar with the term Ambient back then, instead referred to it as Reprise/Chillout'. Having the pleasure to breathe through the early 2000’s Prog era, I was heavily inspired by compilations from Global Underground, Renaissance & Producers like Satoshi Tommie, Spooky, Starkid, Leama, and Rabbit in the moon are just a few to mention that were a gateway to falling deeply in love with it.

Your new label Siamese Twins Records has made an excellent start, can you tell us a bit about the approach?

Thank you so much, very happy to receive great support and words from you about it.

It has been very community-driven as it's built upon mutual connections and friendships we made over the last five years running events with Karma Klique. We would invite artists from across the Asian region that gained our interest and with a similar ethos. There is a lot of mainstream electronic music here, but luckily there are also a lot of amazing artists, event organizers, record stores and labels that stubbornly do their own thing with a pure love for the art. While connecting with them often music they were working on was shared which we felt deserved a good home. This is also how we connected with Yoshi Nori who runs our sister label 禁JIN from Taipei and is one of the four co-founders of the Siamese Twins label.

The idea from the start was to embrace Asian identity and focus on the more psychedelic sound spectrum which can be both slow as fast. We release ambient, curated as long trips, compilations, but are also releasing trippy dancefloor orientated material ideally to be played at sunrise during a forest rave. We like to mix it up, stay weird. We care a lot about the total process from start to finish with lots of love and attention to detail. We approach it multi-dimensional and a way to have a dialogue with other expressions of Asian culture which shows in Taychin Dunnvatanachit’s artwork approach.

We hope to keep on building on these fundamentals. It’s very much our own thing and approach.

What is the ambient music scene like in Thailand? How do you try and stay connected locally?

Yes, Bangkok is a special city that I'm happy to call home.

The ambient movement is still quite young, but in the past year alone there might have been a spark of interest towards it being more appreciated by locals mainly because of spending plenty of time at home during the lockdown period. There is also a wave of music makers and collectives popping out at the moment who are heavily promoting it - A wonderful shift, with the hope that it earns a feature in festivals and gatherings on the horizon. The community of quality electronic music in Bangkok is tightly connected through record stores like More Rice and Zudrangma that promote a wide variety of world and electronic music. With the addition of a brand new local online-based radio called “BCR” that has managed to bring artists and friends to share music together during this time when clubs aren’t allowed to open.

You're a great visual artist too, is your music and art symbiotic in approach?

I would like to think there is an underlying secret connection towards some form of visual identity with my approach to music. In the past, I experienced moments of having these images built from dreams that became starting points to an idea of creating a track. Does not happen often, but when it does - I welcome it!

The mix feels very uplifting, especially near the end. What role does ambient music play in your life at the moment?

Ambient music helped me to understand sound layering in a whole different perspective. Over the past two years, I've especially embraced more experimentation in the studio and introduced sounds from various cultures rooted in Asia. This helped a lot to push creative boundaries. When possible I try to spend time learning more about sound’s behavior as well and how daily noise from our surroundings can impact us. Keeping my eyes & ears wide open to observe the smallest details.

Where was the mix prepared and what is the idea behind it?

The mix was recorded at home at approximately 10:30 am on a rainy morning. The concept behind the mix was to include tracks that are influencing me at the moment. I'm finding myself drawn towards music from Japanese producers more and more these days and wanted to share some of those discoveries alongside other favourite labels and promos from friends. The mix itself carries a story that feels fluid with a lot of focus on space, texture, and a hint of nostalgic memories. I hope the listeners will enjoy it and feel the same way.

~

Listen on Soundcloud, Mixcloud, or the ASIP Podcast.

astrangelyisolatedplace · isolatedmix 113 - Sunju Hargan

Download.

Tracklist:

01. Adi - Haz
02. Androne - Signs of life
03. Yagya – Old Dreams And Memories
04. Yumi Iwaki - Sleepy Fog
05. Pataphysical - Moonlit Picnic
06. Vivian Koch - Who
07. Lemna - Moments In Eternal Recurrence
08. Celestial Trax - New Masters of Psychedelic Ambience
09. Avsluta - Meditation 16
10. BLNDR - Callopsis
11. Vivian Koch - Closed (Yosemite Version)
12. JakoJako - Ochros
13. Only Thingz - Eyes Wide Open
14. Kosei Fukuda - Sky Clair (Uchi Remix)
15. Underworld - Dark & Long (Most 'Ospitable)
16. Talvin Singh - Butterfly

~

Sunju Hargun | Soundcloud | Bandcamp | Instagram | Bandcamp (Siamese Twins)

isolatedmix 112 - Suna

So many of the sets that have been a part of 9128.live these past few years have been outstanding, and some artists have even been able to make a couple of appearances across multiple takeovers. One of those artists who ticks both these boxes is Suna.

