tegu

tegu ~ owl island (not not fun, 2024)

Across 53 minutes, the music moves between séance and visitation, alternately lurking and expectant, bathed in a sheen of starlight and streetlights. Fellow voyagers Wave Temples and X.Y.R. join for a pair of smoky, cosmic cameos, but otherwise this is a solitary affair – locked in, looking up, mapping new constellations in the expanding void. ~ britt brown, not not fun

owl island is a place far somewhere in the universe which the US label Not Not Fun has been meticulously crafting for past 20 years ~ hazed fourth-world utopianism, full of exotic paysages which are more and more becoming a pure fantasy on our densely populated planet. though it's not necessarily Earth where Tegu sounds are taking us, since the music on the tape has no signs of humans ~ even the ever-present drums here sound more as natural phenomena in their monotonous propulsion, while well-rounded synth melodies which support them probably are metabolic product of some exquisite air-purifying plant family. there is no pathway in these thickets but nothings too dangerous as well, maybe only the possibility of dissolving in this inviting greenery. is this paradise gardens? (as the cover art suggests) or it's a fresh start for this spark of sentience once dazzled by its own greatness?

listen ~ support ~ cassette rip

 

never temple

never temple ~ throwing around an invisible ball (golden ratio frequencies, 2021)

An enigmatic duo that traverses the multiverse of time and space, Jaclyn Blumas (Doomsquad) and Alexandra Duvekot (Blue Crime) have been living in and presenting the world of the NEVER TEMPLE since 2018. We at Golden Ratio Frequencies first encountered their hallucinatory dream world during the 2019 edition of 24hr Drone festival at Basilica Hudson New York, where we were bewitched by their entrancing midnight ritual of haunting synths, ethereal cello, otherworldly voices and fantastical costumes and have been left hypnotised under their spell ever since. ~ GRF

british label Golden Ratio Frequencies is known for its love to all things drone ~ from guitar or analog rawness to digital new-agey bliss, quite often organically combined and always easily transporting you out of this realm. on this tape we have a documentation of url performance of Never Temple from 24-hour long drone festival which took place during the covid days (feels like forever ago). it has a taste of guided meditation tape, with the mesmerizing voice of Jaclyn Blumas reciting some trippy affirmations, though it's never reaches the level of cheesiness those old affirmation cassettes had. instead, it only makes you drown deeper in the thick overlays of synth and organ drones with some lysergic effects happening in the culmination points. the whole thing resembles a ritual which purpose is to reprogram your brain into a more dreamy state of functioning, to make the parking-lot-reality a little bit less persuading ~ as it has no walls after all, especially when you're throwing an invisible ball over them.

listen ~ support ~ youtube [cs rip]

lamina

lamina ~ sueños aquáticos (mappa, 2024)

under the mythical name Lamina, the aquatic creations of french artist Clarice Calvo-Pinsolle gain their own existence, free of any determinist norms and square-based logics. "Aquatic Dreams" is a very apt name for music like this ~ edited, collaged, re-composed recordings of water sounds indeed turn into dreams here, sometimes fairy-like, sometimes nightmarish (probably when they enter urban water supply systems) but never repeat themselves. even though music has a taste of electronics, it still remains organic and fluid, spahe-shifting phenomena so familiar and yet so strange. 

in connection to music, Clarise creates ceramic sculptures, which she fills with water and then makes recordings of their interaction ~ it's really captivating process, so i strongly recommend checking out her website and instagram, her installation work is a whole mysterious world of its own.

listen ~ support ~ youtube

osaki seichi

osaki seichi ~ the tale of a long forgotten sunken city
(the tidal charm, 2022)

this lovely ambient album from japanese artist was lucky to get picked up by the youtube algorithm a couple of years ago, which gained him immediate popularity in small circles of japanese-style ambient/environmental music. later issued on cassette by dutch Tidal Charm, it was sold out in mere hours (though there's a rumor about reissue). the album tells a story of submerging into the depths and sounds respectively ~ sparse aquatic tones get murkier as we go through these long-form compositions, even though never reaching dark ambient music territories. the mood here is rather melancholic and pensive, yet still melodic and relaxed, giving a good analogy of a sunken city being a symbol of subconscious regions, which our awareness is not always able to reach. probably the idea here is that one should follow a magical creature like a siren in order to reach those depths (i.e. following your intuition?). this mystical vibe permeates the album way more than resemblance to the classical kanyo ongaku examplesm even though their aftersounds are heard here as well. but this is music of inner environments, even though it's obvious they're always reflective of outer world ~ and vice versa again.  

