honest words on honest music
Fionnlagh
“… a thoroughly immersive and dystopian exploration of sublime vastness…”
Sophie Hutchings
A visual piece on isolation…
Interview with Jason van Wyk
“… sound design played a big part, but I also revisited methods I used in producing club music […] it was more a process of looking back than forward…”
Interview with Alessandro Cortini
… on the musical ideas that fit like puzzle pieces, on partnership with Make Noise for a synthesizer module, and much more…
In the studio with Matt Robertson
“… I love the idea that your own projects and your own perception of your ideas, can evolve by themselves when you leave them alone…”
Olivia Belli
“My music reflects what I observe every day… And I hope that’s how it might help other people too – to carry them through the day and to help them find their place in it, where they feel safe.”
In the studio with Biosphere
“… I often start a composition by creating a theme with an acoustic-digital filtered sound. Over this, I often try to integrate pure synthetic sounds from a synthesizer…”
Interview with Max Richter
I finally catch up with one of my all-time favourite contemporary classical composers to talk about his latest record, VOICES and touch a little on SLEEP.
“The only thing for certain is that everything changes […] In order to master changes, we have to recover slowness, reflection, and togetherness.”
Snorri Hallgrímsson
Rjóður
“… pensive chords in a lush reverb of melancholy strings, minimal effort and maximum heart…”
Shida Shahabi
Low Land
“… it is about the feeling of making sense to someone when everything else doesn’t make sense…”
Plïnkï Plønkï
The Lunar Fell
“… the way the snowflakes fall on the reflective surface of a freezing lake at night…”
Marconi Union
Signals
… combining synthetic textures with organic sound, and merging the familiar with the unknown…
The Manchester-based trio of Richard Talbot, Jamie Crossley, and Duncan Meadows, create genre-boundary-blending soundscapes, that span textured ambiance, melodic electronica, and, dare I say, percussion-driven post-rock.
Clarice Jensen
Headphone Commute Mix
A very special soundtrack-themed mix!
“There has always been a certain melancholy and nostalgia to my music; however, Lionheart possesses a feeling of rebirth and an audibly more hopeful tone when compared to my past work.”
October 31, 2021
What’s scary about this Halloween is not the number of drunk people who are running around London in questionable clothes, but the amount of music that keeps landing on my desk…
Federico Albanese
The Quiet Man
“… shimmering and swaying in the breeze of our memories, triggering moments of recall which may have been false…”
Hammock
Dying Alone
“… on stirring works of shimmering post-rock ambiance that swell with hope and melancholic nostalgia…”
XXIM Records
In this episode, Matt Emery chats with Alex Buhr about the vision behind his new label, XXIM Records, his musical background, setting up Mercury KX.
“… we are always trying to tell a story or create a cinematic adventure or experience in our work, and sound design is a huge part of how we create mood and atmosphere…”
Jeroen Dirrix
Call the Flood
“… dreams of an imaginary escape […] quietly yearning for nature which has since receded in urban defeat…”
“… fragments of suppressed memories, flashbacks to the childhood fevers, and the inescapable realization of the void…”
4T Thieves
Raven’s Cottage
“… nostalgia-inducing electronica with glitch, lo-fi, and drifting synths…”
4T Thieves delves deeper into the rich vein of kaleidoscopic synthesizer lines and tranquilized hip-hop beats, a vibe the Sandison and Eoin brothers have so wonderfully encapsulated.
“… sometimes I hear something […] and I get inspired by its energy and try to find a way to approach it with my instrument…”
Nico Muhly
Runs To Setsu
“… music with an emotional intensity commensurate with the difficult and provocative themes…”
Ben Lukas Boysen
Siren Songs
“… a dismal and delicious sombre space, one which delightfully eclipses all the light…”
In this “Original Score for an Abandoned Video Game,” the Berlin-based producer explores a dark, dystopian, and sinister palette.
Before Tigers
Ravages
“… an elusive mood of afterlife software, ghosts in the machine, and labyrinthine beat experiments for lives yet unlived…”
CEEYS
Fallen (Ben Lukas Boysen Rework)
“… a new vision of the past, confirming that memories, as well as history itself, is always subject to revisions…”
“… it gives me joy in making some analog sounds… it’s always a great moment for me to be away from a computer, which I already heavily rely on…”
Stimming x Lambert
Glühwürmchen
“… swirling between the piano melodies, synth glides and drum rhythms to paint an atmosphere of melancholic fluttering, like the fireflies in the night…”
Ed Carlsen
Fastevlan
“The video showcases Carlsen playing in front of an obscured audience, but somehow I feel to be among the spectators, and then I dream that Ed is playing just for me!”
“… it’s just a question of patience and a love for sound until you feel that the track is complete…”
Poltrock & de Roover
44,2 km
“… sultry and intriguing ambient soundscapes where all sense of space and focus is lost…”
Tim Linghaus
Running To School With S
“… it’s just how I like it… a bit introspective, nostalgic and melancholy… as if all these memories were always mine…”
“… the sonic sculpture is created within the composition and sound, smoothing and subtracting the superabundant and multiplying the necessary…”
Origamibiro
Cascade
“… exploring intimacy, isolation, distance, and touch […] among the universal questions of the human condition…”
Luton
Confluence
“… where gentle melodies meet their destruction in distortion and dismantling fate…”
And there you have it, folks – the 300th episode of Headphone Commute Podcast!