Based in Seoul, Suna made her first appearance in our world for the Astral Industries 9128.live takeover over a year ago, and was then invited back by Joachim Spieth for the Affin takeover earlier this year. Her set for this takeover was spellbinding, and I was obliged to ask Suna to present this mix once again for the isolatedmix series, for even more people to enjoy.

For those who are new to Suna, she plays a crucial part in the burgeoning electronic scene in Seoul - one I have heard amazing things about but yet to experience. As part of the infamous club vurt, Suna can often be heard as part of the lineup gracing the infamous concrete bunker with her carefully crafted ambient sets, of hypnotic deep techno, or just as busy running things behind the scenes.

ASIP - Thank you, Suna, for allowing us to republish this mix. It was one of my favorites from the 9128.live Affin takeover!

Suna - First of all, I feel very grateful to have an opportunity to take part in 9128.live, I enjoyed working on it.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role at vurt?

vurt. is a crew that seeks the pure spirit of underground culture and timeless electronic music. We hold a slogan, 'Ancient Future'. Before opening vurt., I often felt there's a systemic problem that DJs cannot improve their music with their own identity. DJs were asked to compromise our musical direction that could have been related to the revenue of clubs, and new trial and challenges were not accepted. Superficiality was the only dominating concept, wearing the mask of the underground. I felt strongly that we are in need of a venue that DJs can build up their musical style through experiences, experiments and improvements.

vurt. wants to make everything possible, developing and realizing pure music that hold each one's character and identity. We keep the olds, welcome the new, and bridges various generations and their knowledge and experiences. 

How has vurt been impacted by the past few years? And what do you see as the future of clubs in this new world?

Like every other club in the world at the moment, vurt. has been influenced by Covid19 big time. 

Last year, the Korean government started to shut down clubs officially, and even before several months from that point, we were advised(morel like coerced) to keep shutting down. 

When we were having such a big difficulty without receiving any financial support or aid from the government, many local and international artists helped us.

Alex from Cassegrain released an album called <in_vurt> with many other artists, and they donated the sales revenue. I don't know how many times one gets to experience such a special gift, I still haven't figured out how I can pay them back. I feel indescribably grateful. After that vurt. and two other clubs in Seoul, Faust and Volnost joined forces and made a VFV Club project. We raised funds via a streaming event. Things were still on pause, and the pain was roaming in the air. I gained lots of energy to move forward while meeting people who were in the same shoes. Just by talking about how the camera is, how the streaming is, I felt like it gives me power. In the retrospect, it was a meaningful time to get to understand further about each other, before that event we three didn't really have that active communication. I thank all the listeners and people who donated. We also got great spiritual supports from loving friends of vurt., and the financial support from Jaegermeister was a meaningful help as well. So far, it was a miraculous time that we could hang in. 

We couldn't just shut the door, sit down and wait, so now we turned the venue into a bar and focusing on ambient music than techno. Before the pandemic, we were running vurt. as an ambient bar during the weekdays so the transition was somewhat natural. Now, we are doing exhibitions once every two months, we showcase the artists who have connections to vurt.'s identity. The latest exhibition last month was very meaningful and special. The artists were rather young, all based in Seoul and regulars of vurt., and for the last few years we have grown together. They were students who study art and photography, it was difficult to make an opportunity to do something together when we were running as a club, but at this point when things are paused because of the disease, they utilized our venue and created their narratives. The title of the exhibition was 'Symptoms', and it was about various symptoms that are being created while being deferred, and the hopes that are jumping in. While the exhibiting period, I felt the venue was revived by the young friends who have visited here countlessly and grown up together with us. When the venue lost its role, and we were getting tired of it, they brought the new hope to us. I felt strongly about the younger generation's power. 

However, it is a sorrowful, desolating thing to see that techno music cannot be played here, which was built and existed for that very reason. I keep thinking about how it could function was a club, in this confusing time.  

Can you summarize your approach to the mix you prepared?

I was invited by Joachim Spieth last January, and joined 9128 live - Affin invites to play. 

I like to deliver the vitalities that are newly created when one track meets another in my set. I also want to communicate emotionally, via various strange sounds that are related to the terra incognita. It would be a great pleasure for me if I could give a moment as a present when the listener's consciousness wakes up responding by deepened, spacious sounds. 

The mix holds a wish to heal our bodies and minds that are damaged by the sense of loss because of the prolonged pandemic.

~

Listen on Soundcloud, Mixcloud, or the ASIP Podcast.