artist bandcamp ~ youtube (original upload) ~ youtube (cassette rip) ~ label bandcamp

new mexican stargazers

 

new mexican stargazers ~ the oasis (self-released, 2023)

enigmatic (hypnagogic!) New Mexican Stargazers is a crepuscular cult of those who still deliver some juicy slices of the tropical utopia once discovered by Ferraro, Clark and Lieven Martens and many other heroes of this blog. a natural blessing, this project is a keeper of the portal to this fourth world dimension, through which our current cyberpunk dystopia doesn't feel that much overwhelming or forever lasting. there are oases in every desert, and you just found one. even if it turns into a mirage, your mana gets restored here.

direct cassette rip

+ 

be sure to check out two of his tapes for Not Not Fun
(sold out but some are up on discogs)

and the whole artist's bandcamp!

and if you're into vaporwave, then go here

navel

navel ~ meditating amoebas lp (not on label, 2024)

very far out. experimental space ambient. cosmonauts. oceans of sounds, drones, visions. since 1998.

navel is gage & floyd (günter schlienz & floyd wenzel)

no hay nada que me haga más feliz que los regalos inesperados en forma de vinilo. suena "transfer, die räume dazwischen" y ya en seguida percibes algo familiar: nuestro duo favorito de ciencia ficción está de vuelta. meditating amoebas es el equivalente auditivo del agua en el espacio exterior. un oasis rodeado de infinitos planetas y agujeros negros y meteoritos, pero también de árboles y pajaritos. new age, field recordings, notas de piano y guitarras acústicas. y esa calidez que siempre desprende todo lo que hace günter schlienz. al contrario de lo que ocurre con la música de günter en solitario, creo que requiere de una escucha más atenta para percibir todos los detalles (¿es tal vez más abstracta?), pero una vez lo haces te das cuenta del suave equilibrio entre lo orgánico y lo subterráneo. escuchar ya no es un ejercicio pasivo, es una colaboración. de la misma manera que un lector colabora con un escritor para dar vida a un libro....escuchad si no 'transfer, die räume dazwischen'.

aferrándose a lo familiar del universo, navel combina sonidos oscuros y ambientales con notas aisladas de piano y guitarras acústicas tan acogedoras como una puesta de sol. el broche final lo pone "ist das hier", que google traduce como "¿está esto aquí?" y me encanta, no imagino un título ni un final más bonito. 

...edición limitada de muy pocas copias que se van en un plis plas📀📀

listen / support

endurance & inner travels

 endurance & inner travels ~ to the ancestors
(golden ratio frequencies, 2024)

 

in the early 10s, when the cassette format has gained a renewed interest, ambient and new age were the genres to embrace it with the most love. one of the prominent projects of that period was Inner Travels, an alias of Steve Targo, a sound healer and experimentalist from Wisconsin. his albums were released at some of the best of today's new age labels ~ Sounds of the Dawn, Inner Islands and Aural Canyon. meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific, in Japan, Joshua Stefane under the Endurance alias, released plenty of cassettes as well, exploring the ambient minimalism and running Muzan Editions label together with two friends. guess it was just a matter of time before Steve and Joshua crossed paths in this relatively small world of cassette music but this meeting has brought us something truly beautiful, thanks to another top new age label of our times ~ Golden Ratio Frequencies.

even though Endurance's music could barely pass as new age, there's a certain vibe in it, which makes it close to japanese "environmental music", kankyo ongaku. Inner Travels, on the other hand, was also not so esoteric, as new age could be, but more nature-oriented, with album names like Sea of Leaves, Garden Music or Earth Connection. so what we have on this album (which in fact was made 6 years ago) is an interesting blend of environmental minimalism, clearly rooted in the outputs of such giants as Hiroshi Yoshimura and Takashi Kokubo, crystal clear modular electronica which could easily top instagram trends, and sparse asian melodism, where pauses between notes possibly play even bigger role than the notes... the sort of music which tells you more between the lines ~ and that's probably the reason why there are no track names on this tape, only their duration.

the listener is invited to a ceremony, which sometimes echoes ancient sounds of Gagaku music, but these echoes are traveling under the treetops through a refreshing morning scent of coniferous giants. the edge between the natural and electronic is blurred here ~ it doesn't matter if that's cicada or an electric circuit, both being merely an expression of life's energy which always takes numerous forms, only to express one simple thing ~ the beauty. while beauty is an expression of harmony. looking for harmony is a common place for japanese culture and new age movement, as well as for enviromentalism (most obviously) and basically any spiritual practice. but harmony between people or their doings is rarely achieved if it wasn't build on a solid foundation, namely in harmony with Earth itself. dedicating this [not too modern, yet not too retro] music to the ancestors, Endurance & Inner Travels seem to establish an important bridge between future and past, a little bottle note which says "learn from the trees", keep your roots well in the ground and reach out to the skies, to sunlight. as simple as it is.  

listen ~ support