Simeon Walker
Gleam
“… fleeting moments in time, so intimate and splendid…”
Yann Tiersen
Ar Maner Kozh
“… the piano is the source, but electronics are the environment that they exist within…”
… a set of hand-picked albums, EPs, and remixes that I have been listening to in the past couple of weeks…
A celebration of the label’s output with an exclusive selection from its curator, featuring every artist from its roster!
Robot Koch
In this episode, Matt Emery chats with Robot Koch, who has recently released a new album, The Next Billion Years
Arden
Like A Wing
“… each string resonating at a time, creating a delightful harmony, warm to the ear and the soul…”
Murcof
The Alias Sessions
… music of exquisite tension and ecstatic release…
Fernando Corona returns to The Leaf Label for the first time in thirteen years with a grandiose and visionary double album.
Heliochrysum
We Become Mist
“… like the great machine that moves the universe, it slowly awakens creating a choir of shooting stars and dense breathing matter…”
Jakob Lindhagen & Dag Rosenqvist
Gasljus
“… dust and ash role in, filling the streets of the former city with the memory of distant fires…”
“… the wood of stringed instruments and the horsehair rubbing on the strings create many small sounds that make you really feel what happens when you play, and this is magical for me…”
June 29, 2021
So I think I’m a little burned out, folks. I can tell because I’m a month …
Jason van Wyk
Threads
“… spreading, dissolving and forming, the elemental particles of this sound spin in an ongoing cycle of a gentle cosmic wind…”
Cape Town-based composer, producer, and pianist Jason van Wyk gets signed to Mike Cadoo‘s legendary Oakland-based n5MD imprint for his fourth studio release.
Gaspar Claus
Une Foule
“… low, raspy textures, deep melancholy sighs, and soft fluttering sails of cello…”
Olec Mün
Storni (feat. Laura Masotto)
“… there is an equilibrium within the constant movement of the music…”
“… modern immediacy is alluring but music should be given the time it deserves…”
Sebastian Plano
In this episode, Matt Emery chats with Sebastian Plano, who has recently released a new album on Mercury KX, titled Save Me Not
Rutger Hoedemaekers
Matt Emery chats with Rutger Hoedemaekers, who has recently released a new album on FatCat’s 130701 imprint
A fascinating discussion on modular synthesis, live improv, and the resulting album as Sunroof
Alessandro Cortini
CORRI
“… on heavily contrasting light and shadows, in art, in music, and in life…”
Populous
Orizzonti bagnati dell’Adriatico
“… where gorgeous suggestive colors can be seen on the horizon between sky and sea…”
“… what I’m trying to do at the moment is bypass the abyss that I can fall down by overplaying the stuff as I write it…”
Peter Gregson
Patina
“… stripping away at the layers of sound, until you are left all alone, surrounded by the inaudible absence…”
Yuting Wu, Skee Mask, and Squarepusher
I’ve got some crunchy IDM and glitch for you to chew on…
Disting EX
Expert Sleepers
There comes a moment, when, beyond exploring their favourite instrument, a musician ventures in search of pleasures found beyond
Island People
Loneliness Has a Purpose
“… made of contrasting lights and harsh elements where time seems to stand still, circling the moment…”
“… the most important aspect to me is to have lovely and inspiring people in the community…”
Dustin O’Halloran feat. Bryan Senti
Opus 28
“… a feeling of travelling back in time to my past while experiencing the music in new ways in the present…”
Laura Masotto feat. Roger Goula
Refugees
“… dedicated to the continuing tragedy which is experienced daily by migrants in the Mediterranean…”
Arovane
Atol Scrap (2021 Remaster)
“… more than an echo of the past, this bottled sound truly has matured…”
Uwe Zahn‘s monumental debut gets a polished re-master and a vinyl pressing that should keep the fans of IDM, glitch, and melodic electronica extremely happy with this very special treat.
Chrystal Für
I’m Losing You
“… somber piano and cellos float toward the future, as the past slips away…”
Matthew Halsall
We’re back with the second episode (of the 2nd series) of The Contemplative Podcast!
A transcribed excerpt from The Contemplative Podcast episode
Rose Riebl
Even As The Light
“… fragile, soulful and transcendent works that guide the listener into vulnerable emotional spaces…”
BPMoore
Hold Your Own
“… an appreciation of how we are all connected, like strands to a whole…”
“Based on the life and work of French contemporary artist Olivier de Sagazan, this borderline horror sonic narrative will give you chills even without its visual counterpart.”
Viktor Orri Árnason
The Faultline
“… present classical – eternal, everlasting…”
Sebastian Plano
Soul II (Elan)
“… elegant, vivid and sometimes even spiritual…”