Download

astrangelyisolatedplace · isolatedmix 112 - Suna

Tracklist:

1. Joachim Spieth - P 680 [Affin]
2. The Abyss Within Us - Life in a Circle - Part 1. [Astral Industries]
3. Biosphere - Gilberg [The Senja Recordings]
4. Kassel Jaeger - Fog Constellation (approaching)
5. Kassel Jaeger - Paris Mustangs
6. MonoLogue - A1 [Chemical Tapes]
7. Guy Hobsbawm - Brumaire [Mysteries Of the Deep]
8. Ab Uno - Sophia [Mahorka']
9. The Caretaker - In the deep and dark hours of the night [History Always Favours The Winners]
10. hakobune - Seamless and Here [Patient Sounds]
11. MonoLogue - A2 [Chemical Tapes]
12. Ryuichi Sakamoto - Andata [Commmons]
13. Saenïnvey - The Big Travel [Eilean Rec.]
14. Magna Pia - The Mirror [AWRY]

~

Suna | Soundcloud

isolatedmix 111 - Ian Boddy (DiN)

There aren’t many ambient labels that have been going for 20+ years, but you can count Ian Boddy’s DiN as one of the greats. An amazing musician and synthesist himself, Ian has curated one of the finest ambient synthesizer-focused labels around, with many of the genre’s greats gracing the catalog over the years. Scanner, Tetsu Inoue, Robert Rich, Nigel Mullaney, Bluetech, and Markus Reuter featuring with stunning full-lengths, and within the label’s Tone Science compilation series, the curations spreads its arms ever wider - proven with the latest edition Tone Science Module 5, featuring works by Hélène Vogelsinger, Johnny Woods and Lisa Bella Donna.

Ian also makes brilliant label-focused mixes that highlight some of the work on the label, in both mixed and individual track format, so when I proposed an isolatedmix, we went straight into discussing his own personal inspirations as a mix concept. In true OG style, Ian has dug into a selection of early ambient music, that is often presented in extended (long-form) style (as it was much more back in the day) which means these types of tracks rarely see themselves as a part of DJ mixes nowadays. Ian has taken these excerpts and seamlessly blended them into one educational look back into some of the greats of the early ambient style.

A big thanks toWendy Carroll for the isolatedmix art/image.

~

ASIP - You're likely considered a veteran of the scene now, but for those new to you, can you give us a brief introduction?

IB - Well I first got into Electronic Music in the mid-1970s through bands such as Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Vangelis & Jean Michel Jarre. In 1978 whilst at University studying Biochemistry I was introduced to an open-access sound studio at a place called Spectro where I was confronted by weird & wonderful instruments such as the VCS3 & a host of Revox reel to reel tape recorders. It didn’t take long to get hooked and in 1980 I released my first cassette album & started to play improvised concerts. In 1983 my first vinyl album The Climb was released followed by a performance at the very first UK Electronica festival.

I continued to release albums & perform concerts & hone my craft and then in the 1990s, I got into producing library music as well as sound design work. In 1999 I launched the DiN label & in 2002 after 12 years working for Akai I went full-time professional earning a living from my music. The intervening years have seen me split my time between pursuing my own releases / running the DiN label, composing library music & creating sound libraries/sound design.

Your mix contains a lot of early ambient musicians. Whether it’s Kraut-rock, Berlin-School, or Brian Eno, what's your point of view on the absolute beginnings of the ambient genre and what was your own experience?

It’s a very different experience hearing new music for the first time in your formative years - which is usually in your teens - then coming to a genre of music later in life or when said genre has already been out for quite a while. So the first two Electronic Music tracks I can distinctly remember hearing were The Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares by Tangerine Dream from the album Phaedra & Wahnfried 1883 by Klaus Schulze from the album Timewind. I was probably about 15 or 16 and they simply blew me away. I hadn’t heard anything like this before because, well, there simply wasn’t anything else like this before. Each of these artists only had a handful of albums out so it didn’t take long to discover their back catalogues. There were no reference points. This was an incredibly inspiring time for me to hear this music and I think the many years that they have been out now & the tsunami of other music like this will diminish the effect for someone getting into this music now.

The term Ambient music is much overused and I was also around at the time when Music For Airports came out & again this was incredible to hear at that time. What both these styles have in common - the Berlin School guys and the ambient side that Eno championed was the ability to get lost in the music. To quote Julian Cope when talking about the very early Tangerine Dream album Zeit - “the music becomes the room”.

What made you start DiN in 1999?

In the 1980s my cassette & vinyl releases were on a series of small boutique labels and then in the 1990s, I started to release my own work such as The Uncertainty Principle & The Deep on CD on a label I called Something Else Records. However, it was very piecemeal and had to be fitted in & around my family life & work at Akai. There was no real plan or strategy. I’ll openly admit I really got into the Fax label and liked how the sorely missed Peter Namlook had a rotating pool of artists with lots of interesting cross-genre fertilisation of ideas.

So in 1998, I started to formulate my own ideas for a label. I wanted to combine my own Berlin School synth heritage with other styles of electronic music. I’ve never been one to do the same thing over & over again. I also wanted to more actively pursue musical collaborations with a range of artists. I also wanted the label to have an identifiable visual aesthetic and to be released as collectible limited editions. Thus DiN launched in 1999 & to date (May 2001) has 66 physical releases on the main DiN label, 5 volumes of the Tone Science series & 26 digital-only albums - with plenty more to follow.

The label has a rotation of very consistent artists, but what do you look for in any new artist demos that come your way?

Two things really - a certain, almost indefinable “quality” & a musicality which catches my ear. It’s just one of those things - you “just know” when something is good - trust your instincts. I mean I’m not running DiN as some huge multi-national corporation where profit is the only driver of your business. I have other forms of musical earnings from the more commercial worlds of library music & sound design so in a way I can afford to indulge myself with DiN. It’s a reflection of my musical personality.

What's been your proudest moment running the DiN label to date?

I wouldn’t say I have a proudest moment more than I’m very proud of DiN in its entirety. I can’t quite believe it’s been going for over 20 years now and that there have been almost 100 releases in total. I’d like to think that for someone new discovering DiN it would be like “Wow” what is this label and then the joy of working through the catalogue. Sure not every release is going to appeal to everyone but I can remember having that experience with Fax & it was quite a ride.

Your partner’s (Wendy’s) art features heavily on the label and on this mix - are there any creative differences when it comes to choosing art or working together?

Yes, Wendy & I have been together for almost 8 years now. She’s a very talented photographer & artist who is just now later in her life finding the time to spread her creative wings. I’ve always had a certain aesthetic for the DiN artwork which avoided the obvious cliches of space & sci-fi imagery. I like the ambiguity of Wendys work - they’re often familiar things such as rock, tree bark or rust but presented in such a way that they go beneath the surface and show the whole amazing world of detail & texture that many folk often don’t even notice.

Your career has undoubtedly seen many chapters of synthesizer music over the years. What's your point of view on the future for this style? Do you feel like this type of music will become even more accessible with the advent of software and cheaper versions of classic synths?

Well, certainly when I first started out in 1978 it was very expensive to buy these instruments. I think my first synth was a Jen string machine in 1980 and then shortly after a single case of Roland System 100-M modular which I still have. This was pre-MIDI & computer software but it doesn’t really matter. The technological side of electronic music has always been a driving force for how it sounded but musically a composer will always find a way of expressing themselves whatever the tools they have available. Now of course it’s so much easier in so many ways to record & release music in all genres let alone electronic music.

However what hasn’t changed is that you as the composer has to have a musical idea, there has to be some form of a creative spark of what you are trying to achieve musically. The whole renaissance in the use of modular synths is very refreshing. I mean during the 1990s folk were throwing these things away but I never gave up on my use of modular. But the last few years have seen an explosion in the use of these systems. I think this is great as it’s brought a new generation of musicians in who are finding new & evolving ways of expressing their own musical personalities which I for one find fascinating.

Can you tell us about the mix you have prepared for us and the inspiration behind it?

I wanted to showcase my musical heritage - there’s no reason why I should hide away from it, so much of the music is what inspired me when I was a teenager & into my twenties. So there are tracks from Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze (part of Wahnfried 1883 which I mentioned above), Vangelis, Ashra & Popul Vuh. Also connecting to other artists I’ve talked about & which are important to me is part of Discreet Music by Brian Eno which uses tape looping that I used to experiment with whilst at Spectro as well as a piece by Peter Namlook.

I’m also very much into classical music too which for me often has crossover with some styles of Electronic Music especially those pieces that have an impressionistic feel. I couldn’t resist using a piece by Ligeti - probably made famous by its use in the film 2001 crossing over into Rubycon by Tangerine Dream.

The set closes with one of my favourite composers Arvo Pärt with this incredible piece that comes out of a track by Biosphere - such lovely juxtapositions. I’ve done a lot of these mixes on DiN with the six iNDEX compilations as well as the two DiN mixes and Tone Science albums so I’m always looking to take the listener on a musical journey with highs & lows, points for reflection and emotional intensity.

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Listen on Soundcloud, Mixcloud, or the ASIP Podcast.

astrangelyisolatedplace · isolatedmix 111 - Ian Boddy (DiN)

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Tracklist*:

01. Vangelis - Creation Du Monde
02. György Ligeti - Atmosphères
03. Tangerine Dream - Rubycon Part One
04. Ashra - Nightdust
05. Klaus Schulze - Wahnfried 1883
06. Brian Eno - Discreet Music
07. Popul Vuh - In Den Gärten Pharaos
08. Pete Namlook - Trip 1
09. Wendy Carlos - Fall
10. Biosphere - Kobresia
11. Arvo Pärt - Cantus In Memory Of Benjamin Britten

*Many of these tracks are extended / long tracks, so you could consider these as excerpts.

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Ian Boddy | DiN | Web | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube